Rowe is Current Top NHRA PM Gunslinger 

California-based Danny Rowe, who is originally from Calgary, won NHRA’s latest ProCare RX Pro Modified event offering, defeating Kenny Lang in an all Canadian final round….

That victory has propelled Rowe into the top slot for the 2012 Championship points standings.

With the way the Sterling Bridge Pro Modified ’67 Camaro has been performing in 2012, it seemed like it was only a matter of time before veteran driver Danny Rowe took it to the winner’s circle. After four rounds of eliminations at the 25th annual O’Reilly Auto Parts NHRA Spring Nationals at Houston’s Royal Purple Raceway, that’s exactly what happened.

Danny Rowe won in convincing fashion at Houston last weekend

After claiming the No. 3 qualifying position with a 5.940-second, 245.14mph pass, Rowe mowed through a string of contenders before facing off with Kenny Lang in the final round. Rowe left first with a blistering .018-second reaction time and never looked back, streaking to the win with a 5.969-second, 244.43 mph pass.

“This is what we had to do,” says Rowe, who claimed his third victory in the last four events at Royal Purple Raceway, establishing a win-loss record at the track of 14-1 since 2009. “I think the question out there, honestly, was whether or not we could keep this up, and whether or not we could parlay our performance in qualifying to wins on race day.”

Rowe and crew chief Jimmy Rector answered those questions decisively inHouston, running low elapsed time of every elimination round en route to the team’s first victory of 2012.

 “We’ve had a lot of good luck at Houston over the years, so it’s hard not to feel confident when we race here,” says Rowe. “We really needed this win to sort of get over the hump; to prove to ourselves that we can win out here. Jimmy [Rector] and this Sterling Bridge are working hard, giving me a race car that is hard to beat, and I’m hoping we can keep up this pace headed into the summer months. 

Rowe (near lane) beat Kenny Lang in an all Canadian -- all Camaro finale

“Our goal is to win a championship and if we can keep things tight in the points in Englishtown,Bristol and Norwalk, I think we’re going to be well-positioned to make a run at this deal in the fall.”

Rowe won the 2011 running of the NHRA SuperNationals in Englishtown, the next event on the NHRA Pro Modified Drag Racing Series tour, and followed it up with a pair of final round appearances in Bristol and Norwalk. After three of 10 events scheduled for 2012, Rowe leads the championship point standings by 1 point over second-place Mike Castellana.

Rowe defeated Mike Knowles, Troy Coughlin and Danny Walsh in earlier rounds en route to his first final round appearance of the season.

Lang’s runner-up effort did mark a strong comeback for his race team which had failed to qualify during a problem plagued previous event at NHRA Concord.

Mike Castellana qualified #1 and set low ET at 5.899 secs

 Event Essentials :  Pro Care RX Pro Modified Series – Baytown Texas (April 27-29^th) 

In only his second event in the class Brad Brand set top speed at 251.02 mph in the R2B2 Race Cars crafted '53 Corvette