(Photos by Charlie Westcott Jr. and Mike English) – In what may be an off statement to read, Charlie Westcott Jr. made some of the most important passes in his drag racing career long after the actual drag race at Gateway Motorsports Park had ended. Yesterday Westcott Jr. earned his NHRA pro stock license in the car that he purchased from the estate of the late Jim Cunningham. The Mustang ran a best of 6.822/203.06 on its final pass which clinched the pro stock license upgrade for Westcott Jr. It should be noted that he made the run with his dad working right by his side, which makes the whole scene even that much more special. As is the rule, the license must be signed off by two drivers and those two guys were Jason Line and Greg Anderson yesterday.
Now we know that a 6.82/203 isn’t a world beating run but let’s think about the circumstances here and how this came to pass. It wasn’t much more than a year ago that Westcott bought all the Cunningham stuff and started working on an engine program. Mind you, this is in his spare time as his primary business, Militia Racing Products keeps him busy and helps keep the lights on. This is purely a project of skill and learning. We were not expecting him to jump right into competition with an entry in Maple Grove and a quick check of the entry list does not show his name.
As he has said multiple times during this process, he was not going to rush or hurry anything. He now has a car he can drive and test to get himself ready for what we think will be some races next year. While some people are wondering why he is testing a carb car that will be on EFI, we think that there’s tons of value in making runs no matter the induction before hitting the dyno again this winter.
The little privateer pro stock effort that could is getting closer and closer!
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It’s strange seeing the Westcott’s running a Ford when they are big Mopar runners!
It was strange seeing the Westcott’s running a Mopar when they were big Chevy runners too! They seem to adapt well though.
Most people seem to forget that fact.
It’s nice to see a Ford possibly joining the pro stock class. I know the Wescotts from their super stock racing and I know how hard they will work to get in the field and be competitive
I’m not caught up on ihra pro stock but do Fords still do well in it?
In IHRA the Ford’s can run with the GM cars (there was a Ford in the finals in San Antonio).
he was geared for 10500 rpm engine…so yes he is testing for next year