Drag Illustrated Issue 149, October 2019 | Page 34

Special Section
KRIS THORNE HAD REALISTIC EXPECTATIONS FOR HIS ROOKIE SEASON IN MOROSO PRO BOOST
COMPETITION, BUT A REASONABLY HIGH LEVEL OF SUCCESS COULD BE EXPECTED WHEN ONE CON-
SIDERS THE PEOPLE AND COMPONENTS INVOLVED WITH THORNE’S PROGRAM. LED BY TUNER MIKEY
REES AND CAR CHIEF KYLE PETTIS, THORNE IS A SERIOUS CHAMPIONSHIP CONTENDER LESS THAN
ONE ROUND OUT OF THE POINTS LEAD WITH TWO RACES LEFT IN THE SEASON AS OF PRINT TIME.
“I would definitely say we’ve had a
better year than we expected,”
Thorne, 31, says. “We kind of threw
the team together overnight and
started with nothing. I feel we’ve
had a pretty strong year.”
Thorne came to the PDRA’s quickest
and fastest class after a steady pro-
gression through the Florida drag
racing scene. He started out bracket
racing at Orlando Speed World
Dragway, first racing a Camaro previ-
34 PDRA660.com
ously owned and raced by his step-
mother, then moving into an older
Top Sportsman car. The inevitable
desire to go faster set in and Thorne
jumped up to outlaw Pro Mod,
running a big-inch nitrous car at
Orlando, Bradenton and other
Florida tracks.
The Orlando-area native’s foray into
Pro Boost began late last season
when Thorne connected with Pro
Line Racing. He purchased Troy
Coughlin’s NHRA Pro Mod champi-
onship-winning C7 Corvette as a
roller and had Pro Line install a Preci-
sion twin-turbocharged 520ci Hemi
with FuelTech’s FT600 EFI System
and a FTSPARK Ignition System. ably two years before we went that
route. And we just kind of noticed
how Pro Line runs their business and
treats their customers. And their
stuff holds up really well. So that led
us in the direction we took.”
“We had the nitrous stuff and it’s a
little tougher to run – and a whole
lot harder on parts,” Thorne says as
he explains his decision to go with
a turbocharged combination. “We’d
been looking at turbo stuff for prob- After a brief appearance at the 2018
PDRA Drag Wars at GALOT Motors-
ports Park last fall, Thorne jumped
into the 2019 Pro Boost season with
both feet. He qualified No. 5 at the
season-opening East Coast Nationals