NHRA Pro Stock Testing and New Cars Overview from Bradenton

Some extreme overnight fog conditions took quite some time to burn off in the Bradenton area which delayed the session till nearly 12:30 PM. There were six cars running the session with the Summit Racing team of Greg Anderson and Ronnie Humphrey, Roger Brogden, Erica Enders, Alan Johnson and V. Gaines.

Bradenton Motorsports Park is often busy during the off season with various private test sessions scheduled to take advantage of the weather we are famous for here in Florida, the Sunshine state. While Thursday wasn’t the sunniest of days it sure beats the blizzard conditions stretching across the Midwest the past few days.

Gaines was doing some clutch testing and scrubbing tires but having little luck getting down the track in the Kendall backed Western Motorsports Dodge. They made seven attempts on Wednesday and managed one 6.62 @ 209 then traced the problem to a bad shock. They rely on a Madcap Racing Engines built Hemi to power the Lazarus built Avenger.

V Gaines was on hand sporting the same colors as last year but having little luck, fighting tire shake most of the day. They packed it in early.

Greg Anderson had a tragic fire in the transporter after the 2010 season finale on the way home severely damaging much of the equipment and parts inside. Luckily no one was injured in the fire but the loss of the car, rig and several engines forced the team to regroup over the off season instead of being able to concentrate on R&D.

Since there was no time to get a purpose built rig the KB racing team located a used transporter and had it outfitted for the new season. They also sourced a replacement car from Stanfield/Yonke Racing team built by Rick Jones and had it adapted for Anderson. In January he ran a best of 6.52 @ 211 in the Summit Racing Pontiac GXP while testing here at Bradenton, having an optimistic view for the 2011 season.

Andersons new Rick Jones Pontiac GXP was purchased from Stanfield/Yonke Racing to replace last years car that was damaged beyond repair in a transporter fire after the season finale last year.

Humphrey came on board with the Summit Racing team midway through the 2010 season and will drive the Genuine Hot Rod sponsored car as part of a three car effort with Greg Anderson and Jason Line for Summit Racing this year.

Testing a new car can be an arduous process with all the variables of weather, track conditions and getting to know what the car wants even for professional racers like Anderson. After battling tire shake on a couple of runs they changed out the wheelie bars for another set with different stiffness. Just one of the many things that Pro Stock teams test during private sessions such as this in addition to the normal between run maintenance to the clutch and valve springs which are checked for pressure after every run. Springs can last anywhere from five to fifteen runs or break right away. The next run resulted in a 6.61 @ 209.09.

Anderson’s team mate and brother in law Ronnie Humphrey was the second driver to make a pass this morning and went down with a smooth 6.60 @ 209.05.

Allen Johnson unloaded a the new Rick Jones car here this morning and promptly ripped of a clean 6.57 @ 209.08 MPH run which turned out to be the first of three in a row for the Mopar backed team. The third run of the day for the team resulted in a nice 210.28 MPH. Good results for only the fifth pass on a new car.

In other news for the team they have a new driver with Vincent Nobile set to drive the Mountain View Tires Dodge Avenger for Nick Mitsos this year continuing the relationship supplying engines for the team. They will be here in Bradenton testing with them next week. Nobile is set to run a limited schedule of sixteen of the twenty two events for the year.

Allan Johnson is having good results with his new Rick Jones Avanger running a best of 6.52 @ 211 in an earlier session in January. He ran a string of .57’s during Thursday’s session.

They also have another session scheduled with NASCAR driver Kurt Bush who is on board for one race this year at the 41^st Tire Kingdom Gator Nationals in Gainesville this March after competing in Super Gas there last year. Bush earned his NHRA Pro Stock license recently here in Bradenton with a nice 6.57 @ 210 MPH run. Bush will drive the Dodge Avenger for Alan Johnson and J & J Racing featuring Shell Oil graphics.

Erica Enders has returned to Cagnazzi Racing for 2011, coming back to the team where she got her start in Pro Stock back in 2005 with Houston, Texas based ZaZa Energy on board as primary sponsor until the team can secure a long term financial partner.

Erica Enders is back with Cagnazzi Racing this year bringing new sponsor ZaZa Energy on board to start the season off .

I spoke with Todd Bevis, the Chassis builder/tuner from Cagnazzi Racing about Erica Enders car, the team and their plans for the 2011 season. Bevis has been building Pro Stock Cars for nearly 30 years; originally based in Tyler Texas he made the move to Mooresville, North Carolina in 2000 after selling his Bevis Built Race Cars business to Victor Cagnazzi and currently oversees the chassis shop and race car fabrication group.

Erica’s car was built in 2009, is the newest car in the stable and was driven by Jeg Coughlin in 2010. This Cobalt is currently the only Chevy scheduled to start the 2011 season and Erica is excited to be back with Cagnazzi Racing and in a competitive car. They are testing well so far having run some 6.60’s but did have some gremlins this week including a lost engine on Tuesday. Lancaster, PA native Steve Johns is the manager of the engine development group at Cagnazzi Racing where they do there engines in house and is currently the only Pro Stock team to build its own cars and engines.

They were pitted with Roger Brogden Racing who leases engines from Cagnazzi Racing.

I spoke with Brogden’s team owner Steve Kent about what’s new for them for this year. Kent has a new car he will drive this year being built at Jerry Haas shop which is scheduled to be completed in April. If all goes well he plans to compete at the O’Reilly Auto Parts NHRA Spring Nationals in Houston, Texas this April. His first run was an off pace 6.69 @ 199 MPH.

In other news the Brogden Racing team was pulling off the current wrap on the transporter and is looking over design drafts from V. Gaines owned Fineline Graphics. The transporter and car will be wrapped with a fresh scheme, replacing the Pistonator/Attitude Apparel design with The Racers Edge pain relief and energy products in Las Vegas during a test session there before the season opener Kragen O’Reilly Auto Parts NHRA Winternationals in Pomona on February 24^th. Kent recently sold that business to another company and will advertise for them for the 2011 season.