After promising start, Pruett throttled by faulty throttle in Bristol

Leah Pruett and her ProCare Rx Pro Mod team had their swagger back at Bristol Dragway for the 12th annual running of the Ford NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals, but a rare parts failure ended her weekend much sooner than expected.

Pruett qualified No. 8 with a pass of 6.005 seconds at 251.02 mph in her turbocharged Ford Mustang before falling in the first round with a broken throttle body.

"It's disappointing, for sure," Pruett said. "I was really working on my lights, cutting some .040s, and I felt like I was back in the game. I don't know, the stars aren't quite lining up like we'd like them to. We definitely need to take a more focused look on our inventory and make sure everything we have is completely spot-on and ready to go in the car. The guys do that already, but it was a five-minute fix that caused the problem.

"That happens to everybody, and it happened to us. But I have no doubt that both Roger (Burgess, team owner/driver) and my cars will be in top shape, and we'll be ready to take on everybody in Norwalk."

R2B2 Racing teammate Burgess qualified No. 11 before falling in a close matchup with Mike Castellana in the first round. Castellana went 6.009 at 239.02 mph to beat Burgess' 6.078 at 247.88 mph.

Pruett, meanwhile, came to Bristol off a No. 2 qualifier in Englishtown, hoping to continue the solid performance.

"We had some good momentum coming into this weekend," Pruett said. "We had some good juju and positive attitudes. The car was running well."

Pruett made her best qualifying pass in the heat of the day in Saturday's Q3.

"It definitely ran a good number in Q3 in the heat, and then we had some parts failure during that run," Pruett said. "The guys went into a thrash and got it ready for E1."

As they were about to head out for the first round of eliminations, the crew found a problem atop the engine.

"We found out right at the very last minute that the throttle body was broke, and that's why we were having idle problems," Pruett said. "We switched that out and were real late to the line, but we thought everything was ready to go."

The engine, however, wasn't running well.

"The car barely turns over and runs, and I'm doing everything I can to keep it alive with the throttle just to maintain the throttle," Pruett said. "From there on out, it just went downhill real fast. With the throttle body breaking, it starting closing all on its own, no matter how much throttle I gave it.

"I'm spooled up with the throttle all the way to the floor, but when I left, it was only at 30 percent compared to 100 percent, which is what we needed."

The balky throttle body caused Pruett to leave with a .310-second reaction time, but Lang smoke the tires down the track.

"I left, and it just fell on its face," Pruett said. "I didn't know what happened. Then I saw Knowles smoking the tires, and I think, 'Oh, we're going to get him. This turbocharged car is going to hunt it down.' Then it was like someone just tied a ton of bricks to the back of the car, and it just stopped. I couldn't even get it into third gear.

"By the time I got to half-track, the throttle just completely shut on its own, even though I've got it mashed to the floor."

With that, her day was done.

Pruett and the ProCare Rx team race next in the Summit Racing Equipment Nationals at Summit Motorsports Park in Norwalk, Ohio on July 6-8.

One year in, Pruett an established contender in Pro Mod series

 It's been a year since rising Pro Mod star Leah Pruett first pulled on a helmet in NHRA competition at the Toyota NHRA SuperNationals, which returns to Old Bridge Township Raceway Park this weekend for the 43rd time.

And what a year it's been.

Although she's contested just eight national events in the NHRA Pro Mod Series presented by ProCare Rx, Pruett has proven herself to be one of the top contenders in the class. She's won two times in three final-round appearances and has an impressive 16-5 race day record. In a sport where anything better than a .500 winning percentage is considered good, Pruett is off to an extremely successful start.

This year, Pruett is No. 4 in the rankings after the first three races with a runner-up and semifinal finish to her credit. Yet her inner drive tells her there's room to improve.

"I haven't been 100-percent happy with my driving this season so we took the five weeks off between the last race and Englishtown and went testing at Commerce (Ga.), which is just up the highway from the shop," Pruett said. "It was a great session and I really feel like I'm back on my game.

"The guys switched some things around in the cockpit and I was super consistent on the Tree. That really pumps me up. We worked on some things with the car as well so I feel like we're as prepared as we can be heading into this event."

Last year's Pro Mod assault on Old Bridge Township Raceway Park was a record-breaking one, with top qualifier Melanie Troxel, Pruett's former teammate, posting a double-world-record pass of 5.772 at 258.71 mph with basically the same equipment Pruett is using now. However, Pruett said fans shouldn't expect the same display of unbridled horsepower this time through.

"That was 125 pounds ago," she said, referring to the extra weight NHRA officials added to turbocharged entries since last year's Supernationals. "It's still one of the quickest tracks we race at and if the weather is cool like it was last year, we can go really fast, but I don't think we'll be close to the records.

"The main thing is to keep our ProCare Rx Mustang at the top of the charts every round. We have a lot of ProCare Rx employees and clients coming out and we want to show off for them. I love when our pits are full of people and we're all having fun. The best way to do that is to run well, so that's what we plan to do."

Current plans call for team owner Roger Burgess to drive the other ProCare Rx entry at this event. Burgess has missed the last two races due to other commitments. Crew chief Brad Brand filled in for Burgess and recorded a semifinal and a quarterfinal finish.

Pruett, Burgess and the rest of the Pro Mod competitors will be signing autographs and meeting with fans at 1 p.m. Friday and 11 a.m. Saturday in front of the Pro Mod Series souvenir trailer on the Merchandise Midway.

Pro Mod qualifying begins with two sessions at 3:15 and 5:30 p.m. Friday, followed by a final qualifying round at 1:45 p.m. Saturday. The first round of eliminations is scheduled for 4:15 p.m. Saturday and will resume with the quarterfinals at 12:15 p.m. Sunday.