Drag Illustrated Issue 149, October 2019 | Page 35

Special Section
presented by FuelTech at GALOT and
No. 1 at the Mid-Atlantic Showdown
presented by Modern Racing at Vir-
ginia Motorsports Park.
He qualified No. 1 again at the third
race of the season, the North-South
Shootout presented by Line-X at
Maryland International Raceway,
where he also won his first race. The
rookie driver cut a .007 reaction time
to defeat defending world champion
Tommy D’Aprile with a 3.703 to
D’Aprile’s 3.683.
“I would probably say the Maryland
race was the most memorable so far,
being that we won that race on a
holeshot,” Thorne says. “We were
kind of the underdog there and won
that deal on a holeshot. That felt
really good – I’d been wanting to get
one of those wins for two years now.”
Thorne posted another top-half qual-
ifying effort and a semifinal finish at
the Summer Nationals Ignited by
Lithium Pros at South Georgia before
enjoying his second clean-sweep
weekend (No. 1 qualifier and event
win) of the year at the Northern Na-
tionals presented by Callies Perfor-
mance at Ohio’s Dragway 42.
In the semifinals, Thorne evened
his score with John Strickland after
falling to the ProCharger-boosted
driver in the semis at South Georgia.
He then faced Strickland’s GALOT
Motorsports teammate and the
points leader, Kevin Rivenbark, in
the final round. It was a stunning
race, with Thorne grabbing a .007
advantage at the starting line and
adding two thousandths at the
eighth-mile finish line in a 3.716-
to-3.718 race.
It was a rewarding victory for
Thorne, as it came over a car tuned
by Pro Line’s lead tuner, Steve Petty,
with talented people turning the
wrenches and driven by a seasoned
Pro Boost competitor.
“I knew it was going to be close with
Steve on the keyboard over there,”
Thorne said in the winner’s circle. “It
was tight down there. It was definitely
a good race. I’m happy those folks put
up the fight they did. I’m super-
blessed to be out here and have a hot
rod that can take out folks like that.”
Plus, the win came over the centrifu-
gal supercharger combination, which
many believed would have a distinct
advantage in Pro Boost this season
after a handful of top-tier teams like
GALOT Motorsports switched over to
the setup over the winter.
“I feel the ProCharger combination
is a little faster than ours, we’ve just
somehow come out on top the
couple times we’ve matched up,”
Thorne says. “I feel like the Pro-
Charger is the new up-and-coming
thing, but we’re going to try to keep
the turbo generation going. I think
[the ProCharger cars] have had their
hands full with us all year.”
Thorne doesn’t plan on letting up as
the 2019 PDRA Road to the Finals
winds down. He’ll have two more
chances – the Fall Nationals present-
ed by $hameless Racing, Oct. 4-5 at
Darlington Dragway and the Brian
Olson Memorial World Finals pre-
sented by $hameless Racing and Pro
Line Racing, Oct. 18-20 at Virginia
Motorsports Park – to chase down
Rivenbark in pursuit of the Moroso
Pro Boost world championship.
“It’s taken good, strong people
standing behind us to get us to the
point where we’re chasing the
championship,” Thorne says. “The
whole Pro Line deal and everybody
that comes with that. A good car
from Jerry Bickel. Just champion-
ship-caliber products from every-
one else who helps us: M&M Trans-
mission, Carmack Engineering,
Precision Turbos and Outlaw
Racing Fuels. Doing a decent job
of driving has also helped us get
to where we are.”
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