diff --git a/CHANGES b/CHANGES
index f945e25300..27cd3f16e0 100644
--- a/CHANGES
+++ b/CHANGES
@@ -2,6 +2,9 @@
 Changes with Apache 2.3.0
 [ When backported to 2.2.x, remove entry from this file ]
 
+  *) ab: Improve client performance by clearing connection pool instead
+     of destroying it. PR 40054 [Brad Roberts <braddr puremagic.com>]
+
   *) ab: Don't stop sending a request if EAGAIN is returned, which
      will only happen if both the write and subsequent wait are
      returning EAGAIN, and count posted bytes correctly when the initial
diff --git a/support/ab.c b/support/ab.c
index d74111e403..a30745ded9 100644
--- a/support/ab.c
+++ b/support/ab.c
@@ -1137,8 +1137,9 @@ static void start_connect(struct connection * c)
     c->gotheader = 0;
     c->rwrite = 0;
     if (c->ctx)
-        apr_pool_destroy(c->ctx);
-    apr_pool_create(&c->ctx, cntxt);
+        apr_pool_clear(c->ctx);
+    else
+        apr_pool_create(&c->ctx, cntxt);
 
     if ((rv = apr_socket_create(&c->aprsock, destsa->family,
                 SOCK_STREAM, 0, c->ctx)) != APR_SUCCESS) {