A Four-Wide First! « DragRaceCanada.com

A Four-Wide First!

by editor on May.03, 2017, under Smokies Garage - Pro Mod Portal

For the first time in drag racing history – Pro Modified class cars competed in a “quad” format….

That unique and ground breaking presentation for the NHRA’s J&A Service Pro Mod Drag Racing Series was part of the action during the NHRA Four-Wide Nationals held at ZMax Dragway in North Carolina. It was the third of 12 events on the NHRA schedule for that series and the weekend’s Pro Mod portion was co-sponsored by JEGS.com and Plugfones.

The event produced a big win for wily veteran driver Mike Castellana from New York state. Racing the Middle Eastern-based AAP ( Al Anabi Performance) Chevy Camaro — it was for first win of the season for Castellana coming in his second final round appearance. Castellana had entered this event hot – after setting a national record in the Pro Mod class the previous weekend during NHRA Houston. He entered eliminations as the #2 seed – after recording a 5.786 secs during qualifying.

“I’ll tell ya, it was awesome,” Castellana said. “First time coming out here, you’re a little worried about how to drive and what’s going to happen. But when you got a team like I do, it just makes everything go real smooth.”

For the first time in history Pro Mod cars raced “4 Wide” – in the class final Mike Castellana (lane two above) emerged the winner.

Castellana, after qualifying second (5.786 secs) defeated Troy Coughlin, Michael Biehle II and Jonathan Gray in the event’s final “quad”. The win allowed Castellana to retain his points lead in the category.

Mike Castellana drove the Qatar-based AAP Camaro to a huge win at Concord.

Pro Mod class racing at Concord was another dynamic affair with 29 teams making qualifying attempts. The program was paced by Troy Coughlin’s turbocharged Jegs-sponosred C7 which hit 5.770 secs for the #1 slot and for low ET of the event. Californian Mike Bowman set top speed of the race with his turbocharged ’69 Chevelle at 258.67 mph.