In Pro 10.5 qualifying, Jerry Morgano continued a Bradenton hot streak that started at the U. S. Street Nationals, where the longtime Outlaw 10.5 proponent earned his first win in seven years behind the wheel of his turbocharged, small-block-powered“ Copperhead”’ 03 Mustang. Rather than settling, the Apollo Beach, Florida-based driver tested extensively at Bradenton between races and came out at the WSOPM even stronger.

After a parts issue plagued his first qualifying attempt, he came back in the second session and threw down a 3.829 at 203.98 – one of the quickest passes in Outlaw 10.5 history – to distance himself from the rest of the field.

“ It’ s a lot of work. For the guys that are behind me – Anthony DiSomma and guys like that – this is awesome,” said Morgano, who was No. 2 in Winter Series Pro 10.5 points going into the weekend.“ Wade [ Rich ] did a great job with the track there. My guy went up to check it and I said,‘ How’ s the track look?’ They said,‘ It’ s pretty damn good, so if you’ ve got a run you want to put in it, put it in it.’ I clicked the boost controller one more and we made a great lap.”

The near-record pass and the Victus Sports

custom No. 1 qualifier baseball bat that came with it were the reward for Morgano’ s efforts throughout the winter and in pre-race testing. He broke a driveshaft on Monday, Gulf Coast Driveshaft built him a new one Monday night, and he picked it up Tuesday morning to put in the car. Neal Chance Converters also overnighted new parts. A wire fell off the lockup on his first qualifying attempt, and after swapping back to a tried-and-true converter for Q2, everything clicked.

“ That’ s the best lap the car’ s ever made,” said Morgano, who also credited two-time PDRA Pro Street world champion Tim Essick for consulting on changes to the car and how he runs it.“ Best 60-foot the car has had in five or six years. We went 1.03 with a turbo car, which is killing it. Real strong in the middle, and the car just came together. I knew these cars can run low 3.80s in this class; you just gotta get lucky and put it all together. It came together on that one. So it was really, really cool.” – NATE VAN WAGNEN DI DI DI

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104 | Drag Illustrated | DragIllustrated. com Issue 200