Drag racing’s dynamic Pro Modified class racers raised the bar yet again during a very rousing edition last weekend at Indy…..
Invading Californian, Rick Snavely, raced to his first career win during the NHRA J&A Service Pro Mod Drag Racing Series portion of the Chevrolet Performance U.S. Nationals. The weekend’s event which as the seventh of 10 events on the 2015 NHRA Pro Mod schedule, was presented by JEGS.
Snavely sprinted to the unexpected victory by powering his Turbos Direct ’69 Camaro to a 5.890-second pass at 257.53 mph to better Mike Janis’ 5.945 pass at 242.50 in his Western New York state-based Jan-Cen Racing Engines supercharged Camaro.
California’s Rick Snavley was an unexpected winner in Pro Mod at Indy last weekend.
“There are no words to explain it,” said Snavely, who is a reputed West Coast based racer, “Everybody just worked their butts off constantly. All the parts and pieces just came together. I’m still excited that I even came here. I’m sure it’ll set in but it’s unbelievable.”
Snavely, competing in only his second career NHRA Pro Mod race, sped past Bill Glidden, Steve Matusek and reigning and two-time world champion Rickie Smith in the earlier rounds. He entered eliminations as the No. 3 qualifier.
Janis, the current points leader, raced past Troy Coughlin, Michael Biehle II and No. 1 qualifier and 2011 Pro Mod world champion Khalid alBalooshi before meeting Snavely in the final.
Western NY’s Mike Janis went to the PM final round to enhance his points lead.
The Indianapolis event featured 33 cars vying for the 16 available qualified positions and that marathon produced the quickest bump spot in NHRA history – 5.940 secs. The race was anchored by alBalooshi who roared to a 5.845 secs for the pole. Eventual winner Snavely was credited with top speed of the meet at 258.07 mph.
Kahlid alBalooshi drove his supercharged Camaro to the pole and to a semi final round finish.
The event featured numerous racing highlights now the least of which was the NHRA Pro Mod class debut for Sidnei Frigo who is from Brazil. The former Top Fuel dragster driver qualified his spectacular new turbocharged Corvette C7 #2 with a 5.851 secs – but lost out in round number one.
The all new C7 debuted by Brazil’s Sidnei Frigo was the talk of the pits.
Former Pro Stock racer Richie Stevens made his Pro Mod class debut driving this Camaro.
Through seven events, the ultra competitive NHRA J&A Service Pro Mod Series has now featured seven different winners. The NHRA J&A Service Pro Mod Series will make its next stop in Charlotte, N.C., for the eighth annual NHRA Carolina Nationals, Sept. 18-20.
J&A Extension Announced
NHRA announced during the event (Sep. 5th) J&A Service, a leader in oil and gas well-servicing exploration, has extended its series entitlement sponsorship for the NHRA Pro Mod Drag Racing Series. In 2016, the NHRA J&A Service Pro Mod Drag Racing Series will compete at 10 NHRA national events.
As part of its series sponsorship, J&A Service will provide a $200,000 purse that pays the national champion $50,000 and the series runner-up $20,000. Each individual event winner will earn $10,000 and the event runners-up will claim $3,000 each.
“We were pleased with our first season as series sponsor and we look forward to continuing to help the NHRA Pro Mod Series grow for both fans and competitors,” said Jim and Annie Whiteley, owners of J&A Service.
Featuring the world’s fastest and most unique doorslammer race cars, the NHRA J&A Service Pro Mod Drag Racing Series offers something for every kind of hot-rodding enthusiast. The growing class is highlighted by historic muscle cars, like ’67 Mustangs, ’68 Firebirds and ’69 Camaros, as well as a variety of late model American muscle cars. With more than 3,000 horsepower, the suspended door pro mod cars travel the quarter-mile in less than six seconds at speeds exceeding 250 mph.
“The NHRA Pro Mod Drag Racing Series continues to provide our fans with a very diverse mix of high-horsepower machines and excitement on the track with every side by side run,” said Gary Darcy, NHRA senior vice president of sales and marketing. “Through J&A Service’s extension of the series entitlement we can continue to build upon the momentum that the NHRA Pro Mod Series has been gaining since it was launched in 2010.”
