Martinos make it Happen!
During NHRA’s recent Toyota Summernationals held at Englishtown New Jersey – one of the top Canadian drag racing stories of the year came to fruition…
The father and son team of Tony and Mark Martino (Stoney Creek Ontario) who have been dabbling in the NHRA Pro Stock category for a couple of seasons as independents are now primed for the next level of their racing careers.
Tony Martino’s life long passion for Pro Stock racing is about to be full-filled.
After a lot of due diligence and with the expert assistance from Forward Sports Marketing the budding Canadian team has landed and debuted something they have long sought after – major and primary funding for their Pro Stock racing program.
At Englishtown, the team unveiled a spectacular looking Pontiac GXP with co-sponsorship from SANY America and Canadian-based BIK Boom Trucks & Hydraulics who are both industry leaders in the manufacture of and distribution of heavy industrial crane applications.
Those companies have endorsed a long team agreement with Martino Motorsports which will allow them to further develop their NHRA Pro Stock class aspirations.
The Martino’s have also aligned themselves with NHRA Pro Stock class veterans Bob Benza and Tom Martino (no relationship). At Englishtown they leased both a car and engine program from MB Race Engines.
The initial results were positive too. In his first ever attempt racing the Benza-owned car in competition Mark qualified #15 with a 6.712 secs under extremely heated atmospheric and track conditions. In round one he raced Shane Gray’s Camaro but lost that initial confrontation.
The team development is of particular significance for Mark’s father Tony who will be able to fulfill a lifelong dream he has had about drag racing after forming Martino Motorsports.
“I’ve been involved with mountain-motor Pro Stock cars for quite a few seasons – but during all that time I have always had my eyes on the NHRA class as the ultimate goal,” said Tony, who is the owner and driving force behind the DeSantis Crane Service company. “But in drag racing sometimes you have to step back before you can move forward and the expense of racing NHRA was a big barrier. It was something we just could not do all out of our own pockets. But when news of this deal came together that changed everything. I’m very thankful and proud to have SANY America and BIK Hydraulics/Boom Trucks behind us. It’s really great that we have a relationship both in our business and now in racing.”
While the initial event hit out of the gate at Englishtown for the team was certainly a good start, Mark, Tony and the rest of the team are going to look for much more going forward. They do admit that the rest of the 2013 season will be somewhat sporadic with regards to race dates as they begin to mold and chart together their racing plans for the future.
Mark & Tony Martino are Canada’s only NHRA Pro Stock racing team
The team’s next planned will be during the NHRA race at Joliet later this month at super fast Route 66 Raceway south of Chicago.
Photos and posting by: Bruce Biegler
