Staging Battle Sets Scene for Fantastic Drag Race

Two NHRA racers build tension with standoff in Pro Mod final at Charlotte.

Professional drag racers battle on a level that can sometimes border on absurd. That came into play during a recent staging battle at the recent NHRA Pro Mod final at ZMax Dragway in Charlotte.

That fight for the Wally Parks trophy pitted Jonathan Gray against Stevie “Fast” Jackson in a pair of Pro Mod Camaros. Jackson comes to the NHRA with some of the best racing smack-talk you’ll ever year; he also tends to back it up.

With that in mind, the final round of the Carolina Nationals turned into a full-on staging war. Both Jackson and Gray, a former Pro Stock racer, lit the pre-state bulb nicely enough. However, neither wanted to bump into being fully staged first. That tends to give a potential reaction time advantage to the second driver to light both staging bulbs.

The standoff carries on for nearly a full minute with both Camaros’ engines simply idling. Neither gives an inch and the fans start to cheer for the standoff.

Finally, Gray bumps in first, followed shortly by Jackson, who cut a better light by 0.008 second only to be run down by Gray’s Camaro by a mere 0.001 at the stripe. We’re suckers for this kind of doorslammer racing because not only is the racing close, it’s also fierce.

With the narrow victory, Gray picked up his first career win the J&A Pro Mod Series. To get to the final against Jackson, he had to run the gauntlet of veteran Pro Mod racers first. That includes points leader Mike Castellana, Steve Matusek, and Chuck Little.