Richard Freeman, the owner of Elite Motorsports, took the wheel of his Elite-powered Mountain Motor Pro Stock machine all the way to the winners circle today at the Gerber Collision & Glass NHRA Route 66 Nationals presented by PEAK Performance.

“This is a great way to kick off our season in mountain motor pro stock,” said Freeman. “This category is so exciting. As you can see from qualifying, the field is stacked. There’s going to be some intense competition and I’m glad we got it started right. This team is just doing a fantastic job of putting things together and they are the reason we got the win today.”

As drivers took to the track at iconic Route 66 Raceway on race day for the first time in four years, Pro Stock driver Cristian Cuadra faced his older brother, Fernando Cuadra Jr. in the first round, both in their Corral Boots Mustangs. F. Cuadra Jr. left first by two-thousandths of a second but had trouble after leaving the starting line, so the younger Cuadra, Cristian, got the first-round win.

The next pair to take the track were also a couple of Elite Motorsports teammates as Erica Enders and Aaron Stanfield lined up against each other. Stanfield defeated Enders on a holeshot with a stellar reaction time of .021-seconds. 

Pro Stock rookie Jerry Tucker left the starting line with a flawless .000-second light. He held on to that advantage to power his Elite Motorsports Camaro to a round win against Camrie Caruso. Troy Coughlin Jr.’s yellow and black JEGS.com Camaro defeated Kyle Koretsky thanks to a smooth pass of 6.544-seconds at 209.98 mph. In the final Round One Pro Stock matchup, Bo Butner, the driver of the Johnson’s Horsepowered Garage Camaro, powered past Shane Tucker to advance to the next round of competition. 

As the luck of the ladder would have it, several Elite Motorsports team members had to face each other in the quarterfinal round. Stanfield’s Janac Bros. / JC3 Energy Camaro powered to a round win against Butner and J. Tucker defeated Coughlin. Deric Kramer got out in front of C. Cuadra at the line and held onto his lead for the win.

J. Tucker earned his way into the first semifinal round of his professional career, also securing his place in the Mission Foods #2Fast2Tasty challenge at the next event where Pro Stock is contested. He faced Dallas Glenn in the semifinals while his teammate Stanfield would take on Kramer. Although J. Tucker had a phenomenal light with a .007 reaction time, he had trouble off the line and had to give the win to Glenn. Kramer defeated Stanfield as well.

In Mountain Motor Pro Stock, the competition was heated, to say the least. The entire field was only separated by six-hundredths of a second amongst the eight drivers who qualified for race day. Enders entered the competition from the third position on the ladder and faced Tony Gillig in the first round. Gillig timed out, advancing Enders to the semifinals. Freeman defeated Johnny Pluchino with a powerful run of 6.228 at 226.96 to advance to face Enders in the semifinals. 

Freeman powered his way to the first final round of the season for the fan-favorite category by defeating Enders. Facing John Montecalvo in the final heat of the day, Freeman got the starting line advantage and piloted his way to victory.