NHRA Top Fuel and Funny Car drivers and teams have also raced outside the confines of NHRA national events since the beginning, but it’s almost always been in a match race capacity. When the Professional Racers Owners Organization (PRO) announced the inaugural PRO Superstar Shootout in August 2023, the idea of a non-NHRA-sanctioned, national event-style race featuring Top Fuel, Funny Car, and Pro Stock intrigued fans and industry insiders.
[Editor’s Note: This story originally appeared in DI #190, the State of Drag Issue, in September/ October of 2024.]
PRO officials maintained from the beginning that they didn’t intend to compete with NHRA. Instead, the PRO Superstar Shootout was created as a preseason event where teams could try new ideas that typically wouldn’t happen at an NHRA national event. Some of these factors included three qualifying sessions in one day, chip draws to determine pairings in eliminations, and all-day livestreaming on the track and in the pits on FloRacing.
Though NHRA never really publicly acknowledged the event, the sport’s premier sanctioning body took notice. NHRA’s VP of Competition, Ned Walliser, even made an appearance at the race, which took place February 8-10 at Bradenton Motorsports Park.
If PRO wanted the Superstar Shootout to show to NHRA that the occasional refresh in policies and procedures can work, they succeeded. Not long after the race, NHRA announced a new two-day event format for the Virginia Nationals, which would feature three qualifying sessions in a single day. Even if that move wasn’t a direct result of the PRO race, it at least proved that it was possible.
Beyond affecting the relationship between the PRO member teams and the NHRA, the PRO Superstar Shootout introduced professional drag racing to new audiences through the FloRacing livestream and through the dozens of videos and social media posts shared by the automotive influencers who attended the event. Thousands of fans poured through the gates at Bradenton to witness the inaugural event, many of whom probably had never been to a drag race or hadn’t been to Bradenton in years.
As of this writing, plans for a second annual PRO Superstar Shootout haven’t been announced. Whether the Superstar Shootout becomes a time-honored tradition or it ends up being a one-time thing, we will always look back on the inaugural running for the unique moment in time that it created.
This story was originally published on November 11, 2024. 
