Glidden makes it to the finals in the PTE Turbo Camaro
/Just when you thought that drag racing couldn't get any crazier it just did. As we reported previously, world famous drag racer Billy Glidden was brought in to be the driver of the twin turbo Precision Turbo & Mickey Thompson sponsored Camaro.
If that weren't enough of a shocking event to those within the Ford and nitrous community, it was obvious that Billy was perfectly fine behind the wheel of a Camaro. Billy and Harry went testing for the first time we saw that it doesn't matter what's under the hood, Billy will drive the wheels off of it. The times showed that he was going to be a player at Englishtown this weekend.
Photo Via Precision Turbo & Engine
After Friday's two rounds of qualifying there was some concern if Billy was even going to make the field though. Billy was sitting at number 21 and well off the pace with a best pass of 6.592. Saturday was only going to provide them one more shot to get in the field as Pro Mod only has 3 rounds of qualifying.
Saturday rolled around and the only priority in the PTE, M/T Glidden camp was to get the Camaro in the field of 16. That is exactly what they did when Billy cracked off a great 5.941 under the pressure of getting into the field for the first time since taking the wheel in the Camaro. That 5.941 was good enough to put Billy into the #13 qualified spot going into round 1 later Saturday evening.
Pro Mod runs their first round of eliminations on Saturday night at NHRA National events. In the first round Billy was matched up against nitrous heavyweight Bob Rahaim. Billy ran a 5.920 at 240.94 to Bob's slower 5.976 at 244.74. This meant that Billy and the PTE team would be racing on Sunday.
Photo via Precision Turbo & Engine
Round two on Sunday would be no easy task. Billy was going to have to take out former Pro Mod World Champion and Rickie Smith team car driven by Khalid Al Balooshi. Billy crushed the tree and dropped the hammer on Khalid's nitrous powered Camaro. His reaction time was a pro mod mind boggling .008! That then led to Billy running a 5.902 to Khalid's 5.941.
Coming into the Semi Finals, Billy was going to have to get around Jim Whiteley. If there was any question that Billy could run a number this weekend, it was this round that he put any doubt to rest. Billy took the win over Jim by using just pure muscle running a 5.893 at a stratospheric 257.68 mph to Jim's 5.923.
The finals were going to be something that is nothing short of epic based on the numbers we saw in the earlier rounds, including a 257 mph pass by Billy and Troy Coughlin running his Jegs sponsored, Proline powered C7 Corvette to a 254.66. This was also going to be the first all turbo final in quite some time. So would this be a side by side 255+ mph side by side final?
Billy and Troy take care of their burnouts and line them up. Troy is first off the line and first to the stripe. Something happens to Billy's car and Troy lays down a 5.878 to Billy's off the pace 7.37. Billy might not have gotten the win this weekend, but you can bet he, along with Shannon, Harry, Tommy, and the rest of the crew put everyone on notice that the Precision Turbo & Mickey Thompson Camaro is going to be a player for the rest of the 2016 J&A Service Pro Mod season!
