PETE FARBER RACING qualified for the first race of the 2016 NHRA Pro Mod season at the 47th annual Amalie Motor Oil NHRA Gatornationals at Gainesville Raceway in Gainesville, Florida on March 18-20, 2016.
Driver Peter Farber spent the off-season prepping his supercharged CRC Automotive Brakleen ’69 Dodge Daytona and making sure the car was in the best condition possible for the start of the season. The Pro Mod class has been getting quicker and faster, and Farber wanted to be ready.
In the first round of qualifying on Friday evening, Farber laid down an impressive run of 5.935 at 244.60 mph with a 0.991-second 60-food time. This placed him in the number five spot. For round two later that night, Farber launched hard and improved upon his earlier numbers by going even quicker and faster with a 5.876 at 247.43 mph blast and a 0.976-second 60-food time – just a hair shy of his all-time personal best of 5.862 at 250.69 mph. Despite the better run, the insanely tough field resulted in Farber slipping into sixth. Saturday morning brought with it the third and final qualifying session for Pro Mod, and Farber had some problems on the starting line. His crew was there to push him back, and the team quickly returned to the pits to troubleshoot and resolve the issue. Once qualifying results were finalized, Farber had raked eighth overall.
Eliminations began on Saturday night, and everyone was looking forward to officially kicking off the Pro Mod season with the first elimination round of the year. Farber was scheduled to be in the first pair out, and the ladder had placed him up against Chip King, who qualified ninth overall. The weather conditions were idea: the air temperature was 78 degrees F, the humidity was only at 62%, and the track temperature was a relatively cool 91 degrees F. It was the first time Farber had run against King, and Farber had a huge starting line advantage with his 0.944-second reaction time over King’s 0.101-second one. Unfortunately, shortly after the launch, Farber’s Daytona took him for a ride when it got loose and moved towards the starting line. Farber lifted to correct the car and prevent any potential accidents, but sacrificed the win in doing so.
“Even though we didn’t get past the first round of eliminations, we’re really happy to have started the year out by not only qualifying in the Top 16, but by running such good numbers and having our new sponsor NGK Spark Plugs on board,” said Farber, who finished tenth in points for the 2015 NHRA Pro Mod series.
Farber has committed to running the entire 10-race 2016 NHRA Pro Mod schedule with his supercharged CRC Automotive Brakleen ’69 Dodge Daytona. He will continue his season at the 29th annual O’Reilly Auto Parts NHRA SpringNationals event in at Royal Purple Raceway April 29-May 1.
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