Can 2nd SCAG PRO Superstar Shootout outshine the first race?
There’s still a month before NHRA begins its 2025 Mission Foods Drag Racing Series season on the hallowed grounds of Gainesville Raceway. With all four categories of Top Fuel, Funny Car, Pro Stock and Pro Stock Motorcycle scheduled to compete there during the Amalie Motor Oil Gatornationals, it’s a weekend all drag racing fans are waiting for on bated breath.
This weekend, though, it’s possible to get an initial look at three of those four classes, as some of the top performers in dragsters, floppers and door-slammers will gather for the second annual SCAG PRO Superstar Shootout on Bradenton Raceway’s dragstrip. The first edition in early February of last year, was a roaring success, with plenty of competitors, great weather and an enthusiastic overflow crowd on hand to witness some drag racing history.
2023 NHRA top Fuel champ Doug Kalitta of Kalitta Motorsports won the Top Fuel race at this invitational, while John Force Racing’s Austin Prock, who would earn his first NHRA Funny Car title in 2024 – thanks to his exemplary talent behind the wheel and the superb tuning of his father Jimmy and brother Thomas Prock – took his first winner’s prize (and plenty of money) for his victory. Six-time Pro Stock champion Erica Enders, still in the glow of earning that sixth title, met more success in Bradenton.
Can these three do it again?
That’s the burning question as teams and drivers head for this central Florida racetrack, which is near Tampa, St Petersburg and Sarasota, yet situated far from true civilization. The track, owned by Victor Alvarez and now joined by Garrett Mitchell – AKA Cleetus McFarland – has become one of the premier sites for winter competition and has always been a favorite and formidable testing venue for all drag racing competitors, not only NHRA’s performers.
The talent lineup for 2025 is plenty huge and there are eight championships in NHRA Top Fuel among the competitors. Of course team owner/driver Antron Brown, with his fourth title accumulated this past November leads that group and John Force Racing’s Brittany Force adds her pair of championships to the grouping of 11 drivers. Kalitta Motorsport’s Doug Kalitta and Shawn Langdon each have a single title. Tony Schumacher, the eight-time titleholder isn’t competing in the PRO Superstar Shootout this week; he is not listed here and doesn’t have a full-season deal in place.
The balance of the Top Fuel entry list includes SCAG Racing’s Justin Ashley, Doug Foley, Josh Hart, and second-year entrant Shawn Reed, whose Rob Wendland-tuned dragster showed massive improvement from first to 20th race last year. Mike Salinas returns to competition after a medical leave that encompassed the full 2024 campaign and left his daughter Jasmine, also on this entry list, without a viable partner for her rookie year. Tony Stewart, NHRA’s 2024 Rookie of the Year returns to this race with a heck of a lot more experience behind the wheel of his self-owned Tony Stewart Racing dragster.
There are ten Funny Car entries in 2025, with two John Force Racing entries high on the list: Austin Prock returns with his Chevrolet Coupe to try for two in a row, while 2012 NHRA Funny Car titleholder Jack Beckman continues to race in relief of John Force, the 16-time champion who is recovering from his late June massive crash that resulted in a difficult traumatic brain injury (TBI). That duo are joined by three-time Funny Car champ Ron Capps’ Toyota, four-time titleholder Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat racer Matt Hagan of Tony Stewart Racing, and 2018 champ J.R. Todd’s Toyota from Kalitta Motorsports, beginning his first year with Dickie Venables turning the knobs (after helping Hagan to three of his four titles, while Tommy DeLago crew chief his first title).
That group is joined by 2023 NHRA Finals winner and Ford driver Chad Green, Dodge’s Paul Lee, Toyota’s Dave Richards, Ford man Bob Tasca III – who unofficially broke the 340-mph barrier at Bradenton last February, only to see Prock rewrite the record books this past November with his official 341+ mph blast, and second-generation racer Daniel Wilkerson, who tuned Green’s Mustang to his first win, then took over dad Tim’s Mustang office at Bradenton last November. The field may be thin but its accomplishments are anything but.
Enders has something to prove this year after failing to gain a seventh championship in 2024 and watching arch-rival Greg Anderson tie her accomplishments this past season. The KB Titan racer beat his own teammate in the final round of the final race to become a six-timer, but Dallas Glenn, the runner-up to his KB Titan teammate, is going into this event with the intent of coming out on top this time around.
In order to do that, though, Glenn (and Anderson) will have to get their Chevrolets past the similar cars of Elite Motorsports’ cadre of competitors that includes Enders, Jeg Coughlin Jr., Troy Coughlin Jr., Cristian, David and Fernando Cuadra Jr. and 2024’s six-time race winner Aaron Stanfield. KB Titan’s Deric Kramer and Cory Reed, who transitioned from Pro Stock Motorcycle to Pro Stock last year are also in the field, as are the father-son duo of Chris and Mason McGaha. The 14 cars that were invited and accepted comprise the larger of the three classes competing on the pro side of this weekend’s ladder.
In addition to the pro racers from NHRA’s Mission Foods classes, fans on-site can also enjoy competition in Stock Eliminator, Top Sportsman Sick Shootout and Super Stock. The organizers have arranged for American Rebel Andy Ross to perform a closing concert on Saturday night after the SCG PRO Superstar Shootout is complete; the concert is free for all race-goers.
Race fans unable to make the trip to Bradenton for this three-day event will be able to catch everything, from on-track action, pit-side work being performed, starting line and top end procedure on FloRacing, who also televised the first-year proceedings. This year’s talent line-up is among the most knowledgeable ever, with Jamie Howe and Mike Dunn calling all the action from FloRacing’s broadcast center, Courtney Enders and Funny Car standout Tommy Johnson Jr. around the track, from start line to top end.
Who’s missing in action: Obviously John Force isn’t racing this year, but neither is four-time Top Fuel champ Steve Torrence or 2024 PRO Superstar Shootout runner-up Clay Millican, any driver from Jim Head Racing, Alexis DeJoria from JCM Racing, Cruz Pedregon, along with Pro Stock racers Matt Hartford, Dave Connolly (who drove one of Hartford’s cars in 2024), Bo Butner, Jerry Tucker and the retired Fernando Cuadra Sr.
Will that make a difference when it’s time, on Saturday after four rounds of qualifying Thursday and Friday, to run finals? For the racers that don’t make the cut in the nitro classes, Top Fuel vs Funny Car was one of the bigger draws in 2024 and should be again, knowing the viability of the competitors on the grounds.
The schedule begins on Tuesday with several rounds of testing for all competitors, while racing and qualifying begins in earnest on Thursday. Starting at 9am Thursday morning, Pro Testing continues, while at 1:30pm qualifying for the sportsman classes takes place.The three Pro classes begin their qualifying attempts at 6:30pm Thursday and continue on Friday with qualifying for sportsman starting at 10am and pro qualifying strarting at 12:30pm. The third qualifying session is set for 4pm and the final round starts at 6:30pm.
Saturday’s full day of activities begins with sportsman racing at 11:30am, followed by the first round of pro racing at 12:30, Top Fuel vs Funny Car after Funny Car has completed their first road, which starts at 1:45pm. The second round of pro racing is at 4pm, followed by the finals for sportsman, while final eliminations are set to start at 6pm, with the final rounds scheduled for 7pm.
While weather in this area has been rather cool throughout the 2025 winter, it’s warmed up in central Florida to what we’d consider “normal” temps in the high 70s and low 80s. That’s what’s expected throughout the weekend, making the case for in-person viewing. Even night temps aren’t expected to go below 60 degrees and sunshine is expected to be rampant – just right for racing!