When there’s a special prize and a few bonus bucks on the line, it tends to bring out the best in Austin Prock. Friday night, Prock might as well have been Paul Bunyan.
Prock closed the opening day of Funny Car qualifying at the NHRA Brainerd Nationals by winning the “Battle for the Axe,” presented by Visit Brainerd & Baxter. Doug Kalitta claimed the Top Fuel axe, while second-year Pro Stock racer Matt Latino completed the trio by taking honors in his class.
For Prock, the hardware came with a 3.893-second run at 329.91 mph that moved him to the provisional No. 1 qualifying position. It also came on his birthday, giving the reigning NHRA Funny Car champion another reason to celebrate before qualifying resumes Saturday.
The 3.893 represented a substantial jump from Prock’s opening qualifying attempt. He was fourth quickest in the first session, but the run wasn’t close to what Prock or his team believed the car should have produced.
“We made a lot of ground from the first run,” Prock said. “We were fourth quickest the first run, but it was not up to our standard. We weren’t trying to run a .97, so we were actually surprised that it held in the top four and let us get towards the back of the pack, and [we] made some adjustments that we thought were needed to be able to go up there and run low ET.
“Being against Jack Beckman, we really needed to outrun him for lane choice tomorrow for the Mission #2Fast2Tasty deal. That’s always nice to have. I’m sure they were loaded up; that thing knocked them off pretty good at 330. And we figured if we ran between .87 and .89, we’d have a pretty good shot at being No. 1 qualifier. We did that. So this is a good way to end my birthday here in Brainerd. Really proud of the team to be able to go up there and be the quickest car on the property – definitely makes you feel good.”
Prock needed nearly all of that performance to separate himself from the field. Beckman finished Friday second with a 3.903 at 324.67 mph, while Dave Richards delivered a 3.924, 327.66 to hold third.
Top Fuel produced its own late-session statement, and Kalitta made his at 340.30 mph. His 3.705-second elapsed time moved him past the field and into the provisional No. 1 qualifying position.
Kalitta had watched the numbers coming up in front of him, including several 3.72-second performances. Crew chief Alan Johnson saw enough in the racetrack to believe Kalitta could take a bigger swing.
“We’re just sitting back there in my car, watching the cars run,” Kalitta explained. “There were a couple 72s in front of me. … Alan, he had a lot of confidence in hopefully being able to get to the top with whatever we could do.
“That was a really good run for us. Car left good and pulled hard. We kept it nice and straight just trying to get through the … They’ve got this new blacktop down there, and it’s nice and smooth, so we’re just trying to get some rubber on it and get a little more grip out there. It was a good and solid run for us.
Kalitta’s 340.30-mph charge was also the fastest run among Friday’s three provisional leaders. Behind him came one of the day’s bigger Top Fuel performances as Maddi Gordon recorded a 3.725 at 336.15 mph to finish the evening second. Shawn Langdon completed the provisional top three with a 3.731 at 334.57 mph.
If Prock and Kalitta arrived at their axes through strong opening-day performances, Latino took a more difficult route – he didn’t run during the opening Pro Stock session.
A brake issue following his burnout convinced him to shut the car off rather than attempt a qualifying pass with a problem he didn’t fully understand. That left the second-year Pro Stock driver with one shot Friday evening, and on a racetrack he had never competed on, Latino made it count.
His 6.588-second run at 207.21 mph tied Dallas Glenn’s elapsed time, but Latino earned the provisional No. 1 position based on speed. Glenn ran 206.29 mph on his 6.588, giving Latino the top position and the third axe of the night.
“The run was great, especially after not making a pass for Q1,” Latino said. “For anyone curious about what happened, went out after the burnout, applied the brakes coming off the burnout, car darted to the right, it happened twice, backed up from the burnout, lunged forward to give it traction, and it was still darting to the right every time I hit the brakes. So it seemed the left front brake wasn’t working. Certainly didn’t want to risk that.”
Once the problem was addressed, Latino had no Friday baseline from which to work. He also didn’t have much room for error in a Pro Stock field separated by thousandths of a second.
Cody Anderson illustrated just how tight the field was with a 6.589 at 206.99 mph, only one-thousandth behind Latino and Glenn. That left Latino sitting atop a provisional top three covered by .001 of a second.
For a driver in his first full Pro Stock season, the circumstances made his first-day performance even more satisfying. Latino also found a practical use for his newest piece of Brainerd hardware.
“So to go to the No. 1 spot in such a tight field here at a racetrack that I have never been on, first full year, it’s an incredible feeling,” Latino said. “And I got this axe, which I’m hoping will help me on Sunday because I’m certainly going to need that on the starting line.”
Professional qualifying resumes Saturday at noon CDT with two sessions remaining to set the fields for Sunday’s eliminations.
