PHOTOS : CHRIS SEARS , NHRA / NATIONAL DRAGSTER |
With a driving resume that includes shifter karts , Legends cars , and supercharged pulling trucks , Pro Stock driver Alex Laughlin is clearly an adrenaline-driven gearhead of the highest order . So it should have been no surprise to anyone when the Texan bolstered his 24-race Pro Stock schedule with a couple races in a nitro-injected A / Fuel dragster at the tail end of the 2016 season . Top Alcohol Dragster is the next step in Laughlin ’ s evolution as a professional drag racer . “ It was definitely an eye-opening experience ,” said Laughlin of his first time driving Anthony Dicero ’ s 270-mph dragster . “ Even running my Top Dragster at 200 mph seems a lot faster than what 200 mph feels like in the Pro Stock car . In the door car you ’ re looking out so far ahead of you that you don ’ t realize how fast you ’ re going . In the A / Fuel car , you definitely realize that you ’ re flying . The speed and acceleration is incredible . My hand actually floated back and smacked me on the face when I went to reach for the parachute lever on my first full run .”
Laughlin ’ s Gas Monkey Energy dragster suffered a DNQ at Dallas and a first-round loss at Las Vegas , but he ’ s learned first-hand that success
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doesn ’ t come immediately in drag racing . He has a new A / Fuel car being built at Morgan Lucas Racing ’ s chassis shop , and he ’ s enlisted Dicero and crew to help him field the car at all 16 of the 2017 national events where the Top Alcohol classes are contested – on top of the full Pro Stock schedule .
If Laughlin ’ s first full season in Top Alcohol
Dragster is anything like his first full season in Pro Stock , he ’ s in for a fruitful 2017 campaign . Driving his Gray Motorsports-powered Gas Monkey Energy Camaro , Laughlin qualified number one for the first time and won his first national event to finish 11th in the NHRA Mello Yello Series Pro
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Stock points , the highest non-Countdown driver .
“ We started off the season without a single round win from last year . One thing led to another . First I wanted to win a round , then I wanted to win another one . After going rounds at a majority of the races and winning an event , now I just absolutely hate losing . At the end of the day I ’ m just super thankful to be in the position I ’ m in .”
As he ’ s stated in the past , Laughlin also has the desire to make the move up to Top Fuel , with A / Fuel serving as a stepping stone as it has for numerous current Top Fuel stars . However , Laughlin doesn ’ t want to move up and out of Pro Stock – he wants to run both .
“ We don ’ t have any direct plans for Top Fuel at the moment , but I think it would be cool to run a race or two in Top Fuel next year . My ultimate goal for 2017 is to reach out to NHRA and convince them to lift the rule that limits drivers to only compete in one pro class at an event . I ’ d like to run Top Fuel and Pro Stock at one event . They wrote that rule when Pro Stock Truck was a class , and Pro Stock Car guys were jumping over and dominating the truck class . Now that we don ’ t have a Pro Stock Truck class , it ’ s a rule that doesn ’ t really make sense , especially since car counts are down .” – NATE VAN WAGNEN DI
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November 2016 |
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