The off-season for every racer usually means downtime. But there isn’t a driver in this business who relishes that downtime; most of them look for an outlet to keep their hands in between the final race of each season and the start of the next.
For Antron Brown, who in November earned his fourth NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series Top Fuel championship – and first as the owner of his AB Motorsports race team – waiting until March to get back into competing in a straight-line racecar isn’t an option. Sure, he could relax, take a vacation or even go testing with his dragster, but Brown, energized even after a ten-month, 20-race season that culminated on November 17th with his fourth title, the 80-time NHRA victor is, instead taking part in the Drag Illustrated Winter Series of races at Bradenton Motorsports Park in Florida.
Antron Brown, the second most successful racer in Top Fuel (behind only former teammate Tony Schumacher), with 64 dragster Wally trophies to his credit, will campaign a bright red Team Buginga Lexus RCF Procharger-powered Pro Mod race car as he makes his debut in that class, beginning with the Snowbird Outlaw Nationals, scheduled December 6-8 at the central Florida track, a regular testing destination for most in the NHRA pits and the site of the PRO Superstar Shootout, making its second run next February.
Team Buginga’s Lexus SC Pro Mod, named “Jerome,” will also have Brown behind the wheel at the U.S. Street Nationals, scheduled January 24-26 and the World Series of Pro Mod, February 27-March 1, both races also taking place at Bradenton Motorsports Park.
“We’ve been friends with Manny and the Buginga family for some time now,” Brown said, “and have raced with them in the past, so when Manny called and said I want you to drive our red Lexus RCF Pro Mod, it was an easy decision for me. It’s been a work in progress for some time, and I really enjoy going to Bradenton during the off-season and doing some eighth-mile racing. Now, with these three events in December, January and early March, I’m super-excited. I feel like an NBA player who hoops at the Drew League in the summer,” Brown exclaimed.
He knows he’s up against some of the best Pro Mod racers in the business, and relishes the challenge. “There will be so many great Pro Mod racers, like Stevie “Fast” Jackson, [six-time NHRA Pro Stock champion] Erica Enders is going to be part of it, Melanie Salemi, Lyle Barnett and so many great drivers. It’s such a cool series with a diverse group of racers, who will come to Bradenton to duke it out and I’m very fortunate to be a part of it. I always have fun at the drag strip, but I’’m always in it to win it, and that’s our goal. Why go out there if you don’t have a chance to win?” he asked rhetorically.
This isn’t the first time for Brown to drag race a closed wheel racecar. He won the Pro 275 category in Buginga’s popular “Fred” Mustang at the 2022 Snowbird Outlaw Nationals, held December 4, 2022. The Lexus he’s about to race will be tuned by famed Pro Mod crew chief Steve Petty, named DI Tuner of the Year in 2022. Everyone in the expected 32-car fields of this upcoming Drag Illustrated Winter Series is looking forward to the payouts, which are expected to total more than $300,000 in the Pro Mod division alone.
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