[coverattach=1]It’s been said that “Success is not a destination, it's a journey,” and for Rodger Brogdon and the Kent Services & Trucking race team, their journey into the world of NHRA Pro Stock racing is only a couple of races old. Yet their path to success so far has seen detours that resemble a three mile road course rather than a quarter mile drag strip.
Going into this weekend’s AC Delco Gatornationals, the team felt confident and poised. The previous event at Phoenix and testing during the week leading up to the event had shown improvement in numerous areas within the car, and the opportunity to run the event with a proven power plant out of Victor Cagnazzi’s race shop had the team anxious for qualifying to begin.
When qualifying concluded on Saturday afternoon, the team found themselves on the outside of the sixteen car qualified field, even after wholesale chassis changes before the third session and a complete engine swap going into final qualifying.
As Rodger Brogdon put it, “We really felt that this weekend would offer us an opportunity to race on Sunday. We know Victor’s engines make power and we knew that what we found in testing should have let us step up from what we ran in Phoenix. Looking at and analyzing all the numbers, the car is telling us that we’re close, oh so close. But, there is still something that is holding us back. Tommy Utt is a highly respected tuner, and this car has even got him scratching his head.”
Brogdon added, “We’ll test next week at Belle Rose and get ready to run at the event in Houston the following weekend. Right now it’s a matter of analyzing the data that we’ve collected and finding that needle in the haystack that’s holding us back. And we will keep testing and till we find it. And when we do,,,,.”
For Rodger Brogdon and the Steve Kent team, the next event will be the NHRA O’Reilly Springnationals at their home track in Houston, TX, the weekend of March 27-29, and to a man, the team is dedicated to racing on Sunday.
Going into this weekend’s AC Delco Gatornationals, the team felt confident and poised. The previous event at Phoenix and testing during the week leading up to the event had shown improvement in numerous areas within the car, and the opportunity to run the event with a proven power plant out of Victor Cagnazzi’s race shop had the team anxious for qualifying to begin.
When qualifying concluded on Saturday afternoon, the team found themselves on the outside of the sixteen car qualified field, even after wholesale chassis changes before the third session and a complete engine swap going into final qualifying.
As Rodger Brogdon put it, “We really felt that this weekend would offer us an opportunity to race on Sunday. We know Victor’s engines make power and we knew that what we found in testing should have let us step up from what we ran in Phoenix. Looking at and analyzing all the numbers, the car is telling us that we’re close, oh so close. But, there is still something that is holding us back. Tommy Utt is a highly respected tuner, and this car has even got him scratching his head.”
Brogdon added, “We’ll test next week at Belle Rose and get ready to run at the event in Houston the following weekend. Right now it’s a matter of analyzing the data that we’ve collected and finding that needle in the haystack that’s holding us back. And we will keep testing and till we find it. And when we do,,,,.”
For Rodger Brogdon and the Steve Kent team, the next event will be the NHRA O’Reilly Springnationals at their home track in Houston, TX, the weekend of March 27-29, and to a man, the team is dedicated to racing on Sunday.
