NHRA - National Hot Rod Association

Separated by just a few minutes, Bill Skillman won the SAM Tech.edu Factory Stock title at the NGK Spark Plugs Four-Wide Nationals in Charlotte and his son, Drew, claimed the title in Stock Eliminator. Bill, an NHRA winner for the first time, got off the starting line first in the final against Pro Stock ace Bo Butner and never looked back. Skillman ran a 7.940 to cover Butner’s 7.953.

“This is fabulous,” said Skillman, who collected his first NHRA title. “How can you ask for anything more than this? For us both go to the finals and both win; It’s why we do this. It’s something you dream about. It’s magic. Bo and I are great friends and he and Drew are friends. They were rivals last year in Pro Stock and they race sportsman cars together. I was very comfortable in the final. I’ve had some success this year, so I was not nervous at all.”

Skillman opened the 2019 season by winning the NMCA event in Bradenton, Fla. He was the top qualifier at the NHRA Factory Stock season-opener in Gainesville before losing a tough side-by-side battle against son, Drew, in the second round. After the Gainesville race, there was a rules adjustment that limited supercharger overdrive to most of the Ford and Chevrolet engine combinations. The rule change slowed the class as a whole, but Skillman was once again the low qualifier in the massive 30-car field with a 7.823.

Skillman’s path to the final round included wins against reigning series champion Leah Pritchett in her Drag Pak Challenger, Scott Libersher’s COPO Camaro, and David Barton’s COPO. Skillman gave up a significant starting line advantage to Pritchett but managed to drive around her to claim the win, 7.889 to a 7.933. With the rest of final eliminations run under bright sunshine on Sunday afternoon, track management became critical. Skillman got to the final with runs of 8.028 and 8.049 after both Libersher and Barton spun the tires.

“My crew provided me with a fabulous car,” said Skillman. “Tomi Laine, and Dave Yediny, Joey Gwin, and Antony Bivins worked their tails off. This 2014 black [Mustang] works. The engine works and the chassis works well. We got slowed down this weekend with the pulley change and the track was a super challenge this weekend. All the credit to the crew because they’re able to make the car fast when it needed to be fast and slow it down when it needed to slow down. In the second round we went up there with all the timing out of it because that was only way to get down.”

While many of his fellow Pro Stock racers were enjoying a weekend off, Butner was wheeling his Summit Racing-backed Cobra Jet in Factory Stock. The winner of three events this season in his KB Racing Pro Stock Camaro, Butner nearly added the Charlotte Factory Stock title to his lengthy resumé with wins against Randy Taylor and Kevin Skinner. Butner was scheduled to race Gainesville winner Drew Skillman in the semifinals, but Skillman was unable to answer the call after destroying and engine in his Cobra Jet during his quarterfinal win over Chris Holbrook. Skillman won the round but left a trail of oil behind his Cobra Jet. He nearly spun the car out when he turned off the track at the top end.
 
“It’s terminal,” Drew said. “We don’t have enough time to change an engine. That’s about a three-hour process and we just don’t have time. These aren’t Pro Stock cars. It’s a shame because we’re racing for the championship and I really thought we could do some damage here. We’ll just concentrate on my dad’s car and our Stocker.”

Qualifying was shortened to just two sessions due to rain on Friday but that didn’t prevent a seven-second bump spot. Skillman grabbed the top spot with a 7.823 while David Janac anchored the field with a 7.973. Chuck Watson was just third-quickest, but he made the fastest run in the history of the class with a 180.72 mph top speed in his Cobra Jet Mustang.