This transition usually goes the opposite direction.

Dave Connolly, a championship-contending Pro Stock driver from 2004-2008, returned to his bracket racing roots the past two seasons, but it wasn’t an easy switch, at least initially.

“Racing in the Sportsman class can be a little tough to take after racing Pro Stock,” the 27-year-old Connolly said. “I found myself going out there and kind of going through the motions last year. I really didn’t do that well in the Sportsman ranks and I kind of got on myself a little bit. I thought if I’m going to keep racing, I have to take this seriously. Those guys in the bracket racing and Sportsman racing they’ve just got tougher and tougher and the cars have got better and better.”

This transition usually goes the opposite direction.

Dave Connolly, a championship-contending Pro Stock driver from 2004-2008, returned to his bracket racing roots the past two seasons, but it wasn’t an easy switch, at least initially.

“Racing in the Sportsman class can be a little tough to take after racing Pro Stock,” the 27-year-old Connolly said. “I found myself going out there and kind of going through the motions last year. I really didn’t do that well in the Sportsman ranks and I kind of got on myself a little bit. I thought if I’m going to keep racing, I have to take this seriously. Those guys in the bracket racing and Sportsman racing they’ve just got tougher and tougher and the cars have got better and better.”

In 2009, Connolly was racing in Super Comp and Super Gas. This season, Connolly is piloting his own dragster, which is a 2008 American car.

“This is actually the longest I’ve had a car,” Connolly said. “I bought and sold them there for a while. I’m also running a buddy of mine, Ron Erks’ Super Gas car. It’s a 1963 Corvette Roadster.”

Most recently, Connolly won the Top Dragster event title at the inaugural NHRA Four-Wide Nationals in Charlotte, NC.

“It’s a lot of fun to go back and race dragsters,” Connolly said. “That’s kind of what I grew up racing. I was 15 and I jumped in a dragster before I even jumped in a street car. With the NHRA running some of the top Sportsman and Top Dragsters now at national events, it has really sparked interest in these classes. At the Four-Wide, with help from Richard Maskin and Dart, we used more or less an R&D motor with some of the products and parts that he sells. He proved to himself and his customers that he has a good product.”

Maskin has enjoyed great success both on the quarter-mile and in the aftermarket industry. Maskin was a Sportsman driver in the 1960s before moving up to the Pro Stock ranks in the 1970s. He runs the renowned Dart Heads operation, which makes aftermarket blocks, heads, and intake manifolds.

As a engine builder and crew chief, Maskin has been instrumental in the success of Pro Stock racers like Mark Pawuk, Jim Yates, Jeg Coughlin and Rickie Smith.

“Richard is no stranger to Pro Stock and he and I have always kind of had a good relationship,” Connolly said. “One of his top priorities, since he has been kind of out of the Pro Stock game lately, is getting with the Sportsman racers. In today’s world with some of the demands for these big cubic-inch motors and stuff like that, it’s definitely stuff he interested in. He has a great product and he produces all that stuff in-house. It’s nothing for him to go in there and develop whatever a Sportsman racer may need.”

The biggest adjustment Connolly had to make in his return to Sportsman/bracket racing came at the starting line.

“In Pro Stock, if you’re 20 or 30 on the tree, you look like a hero,” Connolly said. “If you’re 20 and 30 on the tree in a Sportsman class, you’re a dead duck. It has definitely been a wake-up call and it has brought me back to try and sharpen up my skills a little bit and hopefully I can apply those skills if I ever get back in a Pro Stock car again.”

Connolly is also mapping out a Top Dragster and Super Gas schedule for himself this season.

“Top Dragster is a class they only run at selected national events, so I will probably continue to run Top Dragster at some of the national and divisional races,” said Connolly, who recently moved back to his hometown of Elyria, Ohio from Bradenton, Fla. “When it comes to division racing, I’m probably the most screwed up racer there is. I’m running Division 2 in Super Gas and Division 3 in Top Dragster.”

Back in 2002, Connolly won a NHRA Division 3 Super Gas championship.

Connolly, however, admitted he would love to be competing in Pro Stock again. In 2009, Connolly ran a couple of NHRA Pro Stock races, but his last full season in that category was in 2008 when he came in sixth in the final points standings.

Connolly has won 21 Pro Stock national event races in his career and was a career-best third in the Pro Stock points chase in 2004, 2006 and 2007.

“We’re still out there searching for funding for the Pro Stock team,” Connolly said. “We still have got all the team members and cars and pieces and parts in place. If we can get the proper funding, that’s definitely the class where I want to be.”

In addition to his present racing slate, Connolly also is trying his hand at promoting racing.

Connolly, along with fellow well-known Sportsman racers, Jeff and Don Strickland are hosting the inaugural Thunder Valley Bracket Challenge May 27-30 at Bristol (Tenn.) Dragway. The top bracket racers from across the country will do battle for a guaranteed weekend purse in excess of $300,000.

“That definitely been a lot of work the last three or four months, helping put this race together, but I think it will pay off,” Connolly said. “We have a lot of ideas how to make a racer-friendly race and a fun atmosphere and we’re going to try this different venture and see how it works out for us.”