Fans at this weekend’s O’Reilly NHRA Spring Nationals at the Royal Purple Raceway in Houston will have another hometown racer to throw their support behind, as Steve Kent makes his Pro Stock debut behind the wheel of the Pistonator/RACERS EDGE Pontiac GXP.

On the Monday following the NHRA Four-Wide Nationals in Charlotte, Kent earned his Pro Stock license with a stellar 6.74 elapsed time at 205 miles per hour under the watchful eye of teammate Rodger Brodgon at the zMAX Dragway. With his freshly-minted license signed, dialed, and delivered to the NHRA offices in Glendora, Kent is now ready to make his long-awaited foray into the factory hot rod class alongside his former Competition Eliminator foe at his hometown race of all places.

“With the number of Pro Stock teams that have a second car to gather data from, adding Steve to the mix will enable us to join those ranks and hopefully be able to solidify our race day performance with both cars. Steve won’t be competing at every event, at least that’s the concept going in,” Rodger grinned, “but we’ll see how that plays out, so far he’s adapted quite well to the changes from his 7 second Comp car.”

“To say we know the track well in Baytown might be a bit of an understatement. We’ve tested here in the hot, the cold, bright sunny days and I’ve even made a lap here in the darkness of the early evening, and don’t even ask about that,” Brogdon chuckled. “We have data for any type of condition that you can think of. We’ve raced here in Super Stock, numerous Comp cars and Pro Stock, and won more than once on our home track, so we ‘re certainly looking forward to a productive race this weekend.”

“There is no doubt we’re going to have a busy weekend too,” continued Brogdon. “On top of debuting Steve and his new car, we’ll also be entertaining business clients of both Steve and myself, along with numerous family members and friends. Steve will have the boys cooking in the pits all weekend and our overall object will be what it always is, enjoy our friends, race, and have a good time doing both.”