The penultimate event for NHRA’s 2016 J&A Service Pro Mod season series produced an unexpected winner last weekend….

Colorado’s Mike Knowles powered to his first victory of the season during the J&A Service Pro Mod Drag Racing Series portion of the AAA Insurance NHRA Midwest Nationals at Gateway Motorsports Park near St. Louis.

Driving his totally unique “Mob Edition – Blown Income” supercharged ’67 Ford Mustang, Knowles earned his second career victory with his winning performance of 5.901 seconds at 242.71 mph which topped a losing 5.953 secs at 244.52 for two-time world champ Rickie Smith.

Mike Knowles raced his special “Mob Edition” Ford Mustang to victory in Pro Mod at St. Louis.

Knowles also defeated Mike Castellana, Steven Whiteley, and Troy Coughlin in earlier rounds.  Both his NHRA career victories have come at Gateway Motorsports Park.

“It’s been pretty good to us, we like it. It’s fun and it’s great for the team,” said Knowles. “Friday we had some engine damage and instead of rushing back up and trying to make the run, we just stopped and regrouped and the team made some good decisions and we came back and made a good run, qualifying to get in the show, and here we are.”

The event which attracted 25 entries and produced a very stout bump spot of 5.944 secs was paced by another Colorado-based racer – Steven Whiteley – who ran revolutionary Y-Not Racing 2015 Cadillac to both the pole and low ET of the event at 5.820 secs.

Racing his ’15 Cadillac – Steven Whiteley qualified #1 and set low ET

Points leader Mike Janis lost in the second round to Bob Rahaim and his lead over second place racer Troy Coughlin is 28 points going into the final race of the season.

The 2016 NHRA J&A Service Pro Mod Drag Racing Series season concludes at the NHRA Toyota Nationals, Oct. 29-Nov. 1 at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in Nevada.

Post by Bruce Biegler (DragRaceCanada file photos by Bruce Biegler)