Shawn Reed, Ron Capps and Troy Coughlin Jr. Lead Winners List from PRO Superstar Shootout at Bradenton Motorsports Park
After a barn burner of a debut in 2024, the PRO Superstar Shootout returned to Bradenton Motorsports Park to give enthusiasts their first dose of nitromethane for the 2025 season.
Run as a 3-day event, fans were treated to 8-car qualified fields of Top Fuel and Funny Car, a 16-car field of Pro Stock, and a trio of sportsman classes: Stock, Super Stock, and Top Sportsman.
Tom Bailey made a couple exhibition runs in the ‘Sick Seconds 2.0’ Camaro.
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With four qualifying sessions over two days for the professional categories, getting into the fields was intense. The 2024 event champ in Top Fuel, Doug Kalitta, opened with quick ET of round one of qualifying, 3.65 at 332 mph.
But by the end of qualifying, defending NHRA champion Antron Brown would score the top qualifying spot, rebounding from an exploding tire in session 3 to score the top spot at 3.64 seconds.
Funny Car qualifying was led by Austin Prock, and the defending NHRA Funny Car champ came into Florida the defending event champion as well. A 3.81 at 332 mph was low elapsed time until the fourth session, where Prock dropped into the 3.7 second range with a 3.79 to secure the top spot.
Pro Stock is always spirited in qualifying, and three different drivers held the top qualifying spot in four different sessions. But in the final session Friday night, class rookie Cory Reed would grab the top spot with a 6.49 at 209 mph to go into eliminations as the top qualifier.
The uniqueness of the PRO Superstar Shootout is that every round in the professional categories is done by chip draw. This leaves everything to chance, and competitors never know who their next opponent could be.
After two upset-filled rounds in Top Fuel were complete, the finalists would be Josh Hart and Shawn Reed. The pair left almost together at the start, but Josh Reed would produce his best run of the event, 3.69 at 330 mph, to get the win over Josh Hart’s 3.72 pass, his third-straight 3.72 of eliminations.
On the Funny Car side of things, Prock would roll through eliminations to his second straight final round appearance at this event. Standing in his way of a repeat title would be two-time NHRA champion Ron Capps, and although Prock left the starting line in the final, Capps delivered the winning run with a 3.87 at 330 mph to a 4.00 at 316 mph for Prock.
Pro Stock was also filled with upsets, but Reed would make it to his first final round in the category to face off with Troy Coughlin Jr.
On paper, it appeared to be Reed‘s race, as he consistently had better performances during eliminations then did Coughlin. But as the tree dropped on the final pair, a red light illuminated in Reed’s lane, swinging the victory to Coughlin.
In the three sportsman categories, some very tough competition was also taking place. As drivers worked their way through the rounds, one racer earned the rare opportunity of winning two different categories, and that was Joe Santangelo.
In his first of two final rounds, Santangelo would match up with defending event champion Monty Bogan Jr. A pair of classic Chevrolet Camaros would decide the winner, and Bogan used a better reaction time to score the victory.
It also put Bogan in a category all by himself, as the only two-time champion of the PRO Superstar Shootout with his red ‘67 Camaro.
Santangelo was defeated, but not deterred, and would come back for his second final round of the evening in Super Stock opposite another ‘67 Camaro, this one belonging to Hayden Trumble.
As before, Santangelo was behind on the reaction time, but drove the finish line better to score the victory when Trumble went too fast for his dial-in prediction.
The Top Sportsman category features a unique blend of six and seven second cars, and the final round would put Florida’s own Tommy D’ Aprile opposite Kentucky racer Andrew Johnson.
Johnson nearly missed the opportunity to stage for his round one contest, and despite the lack of burnout as he rushed to the starting line, the seven second supercharged ‘55 Chevy got the win light.
Johnson would add four more win lights to his total for the event, including the final round victory over D’ Aprile’s Pontiac Grand Am, to score the coveted trophy and a large payout.
Written by Derek Putnam. Photos courtesy of Sick the Magazine.
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