BRADENTON, Fla. (Feb. 09, 2025) – The three-car SCAG Racing team wrapped up a successful showing at the SCAG Power Equipment PRO Superstar Shootout at Bradenton Motorsports Park. Justin Ashley and his SCAG Toyota Top Fuel dragster made it to the semifinals while Daniel Wilkerson in the SCAG Ford Mustang Funny Car had a first-round appearance in the eight-car field and Dave Richards in the BlueBird Turf machine participated in the Top Fuel versus Funny Car exhibition race for the second consecutive year.
Following two and a half days of testing teams had four qualifying attempts, one Thursday night and three Friday, to put their best effort to get eliminations on Saturday.
Ashley and the SCAG Top Fuel team started their race day from the No. 4 qualifying position after a solid 3.679-second pass at 330.39 mph during Friday qualifying. Wilkerson’s SCAG Ford Mustang Funny Car team landed the No. 5 spot Thursday with their career best elapsed time of 3.860 at 313.66 mph. The BlueBird Turf Funny Car had its best pass of the event Friday evening laying down a 3.944 run at a career best speed of 313.66. It was good enough for 10th but left Richards sitting on the outside looking in.
After a chip draw determined first round matchups, Ashley was set to run against Shawn Langdon in round one. Ashley would handle the SCAG Toyota dragster to at 3.943-second pass at 279.79 mph while Langdon would have trouble crossing the line at in 8.088 at 85.70. A second chip draw put Ashley against Josh Hart in the semifinals. It would be a clean drag race with Ashley 3.767 pass at 327.59 coming up just short to Hart’s 3.721 at 318.77.
“It was a very productive week for our SCAG Power Equipment Toyota team. We made a lot of runs over the last few days and can lean on some of that data during the NHRA season,” Ashley said. “Being at the racetrack with our team is a huge blessing. I can’t wait to see all of our SCAG guests again in Gainesville and kick off the 2025 NHRA season in style.”
Wilkerson, who had to pull out a backup car after the parachutes on his SCAG Ford Mustang didn’t deploy during a test run, ended up with a first-round matchup against eventual race winner Ron Capps. The pair had identical reaction times of .087 seconds, but Capps would pull away to run a 3.863 at 333.41 bettering Wilkerson’s 3.892 at 315.34.
“I would say this team made an excellent recovery from the test session from hell. The early part of the week definitely did not go the way we wanted. Because of it, we have a lot of work to do before heading to Gainesville for the NHRA Gatornationals,” Wilkerson said. “But we ran a career best 3.86 in qualifying and put up a great 3.89 first round and just got outran by Capps running low of the round. We have a great foundation to stand on for the Gatornationals.”
Richards and the BlueBird team, who are starting their second full season, may not have qualified to run in the elimination rounds, however, they did participate Top Fuel versus Funny Car exhibition runs throughout the race day.
“I’m happy with the way we pulled together and made a great run Saturday in the heat. The guys have been working hard and it was good to knock the dust off,” Richards said. “I’m very confident we are onto a very competitive race car set up. From where we were last year at this time, we’re way ahead. We’ll be be ready and able to compete with the best of them.”
The SCAG Racing team will next hit the track at the season opening NHRA Gatornationals at Gainesville Raceway March 7-9.
