Northern Viper Strike « DragRaceCanada.com

Northern Viper Strike

by editor on Jul.01, 2016, under Pro Mod Portal

Kentucky’s Billy Harper prevailed to win the Pro Modified title during the IHRA’s Mopar Canadian Nationals…..

The popular and long time Pro Mod class racer, who in fact participated at Grand Bend Motorplex’s inaugural Mopar Canadian Nationals back in 2000, was a real picture of consistency while winning this event decisively.

After qualifying his nitrous-assisted Dodge Viper #2 with a pass of 6.002 secs – Harper’s machine clicked off three straight 5-secs runs during eliminations to win the event – including a 5.972 secs which was low ET of the event.

Billy topped Canadian Bruce Boland, one of Eastern Canada’s top class racers in the final round by skipping to a winning 5.980 secs at 240.19 mph compared to Boland’s 6.034 secs at 237.15 mph in his supercharged Camaro. Harper had beaten Canadian racers Melanie Salemi and Sam Andreacchi in earlier action.

The PM final at IHRA Grand Bend saw Billy Harper defeat Bruce Boland in a close match

The event results marked a nice turnaround in fate for Harper from the pervious IHRA event held the week before in Maryland where after he qualified #1 – was forced to withdraw from the event following a major engine failure.

“It’s great we had the car on rails,” Harper said. “The crew I’ve got had it set up, and my job’s easy – just let the clutch out and hang on. It’s been a great weekend, and I love the fans up here. We need this in the U.S. where we can get all the fans back at the track. The guys (Canadian Pro Mod racers) up here are a fun bunch of guys – they’re great to race with; we’re hoping we can get them to the States to race with us some.”