PRO MODIFIED
The Pro Mod show at Rockingham was nothing short of stellar, although neither the quickest nor the fastest made it to the final round. Canadian Kenny Lang proved that the third time is a charm by shoeing his supercharged ‘53 ‘ Vette to an uncontested victory over defending champion Scott Cannon who had a broken race car and couldn’t answer the bell after his win in the semi’s over the last nitrous oxide racer left in the field, Pat Stoken.
Lang has been to only three IHRA tour finals, all of them at Rockingham. He was runner-up to Mike Janis at last October’s World Finals.
“It was great that we got the win,” Lang said. “I’ve always wanted to win an Ironman, but you want to put a show on for the fans and we weren’t able to do that. We were hoping to drop the car down into the fives but we know we have a really fast car, a contending car.”
 Mike Castellana. (photo from San Antonio by Joe McHugh) |
Although both of the Pro Mod finalists were supercharged, for the hardcore Pro Mod fan at the Rock the most impressive cars were of the nitrous oxide-injected variety. The two-year ongoing motor program that the Mike Castellana camp is pursuing with the legendary Reher-Morrison’s David Reher is starting to show results, as Castellana shocked the nitrous racing community with a 236.26 blast. Obviously, Reher’s talents are starting to have an effect on nitrous oxide Pro Mod racers.
At the same time Montana’s Pat Stoken showed he is making progress with his nitrous combination with a 6.066 lap to take the title of world’s quickest nitrous racer away from Jim Halsey who had a 6.07 to his credit that he ran in 2007.
PRO STOCK
Carolina favorite son and Ford standard bearer Elijah Morton upset defending IHRA Pro Stock Champ John Montecalvo in a classic Ford vs Chevy final. Morton used a starting line advantage to get to the finish line just ahead of Montecalvo for his first win since June 13, 2004, at Grand Bend, Ont., Canada.
“Monte took us out in the semifinals at San Antonio,” Morton said. “I was bound and determined to pay him back. Monte’s a good driver, a good guy, but this time we took the ‘W.’”