After two-and-a-half of solid testing, even a fogged-up windshield couldn’t slow 2024 NHRA Funny Car World Champion and defending PRO Superstar Shootout winner Austin Prock as he thundered to a 3.816, 332,84 elapsed time in his Chevrolet SS Camaro.
Joining Prock atop their respective fields at the second annual PRO Superstar Shoout at Bradenton Motorsports Park were Doug Kalitta (Top Fuel) and Dallas Glenn (Pro Stock).
What a difference a year has made for Prock, who entered last season’s event as a true rookie Funny Car driver. His first eight test runs resulted in eight aborted runs before his Funny Car passed the tree. Once he made his first full run under power to the finish line, his world made a dramatic turn towards dominance. He made a clean sweep of the inaugural event, qualifying No. 1 and beating Matt Hagan in the final round.
Prock’s Thursday Night run looked every bit as calm as a duck floating across a lake, but underneath the water, there was a tempest of action going on. While he had made running at the front of the pack look so effortless, inside his cockpit was a furious storm.
“[My crew] dropped the body when we fired it up, and my windshield was completely fogged; couldn’t see anything on the burnout,” Prock explained. “When we backed up after the burnout, I could vaguely see my crew guy’s hand to get the thing lined up and got backed up. They wiped the windshield off, and it cleared some of it off, but staging, it was still half fogged. So once we got some mile an hour under this Chevrolet SS, it cleared up a little, but you got to have your eyes on the racetrack the whole time.
“The thing got inside a little bit, made an aggressive move, and the car was a little unsettled going over those bumps down the track and just was hopping around down there, got a little inside, but it was still good enough for a 3.81. These cars are handfuls, and they are definitely not easy to drive, and we like that challenge every now and then.”
Teammate Jack Beckman, in the opposite lane, was second quickest with a 3.836/ 329.99. and Daniel Wilkerson was third with a 3.860, 313.66.
In Top Fuel, Kalitta didn’t lay down any magical runs in private testing, but it didn’t stop him from letting it all hang out when qualifying began under the lights. The defending event champion ran his quickest lap since the event opened on Tuesday, punching out a 3.658, 332.84.
“The conditions were just really good,” Kalitta said. “The same as last year, we have Applied Innovations on our car. I’m super excited to have those guys out here with us this weekend, and it’s just nice coming to a place like this facility. The track is really nice. Great place to test and then to be able to put on a race with an eight-car show and have some fun with it. So, yeah. There’s some strong running cars here, so we got the low qualifier at the moment, but we’re going to have to work at keeping it.”
Private testing leader Brittany Force was second with a 3.674, 334.15. and Shawn Langdon was third with a 3.683. 334.65.
The Pro Stock division is provisionally led by Dallas Glenn, who ran a 6.515, 210.28 to drive around Erica Enders’ 6.519, 219,67.
“We didn’t want to show our full hand until it mattered,” Glenn admitted. “We’ve been testing, we’ve been trying some few things here in testing. I think we made seven runs. We made a couple of good runs, so I think we knew we had something for them, but you still have to come out here and perform, and we made a really nice run. Dave Connelly, Rob Downing, and everybody there, as well as the crew chief, definitely did their job on that one. That was a really nice smooth run, and they’ve been working really hard in the engine shop over the wintertime, and I think it’s good to come out here and try to drive well for them and show what their hard work has done.”
Qualifying resumes on Friday morning at 10 AM, with three sessions.
