The Pro Challenge road racing product has stolen many headlines over recent seasons from far more expensive and higher-horsepower vehicles. Pro Challenge customer Robert Stout brought the product its first-ever National Championship in the PTA class of the NASA road racing organization in 2009, and now in 2010 NASA is abuzz with the success once again of the Pro Challenge product.
In fact, in a recent race at Roebling Road Raceway in Georgia, Pro Challenge President John Litzinger swept a full weekend of racing in the NASA PTA class in just his first-ever event with the national road racing organization, beating other purpose-built and more expensive racing vehicles in record fashion.
“We were so fast right away when we hit the track that officials had to add 50 pounds to our cars just to compete in the PTA class because they were so fast. I was carrying 400 more pounds than the Thunder Roadster cars that were in the same class as me at Roebling Road. Still, I was able to be first in practice in both the class and the Lightning Group.
“In the race, they put a group of classes in front of us to start the race in a dual start. They started about 300-400 yards ahead of us. They took the green flag, then we did after they started. I was on the pole for our class and I got passed by about four cars at the start and I started picking them off one by one and won the race and the group.
“We had to go through all that traffic and got blocked a few times, but I pulled away from them all to win everything.”
Saturday’s success at Roebling Road left all the other competitors in the PTA class scratching their heads as to how to keep up with Litzinger’s Pro Challenge Ford Mustang.
“Saturday night they were plotting against me, and they did some drafting in Sunday’s qualifying to speed up their pace. Still, we were able to set fast time by a few tenths over them.”
After losing a few spots on the initial start of Saturday’s race, Litzinger wasn’t going to allow others the pleasure of getting a jump on him on Sunday.
“I was a little smarter on the start on Sunday and took the lead right off the start. They stayed with me for a while, but I pulled away every lap. About 17 minutes into the race, there was a big crash that brought out the red flag and that bunched the cars back together. I had a bunch of cars ahead of me that were on the tail end when the field went back to green with about three laps to go.
“On the restart, I took the lead, but got blocked in by some traffic. Two fo the Thunder Roadsters passed me, but I managed to get back through the traffic and them to get the white flag in the lead and went on to win the race.”
The win was Litzinger’s highlight of the 2010 season personally, but it was another victory to add to the early-season success of the Pro Challenge road racing product.
“I’m very proud of our road racing cars and all the success we’ve seen with them over the past few years on into the first half of 2010. Also, with the Roebling event being my first with the NASA organization, I was impressed with the professionalism of everyone with the series and they treated us well throughout the weekend. I’m planning on competing with them a bunch more later this year.”
For more information on the Pro Challenge Road Racing product or the organization’s oval racing series and line of racing cars and trucks, visit www.prochallengeseries.com.
