The Real Pro Mod Association held their yearly “Winter Warm-Up” at Orlando last weekend and all the big time NHRA quarter mile hitters were in attendance, getting their stuff ready for Gainesville. In fact, many of them will continue their testing next weekend in Bradenton as a last shot before the season opening pro mod NHRA contest is held during the 50th Amalie Oil Gatornationals in Gainesville. But that’s looking ahead. The video below contains footage of a run that exemplifies the modern world of pro modified drag racing. As the class can still be wholly unpredictable and downright freaky at time, the evolution of the category is such that no longer is it simply who’s brave enough to hold the throttle down the longest but who can really drive the car off the starting line. This is the proof.
On this run Jose Gonzales and Sidnei Frigo run identical speeds and elapsed times next to each other. Both of the cars use a Jerry Bickel chassis. Both of the cars have ProLine engines and tuning. Both of the cars run into the 5.70s at over 250mph and while the end result is identical the way they got there is not and we get to see the electronic time slip as proof of it.
These cars use a 520ci hemi engine with twin turbochargers that are boost limited to 36psi per class rules. At least that is where they are starting the season at, we’ll see if there are any rules changes as those tend to be moving target through the year. Both Frigo and Gonzales are previous winners on the tour and Jose won in basically his third career NHRA appearance which is a big deal for the soft spoken man from the Dominican Republic. Frigo is from Brazil so this run also speaks to the international nature of the class as well.
Awesome stuff and if this is what NHRA pro mod looks like in 2019…we’re pumped!
