WOMEN OF POWER • 2025 AMBER DENTON
Amber and her husband, Blake, grew up racing Jr. Dragsters together and bonded over their mutual love for the sport. They’ ve since climbed the ladder together, with Blake now competing in PDRA Pro Street.
car, allowing Franklin to focus on coaching his daughter rather than competing alongside her. Thanks to weather issues, Denton ended up with three qualifying attempts to get into the 32-car, $ 75,000-to-win Pro Mod field. She wound up a few spots shy in the No. 37 position with a 3.669 and 206.10 mph out of nearly 70 cars that tried to qualify.
“ I tried to go into the first race with no expectations, just realizing it had been a few months since I had sat in the car with a completely new setup and program for us, but at the same time, I am a competitor and when I show up to an event, I want to do well,” Denton says.“ But I feel like we did make good runs. We just got behind as far as making sure I was comfortable and missed the field by a little bit. But we absolutely didn’ t hang our heads that weekend. It’ s a big difference going from a test session to competing against the baddest names in the category.”
The U. S. Street Nationals allowed Denton to get more seat time and critical experience lining up with someone else in the other lane. That also included staging against racers running different combinations, which was a departure from Denton’ s experience in Pro 632 with its nitrous and all-motor combos.
With one race under her belt, Denton went right into the biggest Pro Mod race of the year, the Drag Illustrated World Series of Pro Mod. This time, Denton had five shots to make it into the field. In the thrilling final session, she threw down a career-best 3.624 at 208.71 to move up to No. 22 on the final qualifying sheet. Franklin also qualified on the bump spot with a 3.637 in his brand-new“ Jungle Rat 3.0”’ 69 Camaro, making them the first father-daughter duo to qualify at the World Series of Pro Mod.
“ There was no holding back for me. Not that there was at the first race, but I wanted to just make it into the race,” Denton says.“ That last qualifying round felt like a final round. Seeing the scoreboard pop up was such an exciting round. Seeing my parents and my family watch and have the anticipation as well, that’ s kind of what we do it for.”
The thrill continued on Saturday race day as Denton scored a first-round holeshot win over No. 18 qualifier Billy Banaka after drawing him in the first-round chip draw on Friday night. A couple pairs later, Franklin got the round win over past World Doorslammer Nationals Pro Mod winner Alex Laughlin, setting up the possibility of a father-daughter showdown in the second round. The chip draw didn’ t play out that way, though, with Denton meeting up with original WSOPM champion Mike Bowman and Franklin racing 2023 WSOPM runner-up Kurt Steding. Bowman ended up eliminating both drivers on his way to the semifinals, using a 3.623 to beat Denton’ s 3.667 and a 3.619 to defeat Franklin’ s 3.65.
“ It was extremely rewarding to just get in, and then being involved in the chip draw and all of that, it’ s fun,” Denton says of her first WSOPM
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