A Florida native draws first blood within the NHRA’s first Pro Mod class offering of 2022…
Kris Thorne picked up his first career victory in the NHRA Pro Mod Drag Racing Series when he knocking off Brazil’s Sidnei Frigo in the final round of the season-opening race.
The event, which was presented by FTI Performance in Gainesville, was part of the Amalie Motor Oil NHRA Gatornationals at Gainesville Raceway. It was also the first of 10 races during the 2022 NHRA Pro Mod Drag Racing Series season.
Racing in his first career final round, Thorne went 5.642-seconds at 255.10 in his ProCharger-powered Camaro to take the win over Frigo’s 5.716 at 251.81.
Thorne’s memorable day also included round wins against J.R. Gray, Lyle Barnett and defending event winner and world champ Jose Gonzalez, making a pair of runs in the 5.60s before the finals. His quickest run was 5.642 secs – which was low ET for the event.
In the championship round, Thorne had a terrific .015 reaction time and never trailed to finish off a standout Sunday.
Florida native Kris Thorne roared to his first career win during NHRA’s Pro Mod class season opener.
“This is awesome. To get this moment and represent at our home track and win this thing, it means a lot,” Thorne said.
Brazil’s Sidnei Frigo placed R/UP with his Artvinco-presented Yenko ’69 Chevelle.
Frigo reached the final round thanks to victories against Canadian Justin Bond, Dwayne Wolfe, and Mike Thielen.
Lyle Barnett – driving the Elite Performance Camaro – set top speed at Gainesville running 256.50 mph.
Pro Mod class racing at Gainesville was an abbreviated affair as its schedule for racing was impacted greatly by unseasonable weather. In fact because of first persistent heavy rain for 2.5 days, then followed by extreme falling temperatures, a 16-car Pro Mod eliminator was set without any qualifying runs. That is a super rarity in the sport, but that decision, which was endorsed by the class racers themselves, was made after racing conditions were deemed unsafe to continue on Saturday evening.
Wily Veteran Rickie Smith raced this amazing new 2022 Mustang. He won his first round in the injected nitrous car.
Star Canadian Pro Mod driver Justin Bond (Mission BC) lost a heart wrenching close first round decision to Sidnei Frigo (5.749 secs to 5.742 secs)
Class newcomer Mike Thielen (Olympia WA) grabbed a lot of attention in his first ever race – going to the semi final round with his supercharged Chevy Camaro.
The NHRA Pro Mod Drag Racing Series returns to action on April 29-May 1 as part of the NHRA Four-Wide Nationals at zMAX Dragway in Charlotte.
Posted with files by NHRA Communications & Bruce Biegler
All photos by David DeAngelis
To view additional Pro Mod class photos from this event – link to the LMLCMedia gallery : HERE
