Winning is becoming just part of the AMS experience for Joshua Hernandez (above) as he’s prevailed in all three races held so far this season.
It was an anticlimactic final, but Joshua Hernandez earned his third-straight win in the AMS Staff Leasing Pro Mod Challenge presented by Tindle Enterprises Apr. 27-29, during the 27th annual NHRA Summit Southern Nationals at Atlanta Dragway. Doug Palmer, Hernandez’s final-round opponent, broke during his burnout, then Hernandez lost traction immediately off the start of his free pass to the event win.
“It’s still a win, still points for my guys that work so hard on this car week in and week out and I can’t be happier for the team,” Hernandez said later. “It’s kind of like living a dream for me right now. You win three in a row, I’ve never done that before, so it’s new territory for me, a little surreal even, but I’m really enjoying the heck out of it.”
Palmer explained a fuel line came loose at the end of his burnout, prompting NHRA chief starter Rick Stewart to give him the shut-off signal at the line. “I heard it pop and at first I thought it was a burst panel that let go, but then they told me it was leaking and I pretty much knew we were done then,” he said.
After giving up the reins as team owner, Doug Palmer’s status as a hired driver seemed to agree with him as he ran his career-first five-second pass in qualifying 2nd at Atlanta, then made it all the way to the final round.
Palmer added it was discouraging to see Hernandez blow the tires off just seconds later, especially since his ’63 “Voodoo” Vette had been performing so well all day. “We don’t know if they hopped it up a little, but it really rubs it in because we were making it down
there every lap, too,” he said. “But we still can’t say that we would’ve won because we could’ve done the same thing. But I would have rather got beat on the track than have what happened.”
Hernandez led qualifying with a 5.974-seconds pass at 241.28 mph, with reigning IHRA champ Quain Stott anchoring the quickest AMS field ever assembled with a 6.164 at 236.22 in his ’63 Corvette. It was Palmer, however, who turned the first sub-six-second pass by a Pro Mod at Atlanta Dragway with a 5.996 at 238.64 just four pairs before Hernandez made his best run.
