Six-seconds barrier shattered

It seems like the benchmark for the Pro 5.0 Class moves every year, and the recently completed 2001 season was certainly no exception. In April Doug Mangrum became the first Pro 5.0 racer in history to break the six-second barrier with a 6.98 @ 200.2 mph qualifying pass at the Atlanta Fun Ford Weekend.

Later, in July, at Fun Ford Weekend in Norwalk, Ohio the team of Jim Summers and Tim Huston (ASSC Racing) broke out and ran a 6.95 @ 201 mph to join Mangrum in the exclusive supercharged six-second zone. The 2001 season was a "huge transitional year," said Don Walsh, Jr., the third ProCharger racer to break into the 6's, and 2001 NMRA Sportsman of the year. Walsh said customers who are looking for everyday use out of their cars are likely to be impressed by self-contained superchargers when they see racers turn 1800 or 1900 horsepower with the same equipment they're buying.

"Technology has taken us to the point where we're able to get small block Fords into the 6s," Walsh said. "Until this year, we didn't think we'd be able to get there." In total, the 3 ProCharged Pro 5.0 racers who broke into the 6's also won six Pro 5.0 events in 2001, and look to expand upon that impressive win total in the 2002 season.

It's extremely hard to predict exactly how far performance will improve in 2002, as advances in the past few years have exceeded all expectations. For several years, the top Pro 5.0 racers had improved performance by only .1 to .2 seconds and a few mph each year. However, the top supercharged racers in this class began turning up the boost in 1999 and 2000, and Jim Summers' 7.26 @ 193 in late 2000 represented a gain of .4 seconds and 8 mph over the top 1999 performance.

This improvement was considered phenomenal until this past season, when the bar was raised by 13 mph and a half second. Not coincidentally, it was in 1998 that Pro 5.0 racers began switching from other power adders to ProCharger, and by late 2000 every supercharged Pro 5.0 racer was running ProCharger. Although the six-second barrier has now fallen, with these outstanding racers, the introduction of the new F-4SC and even more powerful motors, 2002 should be a very interesting season.