BRADENTON, Fla. — Austin Prock and Doug Kalitta picked up where the left off at the inaugural PRO Superstar Shootout at Bradenton Motorsports Park.
The event winners from last year led qualifying in their respective classes during the first of four rounds run on Thursday. The final three sessions hit the track on Friday.
Prock, the reigning NHRA champion, led the Funny Car division with a 3.816-second pass at 332.84 mph to edge his John Force Racing teammate, Jack Beckman, at the top of the charts.
“We’ve been making some really good runs here in testing the last few days and you want to make sure you’re solidified in the show on that first qualifying run,” Prock said. “That way you can try some things tomorrow when it’s cool out in the middle of the day and then in the evening. Really proud of the team. It was definitely a hectic run.
“They dropped the body for the burnout, and it was completely fogged over. I needed a defrost button in the Chevrolet SS, but those don’t exist in nitro racing. My guys have the windshield a quick wipe, and it definitely helped. It got about half of it off. Staging was a little interesting. At about 150 feet out, it cleared right up. It got a little inside down at the finish line, which is uncharacteristic of me, but it was good enough for number one qualifier. I definitely had my hands full.”
Daniel Wilkerson, Matt Hagan and Ron Capps completed the top five in Funny Car.
Kalitta blasted his Kalitta Motorsports Top Fuel machine to a 3.658-second run at 332.84 mph to lead the class.
“We’re hungry to try to win this race again. It was fun last year,” Kalitta said. “We had Applied Innovations on our race car last year, and they’re back with us all weekend again. Crew Chief Alan (Johnson) and Mac (Savage), and all these guys working on my car they’re all hungry to do the same. We’ve been working real hard all the winter long.”
Brittany Force was second, with Shawn Langdon, Antron Brown and Tony Stewart completing the top five.
Dallas Glenn edged defending Shootout winner Erica Enders for the top spot in Pro Stock. Glenn posted a 6.515-second effort at 210.28 mph.
“These guys have been wearing out the dyno over there in the engine shop, and I’ve been driving all over the country, picking up trailers and testing and getting new people licensed,” Glenn said “So that feels really good. After a long week of testing, we thought we had something good. We were just kind of babying everything. We learned a few things through testing and tried to go out there and lay a great one down. I don’t know if it’ll hold up for tomorrow, but it’s going to make it tough. And I’d rather be on top, looking down than looking up.”
Enders, Greg Anderson, David Cuadra and Jeg Coughlin Jr. filled the top five.
