2016 NHRA Gatornationals: Pro Mod and Pro Stock Action Photos From The Historic Race


2016 NHRA Gatornationals: Pro Mod and Pro Stock Action Photos From The Historic Race

(Photos by David Whealon) – There’s lots of stories in the NHRA world this year but the Pro Mod category and of course Pro Stock are central to a couple of them. For Pro Stock it was the wholesale changes that came to the class with the addition of EFI, the removal of forward facing scoops, and the added complication of a 10,500 RPM rev limiter to make things interesting. In Pro Mod, there were some mild rules tweaks but the major story coming into the GatorNationals was the fact that virtually every combo in the book had tested quicker than the standing national record. Despite the weirdness of the weather and everything else in Gainesville, both the Pro Stock runners and the Pro Mod guys put on a fantastic show.

When the dust settled, it was Greg Anderson holding the trophy high at the end of the weekend after another all KB Racing final round. The Summit Racing Equipment cars are literally dominating the class to the basic definition of the word. This is in stark contrast to what many people believed would happen coming into the year. The belief that the KB cars would struggle stemmed from the fact that they ran an engine package in the previous iteration of Pro Stock that spun to 12k+ RPM. The drastic drop in RPM was something that many thought that they would never overcome so quickly. Clearly the “many” were wrong as they have proven themselves to be the baddest men in Pro Stock by a long shot so far this year.

On the Pro Mod side of things it was a truly awesome race. Nearly 30 cars were trying to qualify for the 16 car field. During the final round of qualifying the big numbers were falling from the sky. The first round of eliminations was one of the most entertaining in the history of the class with huge reaction times beating faster cars and even a new National Record with Jonathan Gray running 5.75 to blow the old mark (which was set years ago) of 5.77 away. Through the day it was blower, nitrous, and turbo cars pummeling each other before the final round which say Danny Rowe and Rickie Smith square off. Smith, who admitted to us that he had “gotten soft” in 2014 came out swinging and took the win in Gainesville. As the man who won the first NHRA Pro Mod even during the 2001 GatorNationals, this had to have been a sweet moment.

Now that you know the story, check out the photos!

Click the images below to expand them and then


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