Austin Prock has won races in quarter midgets, sprint cars and Top Fuel dragsters, but he admits he never has had the laser focus he\u2019s demonstrated since sliding behind the wheel of the AAA Chevrolet Camaro SS Funny Car he\u2019ll drive this week in the 28th NHRA Midwest Nationals at World Wide Technology Raceway.<\/p>\n
It is in that white-and-blue Camaro, tuned by his dad Jimmy, that the 29-year-old will pursue his fourth consecutive NHRA tour victory and eighth overall since taking the seat previously occupied by three-time former World Champ \u00a0and JFR President Robert Hight, who is on medical leave.<\/p>\n
Gary Nastase \/ Auto Imagery photo<\/p>\n
The third generation drag racer, grandson of 1970s era Funny Car driver Tom Prock, will start the qualifying phase of this week\u2019s third Countdown event 129 points ahead of everybody else, including John Force Racing teammate \u201cFast Jack\u201d Beckman, who can testify to his racing partner\u2019s newfound intensity.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen Austin lost at Brainerd, (Minn., in the second round of the Lucas Oil Nationals), he didn\u2019t like his light (a .116 reaction time that is his worst this season, by far),\u201d Beckman said, \u201c(so) he locked himself in his lounge and we just kept hearing the foot pedal going down, over and over, just practicing, practicing.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI tapped on his door, and he let something out that started with an (expletive) and I said, \u2018we\u2019re not going to bother him now.\u2019\u00a0And he went from that moment, where he didn\u2019t like the way he performed, to winning three straight races.\u00a0That\u2019s just pure determination.\u00a0Pretty damn impressive.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m just focusing on finishing strong and trying to give (the powers that be at JFR) a reason to keep me around,\u201d Prock said.\u00a0\u201cWe want to finish 1-2, me and Jack.\u00a0That\u2019s the goal, however it ends up.\u00a0My dad, (brother) Tom and Nathan Hildahl, they\u2019re the ones that are making it happen.\u00a0I\u2019m just trying not to screw it up.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m trying to put the same kind of work in (as the crew) and just be a machine (and) it\u2019s been working out so far,\u201d he said, \u201cbut the only way we\u2019re going to win this championship is if we\u2019re perfect every time we drag it up there.\u00a0If we do that, and everybody does their best, we\u2019ll be up on that stage (at the November awards banquet).\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re working hard,\u201d he said, \u201ctrying to get that 348-point lead back (the regular season advantage that evaporated when the NHRA adjusted the points for the Countdown).\u201d<\/p>\n
A former clutch tech at JFR, Prock is just one win shy of equaling the eight-win season Hight put together for the same team in 2022.\u00a0He also has three runner-up finishes in 2024.\u00a0He lost to Bob Tasca III by .009 of a second in the final round of the Las Vegas four-wide and to Force by .033 in the final of the New England Nationals at Epping, N.H.<\/p>\n
The fact is, he\u2019s putting up numbers that haven\u2019t been seen since boss John Force\u2019s heyday in the 1990s and early 2000s including 11 No. 1 starts, just two shy of the single season Funny Car record.\u00a0<\/p>\n
His 82.3 winning percentage (from a 42-9 record that doesn\u2019t include his win in the pre-season PRO Superstar Shootout at Bradenton, Fla.) is the highest in a fuel class since Tony Schumacher set the record in 2008 when he won 89.4 percent of his races (76-9).\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve got some good momentum going,\u201d said the point leader, \u201cbut we\u2019re just working one round at a time.\u201d<\/p>\n
This story was originally published on September 26, 2024. <\/p>\n
The post Austin Prock Focused on Perfection, Championship<\/a> first appeared on Drag Illustrated<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Austin Prock has won races in quarter midgets, sprint cars and Top Fuel dragsters, but he admits he never has had the laser focus he\u2019s demonstrated since sliding behind the wheel of the AAA Chevrolet Camaro SS Funny Car he\u2019ll drive this week in the 28th NHRA Midwest Nationals at World Wide Technology Raceway. It […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-96162","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96162","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=96162"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96162\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96162"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96162"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96162"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}