There are twice as many pro mods here than can fit in the actual qualified field. Know what that means? It means that this every single round of qualifying is a street fight. Even before today’s final qualifying the bump spot is the quickest in the 15 years history of pro mods racing at the NHRA Chevrolet Performance US Nationals and that is saying something because the conditions have not exactly been friendly to making horsepower and hooking it all to the track.
In this video you will see Billy Glidden’s first qualifying run of the weekend and the resulting manifold explosion. What happened? As you watch the video pay attention to the driver’s side of the car as it comes down the track. You will see a giant jet of flame come out of that bullhorn header collector and in our estimation that indicates that the the valves were in the process of melting their way of the cylinder heads and once that happened there was flame travel that came right up the intake into the plenum igniting the entire fuel and nitrous oxide mixture inside it.
Because the car was carrying so much speed and the throttle blades were open the force of the explosion traveled up into the scoop and once it was dislodged the air grabbed it and sent it to heights heretofore unknown in the sport. Ok, that may be a bit of a stretch but that sucker was all of 100 feet in the air if it was 10!
Qualifying wraps up today with one final gunfight that will be incredible to watch. Pretty amazing that even the number one qualifier isn’t safe technically!
