Another “international” edition Pro Mod Portal posting — presented by Nash Competition Engines….

Familiar Foes! — Australia’s NDRC Riverbend Nationals (in South Australia – Mar. 28-29) saw a couple of marquee circuit names – John Zappia & Zoran Gajic – return to victory lane.

For Top Doorslammer, a full-engine rebuild before the A-Final helped 11X champion John Zappia (5.792/388.70kph) seal the event win over fellow Top Doorslammer veteran Pete Lovering (5.876/391.78kph), who was looking to claim his maiden NDRC Gold Christmas Tree in 24 years of racing.

“I am really happy with the FUCHS Summit Monaro, thank you to IHRA for coming on board and all the other sponsors who support me and all the crew who work their arses off all weekend.” John said” “We will go home and get it all ready and off to Nitro Champs in Sydney — and then we possibly will have something special happening for the Winters,” (in June at Willowbank).

Australia’s Top Doorslammer racer icon – John Zappia was a popular winner for the NDRC Riverbend Nationals.

Defending champion Russell Taylor (5.789/403.27kph) took home the B-Final win after lining up alongside Ronnie Palumbo (6.165/385.34kph). Taylor had earlier taken the win lights in both rounds one and two but had to pedal his way through.

A wild C-Final saw Salim Matta lay down the second quickest ET (5.770/405.10kph) of the day to clinch the win over Frank Taylor (8.705 /174.50kph), who narrowly missed kissing the wall.

In the D-Final,last year’s Riverbend Nationals winner, Jeremy Callaghan, was forced to concede to winner Emilio Spinozzi despite running the quickest ET of the day for Top Doorslammer in his final pass of the weekend – with Spinozzi’s .016 RT seeing his 5.874 /396.16kph able to beat Callaghan’s 5.760/410.21kph at the line.

In Pro Mod it was Zoran Gajic (from NSW) – the defending event and series champion – adding another NDRC Gold trophy to the mantle at Dragway at The Bend with the A-Final victory over Adam Tassone — that match being heralded as the best Pro Mod run of the day.

That dramatic finale started with a ‘burndown’ on the line before the pair delivered side-by-side fives to the delight of the crowd (5.919/409.12kph (254.22 mph) to 5.953/388.83kph (241.61 mph).

Pro Mod winner – Zoran Gajic

The B-final went to Lorenzo Gullotto who carded a 6.010 secs 246.99 mph to defeat Zack Knezevic.

The NDRC/IHRA Pro Mod class racing for the Riverbend Nationals was a 5.85-secs indexed affair.

VMP Victorious — IHRA’s new proficiency and options for fast “door slammer” cars was on display during their second Outlaw Nitro Series season event for 2026 – held at former NHRA facility Virginia Motorsports Park (April 10-11). That race event featured both Pro Mod (21 cars) and Outlaw Pro Mod class (14 cars).

For Pro Mod it was North Carolina’s Tony Wilson stepping up to the plate to win – driving his Pro-charger ’69 Camaro.

After qualifying #8, Wilson was quicker on the tree in every round of Pro Mod eliminations. All that paid off big time and in the final round a .012 reaction time, paired with a 3.586 at 209.04 mph, was more then enough to defeat Jason Harris, (who tunes Wilson’s car) who ran 3.661 seconds at 173.74 mph.

Tony Wilson was extremely sharp & consistent while winning the Pro Mod class event portion at IHRA VMP.

Wilson defeated Peter Norton, Travis Harvey and Ray Matos in prior rounds of completion. Overall it was Randy Weatherford who was the quickest PM car entered — he paced the field with a 3.560 secs (low ET of the event).

The always unpredictable Outlaw Pro Mod field did feature two class strongmen in the final when Bubba Stanton matched against Hank Stubbs.

Stanton put together an amazing string of 3.5 secs ETs including a IHRA record quick 3.501-second elapsed time at 219.08 mph in the final — while Stubbs was too quick at the tree to trigger the red light.

Bubba Stanton set a IHRA ET record while winning the Outlaw Pro Mod event title.

Stanton (from Mississippi) defeated Canada’s Chevy Reeves in round one, before topping Frankie Taylor and Randy Weatherford in subsequent rounds.

OPM did see Florida’s Mike Decker qualifying #1 at 3.525 secs — but Mike was eliminated by Hank Stubbs in the semifinal round.

Canada’s Chevy Reeves was a very popular entry for the OPM class at IHRA VMP with “The Yeti” Chevelle.

From the PDRA Playground — The PDRA’s East Coast Nationals event (April 16-18) held in North Carolina (April 16-18) featured big wins for two of it’s circuit star players, with Jason Harris and Tommy Franklin prevailing.

Harris, behind the wheel of the Harold Denton-tribute “Party Time” Camaro, collected for Pro Boost over 20 other entries, when he defeated Canadian transplant Melanie Salemi in the final round.

Harris ran a winning 3.643 secs at 200.47 mph in the final to defeat Salemi who slowed from her earlier place – shutting off early.
Harris had topped Joel Wensley, Ethan Steding and Johnny Camp in earlier rounds.

Jason Harris roared to a convincing win at the PDRA’s 3rd race of 2026.

Melanie, who is from Orillia Ontario, but who now resides in Buffalo NY, had qualified her “Purple Reign” Firebird (owned by Eddie Whelan) #1 with a swift 3.580 secs – which was low ET of the event.

Canadian Melanie Salemi qualified #1 and went to the final round for the PDRA East Coast Nationals.

Tommy Franklin, from Virginia, beat Keith Haney for the Pro Nitrous title with a 3.676 secs 206.64 mph run — while Haney also shut off in the final. Franklin had taken the measure of Chris Rini, Rickie Smith and Tim Molnar to advance to the final round.

Tommy Franklin was the Pro Boost winner at Benson NC.

Defending PDRA World Champion Marcus Butler was the quickest of the 15 PB cars attending the event – qualifying #1 with a low ET of the race 3.636 secs – but then losing out in round two.

The PDRA event at the Darana Benson track did also include the final rounds for the weather postponed Carolina Nationals event from a couple weeks prior. The championship winners for that race were Johnny Camp’s “Hell Billy” Camaro team for Pro Boost and Mike Achenback’s “Mountain Man” Camaro in Pro Nitrous (photo below).

Posted with files by Bruce Biegler & Amanda Salmon
Photos by Dave DeAngelis – Grant Stephens – Tara Bowker