This week’s inaugural PRO Superstar Shootout was a big win for the fans, the participants and the sponsors. The weather over three days of racing (preceded by a couple of test days to get everyone back on their game after the winter layover) was perfect, highlighted by a mid-70s, sunny race day that brought an over-capacity crowd to Bradenton Motorsports Park outside that Florida city to witness the biggest payout in drag racing history under the night’s bright lights.
After two official days of practice and qualifying, every participant was warned to arrive early on Saturday’s race day and those warnings proved to be right. By 7:30 Saturday morning, Highway 64 next to the track was jammed with cars trying to get in.
Eleven hours later, the queue reversed with folks attempting to leave, after watching 2023 NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series Top Fuel champion Doug Kalitta win his $250,000 for Kalitta Motorsports against Clay Millican’s Rick Ware Racing dragster, seeing Austin Prock earn his debut Funny Car victory for $250,000, driving Robert Hight’s John Force Racing Chevrolet Camaro SS against four-time reigning Flopper champ Matt Hagan of Tony Stewart Racing. Fans acknowledged Erica Enders’ dominance of Pro Stock, as the now-six-time champion took home the $125,000 for winning her final round against KB Titan returnee Dave Connolly in her Elite Motorsports Chevy Camaro.
Sure, there were delays due to racing issues on the track, moving the start time back to 2PM from the intended crack of noon beginning, and what was supposed to be a 7PM victory celebration went off closer to 8 o’clock, but the fans stuck around. They clogged the added grandstands that Bradenton had purchased from Moroso/Palm Beach International Raceway, when that facility was forced to close and they hugged the fencing from start-line to the shut-down area., two and three deep They regaled in bands playing, in event and team merch being readily available, watching teams prep their cars and, like always, ran to get their daily dose of nitro as teams warmed up to take their turns trying to snag all that money.
One of the more intriguing contests was the Don Schumacher Nitro Superstar $10,000After Red Line Oil bonus race between drivers who didn’t make the eight-car nitro fields in Top Fuel and Funny Car. The Floppers were given a two-tenths staggered tree and, after two rounds it was Chad Green’s Ford Mustang besting Steve Torrence’s dragster for the win. “I did something today I definitely thought I would never do, and that’s race against a Top Fuel dragster,” Green said after taking the win against his good friend. “I think I got a hole shot both times,” he said. I’m just really proud of that.” Green’s .064-sec reaction time easily bested his fellow Texan’s .186 RT and allowed him to finish ahead of the four-time champ.
Night qualifying on both Thursday and Friday (after two daylight sessions) saw plenty of quick and fast speeds from everyone on the grounds. On Thursday night, Millican was the fastest Top Fuel car at 3.688/336.49, while Bob Tasca III prefaced his history-making Friday speed with a 3.84/339.87 in his Ford Mustang. Dallas Glenn was the provisional No. 1 in Pro Stock for KB Titan Racing at 6.507/210.97.
There were only slight changes by the time three more qualifying sessions were held on Friday, as Millican, Prock and Enders were the top drivers in their classes. But it was Tasca III who grabbed the headlines, recording the first 340-mph-plus speed by a wheel-driven vehicle in drag racing history. His final pass of 3.84/341.68 had the Rhode Island native gaining about 50mph from the eighth-mile marker to the 1,000-foot finish line.
That’s pretty much what people came to see: big numbers by the professionals. They certainly for their money’s worth, but Tasca’s lap time still had him second behind Prock’s 3.825/337.41. Millican, in the final pairing of Friday night against Kalitta (they’d do it again on Saturday night) saw him turning 3.669/335.57.
Enders’ final run on Friday night gave her the No. 1 position at 6.505/210.21, while two of the 18 drivers invited to this race were unable to make the field: Mason McGaha and Deric Kramer were on the sidelines by Saturday morning, as were several nitro cars unable to make the eight-car final pairings.
