![\"\"](\"https:\/\/dragillustrated.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/IMG_5659.jpg\")
\u201cI was looking for something turnkey ProCharged, something that I could see what it is and then go through it,\u201d Corradi said. \u201cI bought the car, played with it a little bit, probably made about 20-some laps with it. We got Zach driving it. He\u2019s probably the best one I know around that can drive besides Antron.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe wrap on the car is like this because of Mike Ashley,\u201d Corradi continued. \u201cI probably wouldn\u2019t be where I\u2019m at without Mike. When I went to see him in St. Louis and meet him for the first time, he was racing there and I think he had \u2018Eleanor\u2019 at the time and it was a Gotham City theme. I fell in love with [Pro Mods] right then and there. I was racing a fuel car, so I couldn\u2019t play with them. Mike helps me out on this car, so I wanted to do this car in tribute to Mike because I always thought that he had the coolest cars.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sackman and the team have been making test passes at Bradenton since Tuesday to prepare for the Snowbirds. In the first qualifying session, he laid down a 3.715 at 203.46 MPH to sit just outside the 32-car field in the No. 34 spot out of 62 cars. He\u2019s been as quick as 3.700 in testing. With Steve Petty calling the shots, the team is hoping to get well into the 3.60s to make it into the show.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe goal is always to win,\u201d Corradi said. \u201cWe don\u2019t come to a race unless we think we can win. We\u2019re close. We just need to find six or seven hundredths. If we could find them, we\u2019ll be in the show and then we\u2019ve got Zach driving. I\u2019ve got my faith in him. But the goals are to make A-to-B laps and see what we need. We gotta knock the dust off this car some more. There is some more in it according to Petty.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sackman, who\u2019s won multiple times in Top Dragster in his family\u2019s blown dragster and in Top Alcohol Dragster driving for Randy Meyer Racing, is thrilled to have the opportunity to make his Pro Mod debut this weekend.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s pretty exciting and it\u2019s something I\u2019ve always wanted to do,\u201d Sackman said. \u201cPro Mod would be my premier class other than like Top Fuel and Funny Car. It\u2019s a pretty cool opportunity that Brian\u2019s given me. I just want to make good runs so we can just learn on the car and get me more comfortable in the car and come back better.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s an all-star crew working with Corradi and Sackman. Corradi\u2019s co-crew chief on Brown\u2019s team for the last 10-plus years, Mark Oswald, is helping out, along with car chief Brad Mason. Other members of the AB Motorsports team are also in attendance, while Brown is pitted across the pit road. It\u2019s like an offseason reunion for the championship-winning team.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re all best friends on our team, so it\u2019s really a treat for us to come out here and do it,\u201d said Oswald, who announced his retirement after Brown won his most recent championship. \u201cTo us, it\u2019s less pressure. Not that we don\u2019t try really hard, but it is a little less pressure and a little more relaxing and fun. This car is not quite as intensive workload wise like ours is.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s like another day at the racetrack,\u201d Corradi added. \u201cMark will always be here when I go race this car. He\u2019ll be playing with it. He\u2019ll help these guys, and he\u2019ll come to some races, I\u2019m sure, with the Top Fuel car. He can\u2019t stay away. But it\u2019s awesome to have him here. Brad and all the guys that I work with, some of them are over there [with Antron]. This started with Antron because we came with him to run that radial car with Manny. That\u2019s how I got here. It\u2019s awesome to see him over there. It feels good.\u201d<\/p>\n Similarly, it\u2019s a group Sackman is familiar with since his father, Darren, used to work on Ashley\u2019s Funny Car with Corradi. Older brother Matt also served as a crew member on Brown\u2019s Matco Tools Top Fuel team for several seasons and earned his Top Fuel license with the team. Together, the group is learning the ins and outs of racing a doorslammer.<\/p>\n \u201cThey know what they\u2019re looking at, but it\u2019s just a little bit different than Top Fuel cars,\u201d Sackman said. \u201cIt\u2019s cool to work with them because I\u2019ve been around them all since I was a little kid, so getting to drive for them is pretty cool.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019d say the biggest difference for me is our computer on our [Top Fuel] car is for data collection only, where out here, you\u2019re allowed to do functions in the car with the computer,\u201d Oswald added. \u201cTo me, that\u2019s the part of racing I enjoy, so that\u2019s a huge difference to me.\u201d<\/p>\n Between Petty and Miller advising on the tuneup and a crew that also includes veteran crew member \u201cBlower Bob\u201d Gardner, it\u2019s a talented team working together, which has made for a smooth onboarding for Corradi and Sackman. They\u2019re competing at a high level, but it\u2019s still a fun offseason project for the group.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWith the pressures of sponsorship and everything that we deal with at the NHRA level, this is down a notch,\u201d Corradi said. \u201cIt\u2019s a job when I go to NHRA races, then I come here and I\u2019ve got my motorhome and my wife is here and we can cook out. You try to enjoy it. The first weekend out is maybe not as enjoyable, but so far, so good. I\u2019m really enjoying the event.\u201d<\/p>\n This story was originally published on December 6, 2024. The post Zach Sackman, Brian Corradi, Mark Oswald Join Pro Mod Ranks at DI Winter Series\u00a0<\/a> first appeared on Drag Illustrated<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Newly crowned four-time NHRA Top Fuel world champion Antron Brown isn\u2019t the only Top Fuel personality jumping into the Pro Mod ranks at the first race of the Drag Illustrated Winter Series presented by J&A Service. His crew chief, Brian Corradi, also brought his new Pro Mod entry to the Snowbird Outlaw Nationals presented by […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-97407","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97407","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=97407"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97407\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97407"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97407"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97407"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/dragillustrated.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/IMG_5660.jpg\")
![\"Drag](\"https:\/\/dragillustrated.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/DI_flat_red-e1711481551475.png\")
<\/p>\n