Race One Results! « DragRaceCanada.com

Race One Results!

by editor on Mar.23, 2024, under Smokies Garage - Pro Mod Portal

NHRA’s Congruity Pro Mod Drag Racing Series season opens….loud & large!….

In a matchup of two former world champions, Jose Gonzalez knocked off Kris Thorne in the final round to win the season-opener in the Congruity NHRA Pro Mod Drag Racing Series presented by LearnEV+.

The event was part of the 55th annual Amalie Motor Oil NHRA Gatornationals at Gainesville Raceway and the first of 10 races during the 2024 season. The weekend’s event was powered by FuelTech.

Gonzalez, who is a skilled driver native of Puerto Rico, powered to his ninth career NHRA Pro Mod victory when he powered to a weekend-best 5.685-seconds at 253.23 mph in his Q80 Camaro in the final to open his season on a strong note. To reach the final round for the 14th time in his career Jose knocked off Dwayne Wolfe, Justin Bond and Jason Scruggs.

In the finals against Thorne, Gonzalez impressive run cruised into victory after Thorne smoked the tires early. Gonzalez also won in Gainesville in 2021.

“It’s just hard work from the crew,” Gonzalez said. “We hadn’t made one run before we got to Gainesville and we really started behind the eight-ball. We got a break on the first run and then the car started to come around. It’s a team effort. I’m just the one driving the car and they’re doing the hard work.”

2021 NHRA World Pro Mod Champion Jose Gonzalez – won the 2024 season opening event.

Thorne, who won the Gatornationals in 2022, defeated reigning world champion Mike Castellana, Mason Wright and Mike Thielen to reach the finals for the ninth overall time.

Mike Thielen – from the Pacific Northwest – paced the field with a #1 qualifying 5.688 secs.

The season opening NHRA Pro Mod attraction was an impressive affair attendance and performance wise. 26 cars were on the premises to make qualifying runs and the 16-car bump spot was a very swift 5.812 secs.

Canadian Justin Bond, who finished 3rd in NHRA world points last season was credited with the event’s quickest time (5.653 secs) while Dwayne Wolf had top speed (253.37 mph) – both racing supercharged Camaros.

Western Canadian star racer Justin Bond set low ET of the event in the Bahrain 1 Racing/JBS Motorsports Camaro.

A instantly very popular new circuit car to debut at Gainesville was this slick ’55 Chevy driven by Tony Wilson from NC.

Canada’s Scott Wildgust had quite a successful NHRA Pro Mod class debut – qualifying his all new Smokies Garage Chevy Camaro for a very tough field at its first ever competitive outing.

Dmitry Samorukov – from Moscow Russia! – ran a best of 5.899 secs – but missed the qualified field.

The Congruity NHRA Pro Mod Drag Racing Series presented by LearnEV+ returns to action April 5-7 as part of the NHRA Arizona Nationals at Firebird Motorsports Park. It marks the first time Pro Mod will race at the historic Phoenix track.