CHARLOTTE (Sept. 18) – R2B2 Racing’s Leah Pruett won her first NHRA National Event on Sunday at the O’Reilly Auto Parts NHRA Nationals by defeating teammate Melanie Troxel in the finals of the Get Screened America Pro Mod Series event at zMax Dragway.

“It’s just now starting to sink in. I think I’ll really realize it when Roger Burgess flies in and kicks the party off,” Pruett said. “Nothing really compares to this. This is my first National Event win. Having the (Nostalgia Funny Car) championship last year was amazing, but a National Event win doesn’t get any better than this.”

In the final against Troxel, Pruett left the starting line second, but the turbocharged ProCare Rx Mustang had enough horsepower to drive around Troxel’s car before the finish.

“That was one heck of a final round,” Pruett said. “You tell yourself it’s just another round, but it’s not. It’s a final round, against your teammate, against your boss, it’s for everything.”

Pruett cut a .062 light and then dashed to a 5.843 second finish at 253.52 mph. Troxel had a reaction time of .019 seconds before at 5.915 second pass at 247.57 mph.

It’s the second consecutive win for the ProCare Rx turbo Mustang, but the first time Pruett has raced a turbo Pro Mod. She said the complicated staging procedure helped keep the late-round butterflies at bay.

“I distracted myself from the tension with it,” Pruett said. “All I’m focused on is getting comfortable with the turbo car and the staging process. Unfortunately the reaction time is the last thing on my mind. I just wanted to make sure the car spooled up on time.

“Doing the right things just kept my mind busy.”

Tuner Steve Petty had the turbo Mustang set up like a bracket car with Pruett running times in the 5.84 to 5.85 second range the entire afternoon.

Pruett beat Rickie Smith in the second round, running a 5.852 at 254.62 mph to Smith’s 6.015 at 238.72 mph. In the semis, Pete Farber tried his luck against the R2B2 turbo power. He ran a 5.974 at 240.47 mph, but it wasn’t enough to track down Pruett’s 5.840 at 253.75 mph run.

“Hopefully I’m proving myself worthy to be with R2B2 Racing for a long time,” Pruett said. “You can’t do what we did without Steve Petty. He’s got both our turbo cars on a string. You can’t say he let one of those cars be quicker than the other.”

The Get Screened America Pro Mod Series takes a little more than a month off before heading to its season finale, the Oct. 28-30 NHRA Nevada Nationals at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

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