JIMMY PROCK: NO ONE IS OWED ANYTHING

J_ProckJimmy Prock is a man of few words and when the AAA Ford Mustang driven by Robert Hight struggled, those words were even fewer.

Together Prock and Hight have shelved the frustrations of two-thirds of the 2009 season, for an incredible six race run which could land the duo their first career world championship next weekend in Pomona, Ca.

Prock, who has tuned Hight to multiple championship runner-ups, believed that he and the team could work through their earlier shortcomings and when the championship was on the line could deliver a potent package.

Jimmy Prock is a man of few words and when the AAA Ford Mustang driven by Robert Hight struggled, those words were even fewer.
fr06_nhra_CW2_jProck
Together Prock and Hight have shelved the frustrations of two-thirds of the 2009 season, for an incredible six race run which could land the duo their first career world championship next weekend in Pomona, Ca.

Prock, who has tuned Hight to multiple championship runner-ups, believed that he and the team could work through their earlier shortcomings and when the championship was on the line could deliver a potent package.

“It is an awesome turnaround, but we felt like we had a good car near the end before the Countdown,” Prock said. “We were getting the car to come around, and we just felt like we had to get in, and we thought that if we got in and won races, you could come from way back and we’ve managed to do that so far. We struggled a lot, but the thing about all of my guys, all of the guys that work on this car, they never gave up, they always thought we could turn it around and fortunately we’ve done that.”

There was a point in time that the team appeared to be mired in quick-sand. The harder they tried and the more combinations they tried, the more they sunk lower and lower.

“It was slowly coming back, but we made a big change back before we went to Brainerd and we actually ended up DQ-ing there,” Prock explained. We went to Indy and tested, and we changed some stuff, and we have an intake manifold that we built ourselves over at John Force Racing that Ashley and John were running, and that was really the biggest change we made.”

In the end, it was the Ashley Force Hood team that put them on the right track. Ironically the Force Hood team represents their closest competition for the 2009 Full Throttle Championship point lead.

“We copied Ashley’s engine combination and that really helped turned things around, because the engine ran better, and it ran more consistently, and you were just able to focus on the clutch part and tuning the rest of it,” Prock added.

Next weekend will likely present a scenario where the Countdown to 1 program, the championship format which has worked against Prock and Hight each season, will repay them with a championship.

Despite the fact this format has worked against them in years past, Prock doesn’t believe he should be granted any special favors, even a championship which has been elusive over the years.

“I don’t feel I’m owed one,” Prock said. “Nobody is owed anything in this, you have to earn it, and you need to be just fortunate. Did I ever think that maybe we would never win a championship? Maybe not, but I didn’t believe that. You just come here and give it your best shot. As long as we give it our best we have to live with those results.”

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