{"id":60318,"date":"2022-03-15T10:12:27","date_gmt":"2022-03-15T14:12:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dodgegarage.com\/news-api\/?p=60318"},"modified":"2024-03-25T11:20:41","modified_gmt":"2024-03-25T15:20:41","slug":"drag-paks-reach-new-heights-at-the-nhra-gatornationals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/racing\/2022\/03\/drag-paks-reach-new-heights-at-the-nhra-gatornationals.html","title":{"rendered":"Drag Paks Reach New Heights At The NHRA Gatornationals!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

After two days of a relentless monsoon that turned the Gainesville Raceway into a mosh pit, mother nature finally relented with sunny skies and brisk temperatures hovering over the track. The historic NHRA Gatornationals<\/a> has been a racer and fan favorite for over five decades and despite being compressed from a four-day race down to a two-day event, it still dazzled spectators. For the many Sportsman racers, including the competitors in the Constant Aviation NHRA Factory Stock Showdown Series<\/a> (FSS), Saturday and Sunday\u2019s cold temps and great track conditions provided record-setting performance that they probably won\u2019t see for the rest of the season. This was the race of the season for FSS class, and the competitors were chomping at the bit to make some passes, dial their cars in, and go rounds. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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DSR Drag Pak driver Mark Pawuk took advantage of the stellar conditions as his 2021 Challenger Drag Pak<\/a> blazed Gainesville Raceway with record-setting run of 7.608 at 183.15 mph to take the number one qualifying spot in the 16-car field. Tuned by A.J. Berge and Kevin Helms, Pawuk\u2019s supercharged HEMI\u00ae<\/sup>-powered Drag Pak threw down the gauntlet among the other racers and sent shock waves through pits. \u201cWhat a great way to kick-off the 2022 season,\u201d said Pawuk, whose career-best finish was third in 2020. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cWe worked really hard this\nwinter to get everything ready to put together a solid campaign, and it paid\noff. A.J. Berge, Kevin Helms, and the guys have been hard at work testing and\ntrying new components. I was blown away by how fast we ran on Saturday,\u201d noted\nMark. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Another Drag Pak racer who also went fast was Warren Walcher, as his 7.669-pass earned him the No. 3 starting position, while other Challenger Drag Pak competitors David Davies, Dennis Chaisson<\/a>, and Alan Scruggs all made it into the tough FSS field. When the competition heard the roar of the HEMI\u2019s rolling into the staging lanes for eliminations, they knew it was time for battle. \u201cGreat first weekend running Factory Stock Showdown and the competitors know we\u2019re for real. All though we had mechanical issues after winning round two at the Gatornationals, they will get fixed and I\u2019m really looking forward to competing at my first NMCA event next weekend,\u201d said Walcher. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Scruggs, Davies, and Chaisson had their share of issues and didn\u2019t make it past round one but based on the performance of their Drag Paks, they were quite pleased on how their cars performed. \u201cIt was an interesting weekend once we waited out the rain and got out of the bog pit our trailer was in,\u201d laughed Chaisson. \u201cWe were a bit nervous as our two Friday qualifying sessions were washed out so that only left us with one session on Saturday as we hadn\u2019t had my Drag Pak down the track since last October. We had no prior test sessions, so we had no idea how well the car was going run. We took it easy on our one and only qualifying session at the Gatornationals and made the field. During eliminations, I had a great reaction time on my opponent, but stood the car way up once it launched. It carried the frontend 150-feet down the track. It started to get close to the centerline on the track, so I had to lift and therefore, lost the race. But it was a heck of a ride!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Dave Davies first round\nexploits were not as dramatic as Chaisson\u2019s, but the sting of a first-round\nloss hurts just the same. Davies BILSTEIN-backed Challenger Drag Pak couldn\u2019t\ncatch the competitor in the next lane despite Davie\u2019s HEMI-powered machine running\nalmost 182 mph to his opponents 178 mph. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cThe weekend went well. The team had the Drag Paks ready to rock, we had all the power we needed, I just didn\u2019t execute well as a driver. But we\u2019ll keep moving forward and be the NMCA<\/a> event next weekend in Bradenton and use this race to test more parts before heading to NHRA 4-Wide Nationals<\/a> in North Carolina later next month,\u201d said Davies. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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With the NHRA Gatornationals in the rearview mirror, the Drag Paks will head south down I-75 to Bradenton Motorsports for the NMCA season opener<\/a>. Here they\u2019ll once again do battle with the Cobra Jet Mustangs and COPO Camaros in the NMCA Holley EFI Super Car class. With the usual great track prep, we\u2019re sure the Drag Pak drivers will once again reach new heights!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meantime, here\u2019s some cool shots of the Drag Paks in action and behind the scenes from the NHRA Gatornationals. <\/p>\n\n\n\n