Popular and veteran Pro Mod class racer Billy Harper continued his speedy ways during last weekend’s IHRA event stop…
The Kentucky-based nitrous-injected Dodge Viper pilot prevailed over the Pro Mod field portion during the IHRA Good Vibrations Texas Nationals held near San Antonio Texas.
Harper saved his best performance of the weekend for the most important time – the Pro Mod final round. There his 5.842-second elapsed time at 240.64 mph reset the IHRA Pro Mod record. That was in fact the second time this season that Harper set the IHRA ET mark — he had also accomplished that at Orlando season opener in March at 5.875 secs.
After qualifying #4, he defeated Jerico Balduf and Bill Lutz before besting Ruben Tetsoshvili in a one-sided final round decision to earn his first winner’s circle celebration of the season.
“It always feels great to win, but I could never do it without this crew,” Harper said. “They’ve done a great job. We had a lot of bugs this weekend, but they got through it and brought home a national record and a win. The car’s coming around; we made a lot of changes in the winter, and we’re excited about how the car’s running. We’re having a ball here at the IHRA.”
Top speed of the meet for Pro Mod at San Antonio was set by Bill Lutz’s Garrett sponsored turbocharged Camaro which went 248.34 mph during qualifying.
Posted with files by: Bruce Biegler & Shayna Keller
All photos by: Robert Grice