Skillman moves from Elite to Gray Motorsports

Skillman, who earned his first PS victory in his rookie season with Elite Motorsports and currently lies fourth in the standings but on the back of two straight first-round losses, felt it was time to change.

With sponsorship from his family group of dealerships, Skillman hopes a Gray Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro, with Tomi Lane as crew chief, will provide the opportunity to catch category leaders Greg Anderson and Jason Line, both of whom drive for Summit Racing.

“We just need to go out there and start having fun,” said Skillman said. “We started off (the season) way better and hopefully we can be better this weekend.”

After racing to his first final round on his PS debut in Pomona in Feb 2015, Skillman went on to grab his first career victory in St. Louis last fall. Going into this season, the 28-year-old from Bargersville, Ind. hoped to take his Camaro farther but the season has instead been dominated by Summit Racing. The difficult switch from carburetors to fuel injection have been blamed by Elite team owner Richard Freeman for his team’s struggles this season.

Said Freeman: “We recognize the team hasn’t performed up to the championship standards we’re used to here. We knew it would be a challenge to switch over to fuel injection, and it certainly has been, but we’re working harder than ever to get our performance back to where it needs to be. We will get there.”

Regarding the split with Skillman, Freeman said: “I asked Ray [Skillman’s grandfather and sponsor] point-blank if he was looking to make a move and he said they were, so I wished them luck.”

Freeman said the family’s move has left him puzzled.

“Despite our struggles, all four of our cars are in the Countdown to the Championship field,” he observed. “Now they [the Skillman family] are going to a team with two cars outside the top 10. I can’t explain that thinking or what their level of loyalty is, but these things happen, so we’ll move on.”

Action from the NHRA New England Nationals begins on Friday. At time of writing, only Funny Car has the opportunity to bump, with 17 entries for a 16-car field. There are only 13 Top Fuel cars on the entry list and 14 in Pro Stock.