He didn't come out on top in the inaugural NHRA Get Screened America Pro Mod Challenge world championship title chase, but 33-year-old Brad Personett was a standout in the series nonetheless.

Driving the turbo-powered Big Stuff Precision Turbo '68 Camaro for Personett Performance, the former Sport Compact ace scored two victories – the first at the prestigious Mac Tools U.S. Nationals in Indianapolis, where he also reset the national record for speed to a breathtaking 255.39 mph, and the second at the season-closer at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, where he stopped No. 1 qualifier Melanie Troxel in the final.

"Winning Indy was great, of course," said Personett, for whom the victory was a career first in the series sweetened by the fact that it came at his home track in front of a multitude of family and friends.

"Winning the Vegas race capped everything off at the end of the year, though," he continued. "We fine-tuned and tweaked the combination, got to the point where we had some spare parts, and I got my feet back underneath me after playing catch-up all year long. In Vegas, things finally started clicking."

 

Brad Personett wielded the whip over the tricky combination and looks for more in 2011

He didn't come out on top in the inaugural NHRA Get Screened America Pro Mod Challenge world championship title chase, but 33-year-old Brad Personett was a standout in the series nonetheless.

Driving the turbo-powered Big Stuff Precision Turbo '68 Camaro for Personett Performance, the former Sport Compact ace scored two victories – the first at the prestigious Mac Tools U.S. Nationals in Indianapolis, where he also reset the national record for speed to a breathtaking 255.39 mph, and the second at the season-closer at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, where he stopped No. 1 qualifier Melanie Troxel in the final.

"Winning Indy was great, of course," said Personett, for whom the victory was a career first in the series sweetened by the fact that it came at his home track in front of a multitude of family and friends.

"Winning the Vegas race capped everything off at the end of the year, though," he continued. "We fine-tuned and tweaked the combination, got to the point where we had some spare parts, and I got my feet back underneath me after playing catch-up all year long. In Vegas, things finally started clicking."

Personett's program took a hit early in the season after he crashed during testing in Tulsa, Okla., and had to miss the Houston event, the second in the series, but the small team worked overtime and rebounded quickly. They consistently displayed the speed and power of their unique turbo-charged combination with a series of top speed honors and a runner-up at the event in Norwalk prior to triumph at The Big Go.

While Pro Mod racers typically run either the nitrous-injected or supercharged combinations, Personett opted to stick with the turbo-charged combination that he had success with in his Sport Compact days. A three-time NHRA Pro RWD world champion, Personett holds the record for most career wins in the NHRA Sport Compact series.

"It's been what I've known for so many years," said Personett, now entering his seventh year of turbo-charged competition. "It's just been our thing. But when I got into the Pro Mod deal, the challenge was being the lone wolf out there. We were a low budget team trying to do it on our own with no one to go to and bounce ideas off of."

The former baseball player from Elkhart, Ind., had the support of Precision Turbo & Engine's Harry Hruska, who acted as crew chief, along with Personett's father, Mike, as they built upon their program and aimed to tame the turbo, making mistakes, hitting bumps in the road, but learning from them all the while.

"Over the last couple of years, we were the first to do anything and everything wrong. Now people are coming out and asking us for help," said Personett. "We can definitely tell them what not to do, and let them learn from our mistakes."

When word got out that Hruska and Personett would be parting ways at the end of the 2010 season, there was concern Personett Performance would be greatly affected. The future looked uncertain, and R2B2 Racing owner Roger Burgess, also a fellow competitor in the Get Screened America Pro Mod Drag Racing Series, approached Personett in Charlotte.

"Roger asked me what the deal was," said Personett. "I laid it on him, where I was, how things were. He said that no matter what he would make sure I was out there, and at the end of the season, he was the first one to say, 'Hey, can you come meet with me?' He gave me an opportunity that I would have been foolish to turn down."

Personett's powerful program attracted more than one individual, and he was approached by a couple of others proposing two-car teams, but the commitment was in place to settle in beneath the R2B2 Racing Pro Care Rx umbrella as the driver of his own entry and the tuner of the team's hemi-powered turbo Pro Mod cars. According to Burgess, Personett will also be instrumental in the development of a new chassis designed with the turbo-charged combination in mind. Personett will be leaving his home in Northern Indiana at the first of the year and relocating to the Duluth, Ga., area (where the R2B2 Racing shop is) to get started on the big season ahead.

"Yes, the workload will increase for me, but at the same time, I will have the help of a crew, and a good one at that," said Personett. "My dad will come with me and help out where he can, in addition to the full-time guys Roger already has. We're going to put a second turbo-car out there. Whether Roger wants to drive it or his blown car, we don’t know. But we'll have one ready to go."

"I'd love to be able to start off next season just like we ended this one. Now, rather than just lock and reload, we're going to put another one together and add fuel to the fire. It'll be tough, but what would it be like to not have any challenges? My main focus right now is to come out swinging and bring a championship to this team next year. I want to do it for all the sponsors that have helped me along the way, because they've helped me get to where I am now. Every sticker I have plastered on my car, there is a story behind it. I wouldn't be here without all of them."

Personett will be adding Red Line Oil to the list of thank-yous when he scores his next victory as they have recently re-signed with R2B2 Racing and will be bannered as a sponsor on each of the team's entries.

 

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