There is always a danger in having an exceptional one-off event and trying to surpass it with a second attempt at excellence. The skepticism surrounding the second Power Equipment PRO Superstar Shootout, held at Bradenton Motorsports Park the first full week of February was palpable, but the PRO organization, led by president Alan Johnson and by Kalitta Motorsports general manager Chad Head was another winner.
While the three winners of the first 2024 race, Doug Kalitta, Austin Prock and Erica Enders didn’t repeat their victories, there were many stories to tell about the winners, losers and also-rans that made the trek to this central Florida venue to consume the full race meeting. With two and a half days of practice on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, coupled with four rounds of qualifying that took up Thursday night and all of Friday, it was always interesting to see who used the time well to get their cobwebs out after not racing since mid-November of last year.
All testing, qualifying and racing activities were held under broadly sunny skies for every day’s activities; while central Florida had experienced cooler than normal temperatures leading up to this event, the temps climbed to a somewhat more normal high 70s to low 80s throughout the official meet from Thursday through Saturday. For all on-site it was an opportunity to make some money and get back into the swing of racing activities.
As is customary in straight-line racing, those that were quick in testing and qualifying didn’t necessarily end up in the Winner’s Circle once all rounds of racing were run. Pro Stock had the largest number of entries and ran four rounds of racing on the quarter-mile dragstrip, while Top Fuel and Funny Car had smaller quantities of racers but equality in degree of proficiency throughout their fields. Four-time and reigning Top Fuel champion Antron Brown was the quick racer in his class; ditto Austin Prock in his John Force Racing Chevrolet Funny Car, after earning his first title in the class last November. Fastest in Pro Stock? Former Pro Stock Motorcycle racer Cory Reed bested both six-time titleholders, Erica Enders of Elite Motorsports and his KB Titan Racing teammate Greg Anderson, the latter a reigning champ.
After the first round of racing, both Brown and Enders were on the sidelines. Brown lost traction early and fell to second year driver/owner Shawn Reed while Enders was beaten by her regular nemesis Anderson. Prock, top qualifier in Funny Car continued to the second round after putting Bob Tasca III’s Ford Mustang back on the trailer, while Chad Green beat Bobby Bode (in Del Worsham’s Flopper), Ron Capps punished Daniel Wilkerson and Jack Beckman halted Matt Hagan. In that monumental first round, Doug Kalitta fell to Brittany Force in Top Fuel’s eight-car field, Josh Hart triumphed over Tony Stewart and Justin Ashley vanquished Kalitta’s teammate Shawn Langdon in another eight-car field.
With a 16-car field, Pro Stock’s action was fierce in the first round, as David Cuadra (Elite) beat Matt Latino (KB), Jeg Coughlin Jr. (Elite) handily took out tractionless Dallas Glenn (KB), Elite’s Aaron Stanfield held off Chris McGaha, Cristian Cuadra beat his brother Fernando Cuadra Jr, both driving Ford Mustangs while the rest of the field drove Chevys, Elite’s Troy Coughlin Jr. beat teammate Bo Butner, who filled in for rookie Stephen Bell, who had a family emergency, Cory Reed (KB) beat Mason McGaha and returnee Greg Stanfield of Elite beat KB’s Deric Kramer.
In the second Pro Stock round of racing, Troy Coughlin Jr. beat Greg Anderson, Reed took out Jeg Coughlin Jr., who lost traction at the start, the battle of Stanfield pere vs fils saw dad Greg beat Aaron, while David Cuadra beat his twin Cristian in the second round. Third round action saw two yellow Elite cars matched up and Troy Coughlin Jr. beating David Cuadra and with Reed vanquishing Greg Stanfield to set up the final round. Reed misread the lights, fouled out and handed the win to Coughlin Jr. despite having the fastest – and likely best – car on the grounds. Even though Coughlin Jr. rattled his tires at the start, he still had the win. That’s racing.
After narrowly qualifying for the race and entering in the No. 14 slot, Troy Jr. performed when it mattered but still felt the result was “so surreal. I haven’t even really let it sink in yet, but we’re definitely gonna enjoy this and thank you to the PRO group and all the sponsors involved, especially SCAG,” he said. “We have such a wonderful organization in drag racing and that’s the PRO group and PRO Promotions. They care about the racers, they care about the fans and they care about the vendors. It’s an honor just to be here.”
Funny Car, with eight entries (actually nine but the final car of Dave Richards ran in the Funny Car vs Top Fuel race against Doug Foley, and won!) saw Capps’ Toyota GR Supra defeat Jack Beckman in John Force’s Chevy in the second round, while Austin Prock won a tight race over Chad Green. In the finals, with Capps in the left lane and Prock in the right, it was the three-time champ easily besting the current titleholder.
Capps, who missed out on making last year’s SCAG power Equipment PRO Superstar Shootout field in 2024’s over-subscribed entry list, charged to victory on Saturday night against Prock. After finishing third in last year’s Funny Car standings, Capps admitted he was “shocked. Last year I said I so wish that we had a car to battle those guys. I haven’t seen a dominant car, start to finish like they had, but that’s Robert Hight’s car. We know what it’s capable of. I love Austin in there,” he said of his competitor. “It’s a different animal. I saw [Prock] out the window and thought we lost. This is one of those roller coaster moments.”
After failing to win a race last year and finishing as the runner-up five times in 2024’s 20 races, Capps reasoned, “What a great way to start the season, and to do it at this event means a lot. A lot of our sponsors are big supports of this event. This is big for all our NAPA guys and Guido (crew chief Dean Antonelli). I can’t say enough about how hard he’s worked. This is the fruits of his labor.”
Top Fuel closed out the day’s activities with second-round results that saw Reed overtaking Brittany Force and Josh Hart besting Justin Ashley. That brought us to a final between Reed and Hart, and with all the so-called “stars” on the sidelines to watch. While Reed, who started last season with hardly any testing time, a brand new car, team, trailer and not much in the way of spares, earning his first Top Fuel victory on asphalt was quite an achievement. The former drag boat racing standout came alive in the second half of last season and carried positive momentum into this weekend.
After earning his victory, Reed said the win was “probably not going to sink in for a while… I’m so happy for my crew (led by Rob Wendland), my guys. They put up with a lot last year. I lost a lot of races for them. Now, we did it. We won a race and no one can take that from us. To say I’m pretty ecstatic is an understatement!” He credited the assistance he received from Antron Brown’s crew chief Brian Corradi, who helped him get the necessary parts to run well. “We’re a one-car team, kind of working as a two-car team to keep up with the field because the competition is just so stout!”
For three racers, this was the best weekend of the year. So far. For everyone else, it’s time to go back to the drawing boards and prepare for the start of the NHRA’s 20-race Mission Foods Drag Racing Series season. While some of the expected talent didn’t make this trip to Florida to compete in this second PRO Superstar Shootout race, those that did believe the race enhanced their abilities to perform at the expected top level for their classes, once the season begins in earnest.
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