J&A Service is also a primary sponsor for the YNOT Racing team, which includes competition in the Pro Mod, Top Alcohol Funny Car, Top Dragster and Top Sportsman classes, featuring drivers Jim Whiteley, Annie Whiteley, Steven Whiteley, Anita Strasburg and John Baker.
Steven Whitely drives the unique J&A Service Cadillac Pro Mod – just one of the team’s fleet of race cars.
The NHRA J&A Service Pro Mod Drag Racing Series is supported by the Real Pro Mod (RPM) Association, a group of NHRA Pro Mod Series team owners who works closely with NHRA on many initiatives to maintain the series.
J&A Service, owned by veteran racers Jim and Annie Whiteley, is located in Grand Junction, Colo. The company, a national oil and gas well-servicing business, leases and operates all forms of well-completion equipment and is the innovator of its patented Green Completions Unit, a self-contained, high-capacity mobile flowback separator that contains 99 percent of all airborne contaminates. Mobile units are available for sale or lease.
Posted with files by Bruce Biegler & NHRA Communcations
Photos by: Bruce Biegler & Steve Embling
To view additional Pro Mod images from Indy visit our event photo gallery : HERE
BFR Indy Post Race Report:
Bell/Fiscus Racing were entered at the prestigious raced at the NHRA Chevrolet Performance U.S. Nationals event at Lucas Oil Raceway in Indianapolis, Indiana on September 4-7, 2015 and were part of the quickest Pro Mod qualifying field in history.
The racing surface proved tricky to find traction on during the first round of Pro Mod qualifying on Friday evening. Jim Bell, driving his twin turbocharged, Pro Line Racing 481X-powered 1969 Chevrolet Camaro, spun hard at the hit and had tire shake right after the launch. The car moved towards the wall, and he aborted the run. Mid-way down the track, Fiscus also encountered troubles with his twin turbo, PLR 481X-powered 2012 Ford Mustang and deployed his parachutes early. Both Bell and Fiscus were not happy with their wasted Q1 efforts but went to work towards having a solid Q2 results. A bad coil wire and two iffy plug wires were replaced in Bell’s car, and the driver stated “We were confident that we had found out why my car was way down on power, and was only running on five cylinders once it got passed the 330-foot mark.”
For Saturday afternoon’s Q2 session, Bell and Fiscus were paired together. Bell’s car was still having serious issues; it launched hard, and the incrementals showed it was on its way to a solid pass, but the Camaro only ran strong until the 330-foot mark. Bell noted that the car was way down on power and struggled to gain RPM, which is why he never made the 2-3 shift. The disappointing qualifying effort produced an off-pace 6.699 at 185.54 mph run. Fiscus, who improved dramatically, clicked off his first five-second pass of the weekend. His 5.978 at 246.44 mph placed him sixteenth, right on the precarious bump spot.
Fortunately, at Indy, the Pro Mod class enjoys a fourth and final qualifying round on Sunday morning and the Bell/Fiscus Racing team had one more shot to make it in the show. The team determined that there were more problems as to why Bell’s Camaro was way down on power, specifically the fact that it was running excessively rich due to a defective wide band O2 control module and its Fuel Tech ECU adding 25% more fuel thanks to on-board safety feature. The malfunctioning parts were replaced, and confidence was high. Bell’s car performed better with a 6.110 at 240.08 mph effort, but it wasn’t enough to make the cut. Fiscus laid down another five-second run with a 5.962 at 245.27 mph hit, but his Mustang’s rear end gears were hurt big time and no doubt slowed not only the Q4 attempt, but all his qualifying passes that weekend. It took a 5.940 to qualify and neither driver was able to make it into the highly competitive Top 16.
“We were chasing problems all weekend,” said Bell, who was disappointed with how things went but retained a positive attitude about working towards a better performance. “It appears that we have diagnosed and repaired the problems with both cars, and can now focus on tuning to run quicker at our next event this weekend.”
Both Bell and Fiscus will be competing in the Pro Boost class at the PDRA DragStock XII at Rockingham Dragway in Rockingham, North Carolina on September 10-12, 2015 as the Bell/Fiscus Racing team continues their 23-race commitment for the 2015 season.
Posted by: Ainsley Jacobs
Bruce Biegler Photo
