Pro Mod at Vegas; turbos in profusion... (1 Viewer)

[Bill]

After 1 round of qualifying at Vegas, the turbo-boosted presence in Pro Mod is unprecedented. No less than seven of the hairdryer cars are qualified... including the top 3 spots... a telling trend???

Contrast that with just 2 years ago, when Brad Personnett's car was usually the only Pro Mod car running that was turbo'd, and you will be made aware of just how quickly the landscape can change in this class. I think it's amazing!

Give NHRA's penchant for trying to maintain parity by "managing" performance potential in a class like this, I would guess that the success of the Melanie/Leah R2/B2 cars (and tuner Steve Petty,) will likely result in some sort of reining-in of the runaway performances of this combination, but for now, "nothing succeeds like success."

Next year may be a whole different ballgame, though. I can't imagine that NHRA wants a full, 16-car field of turbo cars in Pro Mod....

We'll see.

 

[Buns]

Before we go further, we must remember that the times turned in by Troy Coughlin, Chip King, Steve Matusek, and Clint Hairston, are probably not going to be good enough to get in the show. Roger Burgess does have a car that's good enough to get in the show but he left before the tree was activated. So the ladder could change drastically before tomorrow in E1.

That being said, the turbo cars are definitely showing their potential. When you have a guy like Steve Petty tuning, you can do great things. He is refining his 481X turbo combination by the run and it's incredibly quick.

Brad Personett had a great run to get him solidly in the show, as well. Haven't seen much from him this year but maybe that'll change in this race.

You have to really know your stuff to get a turbo car running consistently quick. Ask Jay Payne or Dennis Radford, both of whom parked their turbo operations and went back to their blown and nitrous-fed cars.

So if you have the right tuner and a good driver, you can definitely do damage in a turbo Pro Mod car.

As far as reigning-in the turbo cars, the NHRA thought dropping the turbo size from 91mm to 88mm would do it. No such luck as Melanie set the ET record at 5.77 earlier this year. The turbo cars are running better-than-ever this year and it's more knowing how to tune them and the chassis than it is turbo size.

 

[Buns]

Here's where we're at after Q2..

LAS VEGAS 2 - Pro Modified Qualifying, Session #2 Order

4 turbo cars in, 4 turbo cars out.

 

[none]

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...............

 

[Toejam]

Since Danny Rowe ran that 5.91@244 it won't hold much water! But I'm willing to bet that the Top 25 E.T.'s in Pro mod this year are dominated by Turbo cars!