Running a quick run in pre-season testing means is strikingly similar to a baseball player hitting a homerun in batting practice. However, when the hit encompasses 750-feet, everyone tends to notice.

 

Robert Patrick’s testing run during the Eastern Spring Test Nationals in Valdosta, Ga., was the drag racing equivalent. The Fredericksburg, Va-based driver nailed his 1320-foot homerun with the quickest naturally aspirated run in drag racing history with a 6.266 elapsed time at 223.84 miles per hour.

 

True, Patrick’s run was in unbelievable and highly unlikely atmospheric conditions than he’ll face during this weekend’s IHRA Texas Nationals in San Antonio, Texas, but that’s okay  -- the champion admitted he left a few hundredths on the table.

 

The competition might argue Patrick’s run was a quarter-mile run but he’s got that base covered as well. He carded a 4.062 elapsed time to the eighth-mile mark to eclipse his previously established record by .04 of a second.

 

Patrick hasn’t been reading his press releases and he’s very much aware testing and competition are two different scenarios.

 

“That stuff is great if you like to see your name floating around the internet, but the only thing that matters is what you do at the national events,” Patrick said. “What that run taught us is that we have traveled in the right direction with our off-season program and I’m excited about that.

 

“It doesn’t matter if you run a five-second run in testing, when you line up for your first run in qualifying – your score resets to zero and everyone is on the same level. We’ll wait until everything is said and done to get excited.”

 

Patrick’s level of excitement might be tempered somewhat even when a celebratory moment arrives. Credit this change in temperament to the addition of Mike Bell to the team as an assistant alongside of longstanding tuner Rich Purdy.

 

“Mike has been there many times and we brought him in last year to help us at the last race,” Patrick said. “Mike has a calming affect on me and I can’t begin to tell you how exciting it is to have him here. He’s been at the top of the championship ladder and can relate to everything we’ve experienced on this team.”

 

Patrick isn’t so naïve to believe the No. 1 on the window will make the competition cower down.

 

“You had better believe they’re coming at me with the guns blazing,” Patrick pointed out. “Every year is a tough fight in this class, and we prepare accordingly. We’ll be ready for the challenge.”