Special Section
IF KEVIN RIVENBARK’S PERFORMANCE AT THE U.S. STREET NATIONALS IN BRADENTON, FLORIDA, WAS AN INDICATION
OF WHAT’S TO COME, 2019 JUST MIGHT BE THE YEAR OF THE PROCHARGER IN MOROSO PRO BOOST. DRIVING THE PRO
LINE-POWERED GALOT MOTORSPORTS ’69 CAMARO, RIVENBARK RECORDED THE QUICKEST AND FASTEST EIGHTH-MILE
PASS FOR A PROCHARGER-BOOSTED CAR WITH A 3.613-SECOND BURST AT 207.37 MPH ON A SECOND-ROUND SINGLE.
Rivenbark and the Steve Petty-led
team started testing on Tuesday
before the race with weeklong inten-
tions of running in the mid-3.6-sec-
ond range. The M&M Transmission-
equipped car was previously driven
by Pro Line Racing Engines co-found-
er Eric Dillard at an event at Texas
Motorplex last November, with a best
of 3.67 out of a string of 3.6-second
passes. That track record gave Riven-
bark and company confidence, but
their subsequent 3.6-second runs
weren’t exactly effortless.
“The guys worked their butts off in
testing,” Rivenbark said. “We changed
four-link, shocks, everything to try
to get the car working the way they
wanted it to. Finally, on Friday it came
together. We were trying for a .65 or
.66 and ended up with a .61 (Saturday
night). You can’t argue with that.”
42 PDRA660.com
Before the record 3.61, Rivenbark
fired off a series of strong passes:
3.704 at 204.22 and 3.643 at 207.08
in qualifying to lead the 26-car field,
then a 3.637 at 206.75 in the
opening round of eliminations over
Tony Wilson.
“We went down every pass since
qualifying started,” Rivenbark
pointed out. “To me that was the
most important thing. Guys were
having issues – and we were having
issues earlier in the week – but when
we started Q1 we went down the
track every time. We knew it was
fast, but knowing it would go down
every pass was the biggest confi-
dence boost for me.”
The race was called off late Satur-
day night and all remaining drivers
after the second round split the
purse, preventing Rivenbark and
the Pro Line gang – Petty, Dillard,
Kyle Pettis, Chris Foster, Brandon
Stroud and Bud Hodge – from con-
tinuing to chip away at the Pro-
Charger’s best numbers.
The U.S. Street Nationals was
merely a warm-up for a full season
on tap for Rivenbark. The 2016 PDRA
Pro Boost world champion plans to
run the eight-race PDRA schedule
and GALOT Motorsports Park’s Mad
Mule Shootouts. Rivenbark’s team-
mate, John Strickland, who won the
three 2016 Pro Boost events that
Rivenbark didn’t win, will also run
a similar schedule.
After Bradenton, Rivenbark re-
turned the car to Pro Line’s Ball
Ground, Georgia, facility for a small-
tire makeover to take on Radial vs.
the World competition at Donald
“Duck” Long’s Lights Out 10 at
South Georgia Motorsports Park in
mid-February. Strickland’s ’69
Camaro is just down the road at RK
Racecraft, where the previously
roots-blown Pro Boost entry is
being converted to fit a ProCharged
Pro Line Hemi setup.
With the pair of ProCharger-boosted
entries, Rivenbark believes the GALOT
team will be back to top 3 status in
Pro Boost. Plus, he feels the combina-
tion of a ProCharger with FuelTech
EFI is more manageable than the
previous roots-blown MFI setup in
terms of cost and maintenance.
“As far as the cost standpoint, I think
it is a better suited thing for the
future,” Rivenbark said. “The (roots)
blower motors have gotten crazy with