Amalie Motor Oil NHRA Gatornationals
Gainesville Raceway
Gainesville, FL
March 09-12, 2023
MARCH 12, 2023, GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Leah Pruett, recorded a strong Top Fuel performance, as the Arizona driver advanced to the semi-finals Sunday before losing to eventual race winner Mike Salinas. Pruett, who qualified fourth in the Top Fuel 16-car field, took out Doug Foley in the first round and Austin Prock in Round Two with impressive runs of 3.686 and 3.731. An extensive winter testing program assisted Pruett and her team in gathering solid information for the 2023 season-opening race.
From Leah:
This weekend was quite a turnaround for our Direct Connection TSR Top Fuel team after not competing last year here,” said Pruett. “It’s a testament to where we left off in 2022. We actually ran 24 test passes this winter. We took a hybrid of all of our test runs to come into this weekend. There wasn’t one run of the 24 that we thought was the perfect setting. The TSR crew did a great job putting a setup together for our car. The track was very unique this weekend. It was good after the starting line, but the line was very tricky. Because we were able to go through those types of challenges in testing, that really helped us this weekend. I couldn’t be more proud of the Direct Connection team. This event was good for momentum going to Phoenix, the site of my first NHRA Top Fuel win. These Sublime green machines are so cool looking and fast too.
