With a short field this weekend in Pro Mod, the pressure is off many of the teams as they try to focus on moving up the ladder and getting ready for Sunday instead of worrying about possibly missing the race.

And that is exactly what Pro Mod rookie Melanie Troxel needs in her first full season behind the wheel of a supercharged monster that is IHRA Pro Mod.

“We are still trying to sort this car out. This car sat in the shop for a year and wasn’t running at all this year,” Troxel said. “Everybody is going to qualify so there is no reason to go out and push things too extreme and that is kind of nice. We get four runs to go out and play around and really make some big changes to the car and not feel under pressure.”

With a short field this weekend in Pro Mod, the pressure is off many of the teams as they try to focus on moving up the ladder and getting ready for Sunday instead of worrying about possibly missing the race.

And that is exactly what Pro Mod rookie Melanie Troxel needs in her first full season behind the wheel of a supercharged monster that is IHRA Pro Mod.

“We are still trying to sort this car out. This car sat in the shop for a year and wasn’t running at all this year,” Troxel said. “Everybody is going to qualify so there is no reason to go out and push things too extreme and that is kind of nice. We get four runs to go out and play around and really make some big changes to the car and not feel under pressure.”

While pressure is nothing new to Melanie, a five time winner with the NHRA in both Top Fuel and Nitro Funny Car, she admits that the adjustment to he short wheelbase of the Pro Mods and drastic differences in finessing these cars down the track has definitely been a learning experience.

“It is quite different. The setup is different than the other cars,” Troxel said. “It tends to want to get out of shape when we get aggressive. It is going to take some time learning these things.

“We have had a hard time getting this car to get through the 1-2 shift and to be under control. It wants to spin the tires which is what we did in our first pass. We made some pretty big changes to the setup of the car on the second pass to make it more like our other cars and it didn’t really accomplish what we had hoped either.

“We aren’t getting down the track just yet, but this has worked out like a test session for us so we will get this car sorted out.”

Troxel and crew chief Al Billes took advantage of the short field and guaranteed qualifying position to get additional experience and run information from her '63 "Voodoo" Corvette. Troxel ended the day qualified in the top half of the field at No. 5 on the strength of her third attempt of the weekend, a 6.130 at 238.89 mph.
 

Advertisement