Three-time Funny Car champ Ron Capps in his Toyota GR Supra made the list of DNQs, as did Green, Blake Alexander in Jim Head’s Camry, Daniel Wilkerson’s Ford Mustang and Dave Richards’ Mustang. In Top Fuel, both Torrence family members were unable to qualify for the big money, neither were Josh Hart and two-time champion Brittany Force! At least the nitro drivers got to race one another on Saturday, while Kramer and McGaha were spectators.
Another wrinkle was the chip draw on Friday night that determined first-round pairings, rather than qualifying times. Mixing up the field might have seemed a strange idea, but as always in racing, cream rises to the top and the racers we saw in the final rounds were the cream of this crop.
The nitro finals were held under the lights on Saturday night, with the flames from these well-tuned nitro cars illuminating the darkness after Pro Stock ran as dusk turned to darkness.
Enders, faced with running against Dave Connolly, who normally tunes for KB Titan Racing but came out of driving retirement to accept the invite to compete, chose to run in the lane she preferred on the left side of the track. That turned out to be a wise choice for all three of Saturday night’s big-money winners, along with Green’s Schumacher tribute victory.
Enders’ 6.531 at 210.05 bested Connolly’s 6.577/208.81. “Dave and I have a lot of history and that final round, I’d be lying if I told you my heart rate wasn’t a little bit higher than normal,” Enders said. Knowing that her opponent is a demon on the tree, “I had to disregard the emotion because I just want to knock their teeth out, but I just have to go out there and do what we do best.” Before claiming her $125,000 check, Enders beat teammates David Cuadra, Aaron Stanfield and Jeg Coughlin Jr. in the first three rounds.
Prock’s first-ever competition in Funny Car, after two seasons in Force’s second Top Fuel rail, made 16-time champ John Force and his son-in-law Robert Hight look like geniuses. With a wide variety of racing experience, including on dirt and asphalt circle-tracks, Prock understands that adapting to different situations is imperative in this sport. He ran the table at Bradenton, earning the $10,000 bonus for qualifying atop his class and beating four-time and reigning champ Matt Hagan’s Tony Stewart Racing Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat.
To reach the finals, Prock defeated Alexis DeJoria’s Toyota GR Supra and then, a tight 3.890 to 3.914 pairing, took out the boss, John Force to reach the finals. After his brother Thomas, who co-tunes the car with their dad, Jimmy Prock, jumped for joy at the start line, his younger brother said, “I don’t even know what to say. I’m stunned! We just won the biggest payout in drag racing history – we took ut to the winner’s circle, Grandpa,” referring to his former driver grandfather, Tom Prock.
Finally, it was up to Top Fuel to end the day with the heat of their headers sprinkling the night in shards of fire. And it was the two quickest and fastest dragsters on the grounds that got to close the show. Kalitta picked up where he left off in Pomona, earning the top qualifier money and eventually the $250,000 winner’s check. He survived a pedalfest with Justin Ashley in the first round and then took down Leah Pruett, in her final race before this season’s hiatus to start a family, with a 3.709/330.63 to her 3.941 in the semifinals.
Taking on Millican, who was quickest in the first qualifying session and looked strong with every pass he made at Bradenton, earning the No. 1 qualifying $10,000 check on Friday night before the chips were drawn, Kalitta had his hands full. “Making the eight-car field was tough,” Kalitta said, “and Clay’s car was running really well.” That it was until he lost traction at half-track and gave the win to Kalitta. “To see this event come to fruition and then to get into the eight-car field, which was like a knife fight in a phone booth, was just really cool,” Kalitta stated.
“The first thing I thought of when we won this thing was how proud Don Schumacher would be of the PRO group putting this together. We’ve never really seen this kind of money, and the whole deal was pretty cool. I know,” Kalitta stressed, “a lot of people worked really hard to make it happen.”
They certainly did and plans are in the works for a reprise next year before the 2025 NHRA season gets underway. The racers who competed at this inaugural event will be back in Florida in just a few weeks for the 55th annual Amalie Motor Oil Gatornationals, being held March 8-10 at Gainesville Raceway, just a couple of hours up the road from Bradenton.
where can I see this event?