LIKE RIDING A BIKE
Dave Connolly ’ s last race as a driver in Pro Stock competition was Brainerd 2018 when he made a brief appearance with Gray Motorsports to help fill the light fields at the time . His last full-time season was 2014 . Pro Stock fans were intrigued to see the Elyria , Ohio , native turned Bradenton , Florida , resident on the entry list for the PRO Superstar Shootout when it was announced last August .
The one-race deal came together when KB Titan Racing ’ s Greg Anderson and Matt Hartford offered him the driver ’ s seat of Hartford ’ s brand-new GETTRX / Total Seal / Rob ’ s Towing Camaro with KB Titan providing the engines . Connolly , who has served as a KB Titan crew chief for the last handful of seasons , jumped at the opportunity and worked with his fellow crew chiefs to make sure the KB Titan fleet was covered while he added driving duties to his race day routine .
“ It was a little tight on Rob [ Downing ] and Nate [ Van Wassenhove ] trying to run all the other cars without me on the starting line , but other than that , it was all a go ,” Connolly said . “ Matt got the new car I think a week and a half before the race . It was brand , brand-new . It was a one-time deal , just to get some laps on his car , and especially with NHRA changing the rules , we had to do a lot of different testing with our engine combination and manifold combination . It was a win-win for both parties .”
Connolly , who ’ s lived in Bradenton for the most part since 2002 , was motivated to do well in front of his home crowd , including his young children , who were born after his Pro Stock driving days . The new car blues were a real thing , though , as Connolly went into the final qualifying session at the bottom of the qualifying order . He put together a 6.546 at 208.71 to move up to the No . 12 spot .
“ Going into Q4 , all I wanted to get was a chip ,” Connolly said . “ It ’ s a home race and had a bunch of friends coming out and family in town to watch it and we weren ’ t even qualified . We finally got all the bugs worked out enough to get in the show . And then from there , the chip draw was definitely not a friend of ours .”
Connolly isn ’ t exaggerating . For the first round , he drew his teammate and No . 2 qualifier Dallas Glenn . A close race was expected from
the two bracket racers , but Glenn went red by . 008 seconds , throwing away the quickest pass of the first two rounds , a 6.559 , while Connolly moved on with a 6.575 at 209.59 .
“ I know he had the car to beat ,” Connolly said , “ and working on that thing side-by-side with Rob and Nate , it was good for us to go out there and run fast with his car because again , we ’ ve experienced a lot of rule changes from NHRA this year . At least we know we can go out there and run fast and compete . That was one positive note for Dallas ’ s ending .”
In the chip draw for the second round ’ s pairings , Connolly ended up drawing Hartford , his teammate and car owner . Hartford insisted they race heads-up , no team orders . Both drivers were clearly ready for a race , with Connolly ’ s . 025 light just barely edging out Hartford ’ s . 027 . It got ugly from there , as they both had traction issues and got into a pedalfest situation . Connolly recovered quicker to move on to the semifinals , where he used a 6.602 at 208.49 to defeat Chris McGaha and his 7.065 .
Connolly met up with former teammate Erica Enders in the final round . Connolly left the line just nine thousandths behind Enders and finished second with a 6.577 to Enders ’ 6.531 . The final didn ’ t go his way , but Connolly cherished the opportunity to get back in the seat and remind everyone that he ’ s still just as talented inside the car as he is standing behind it .
“ I think with a little more seat time , and if we ’ d had a few more laps on that car and got the balance of it a little bit better , we would ’ ve given [ Enders ] a lot better race in the final ,” Connolly said . “ I ’ m very grateful and thankful to KB Titan , Matt Hartford , Total Seal , and GETTRX for putting up the money and giving me the opportunity to go out there and do this again . You forget how much fun those cars are until you get in there .” DI
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