Mike Castellana in front of Khalid Al-Balooshi in the Pro Mod final

Words by Jeff Burk
Photos by Joe McHugh

Veteran Pro Mod nitrous racer Mike Castellana and his crew chief, Shannon Jenkins, accomplished what few other Pro Mod teams ever have done: Win an eighth-mile ADRL national event and follow that with a win at a quarter-mile NHRA Pro Mod national event.

Castellana’s Al-Anabi Racing-backed Camaro was the fourth quickest Pro Mod qualifier behind Roger Burgess’s turbocharged ‘Vette and the supercharged entries of Danny Rowe and Ed Hoover.

Despite what appears to be a significant power advantage for the turbocharged cars (Burgess set both the Top Speed and Low ET timing for the event at 5.873/253.47), none of those cars were around for the Get Screened America final round.

Instead it was teammates Mike Castellana and Khalid Al-Balooshi, both in cars with powerful naturally aspirated, nitrous oxide-injected Reher-Morrison BIG block wedge motors under the hoods.

Castellana did what no one had in the prior two NHRA events and defeated teammate Balooshi in an all-nitrous, all-Al-Anabi Racing  final round. 

This was the first NHRA final round appearance of the season for Castellana, who showed his skills as a driver by leaving on Balooshi and motoring away from the Speedtech-liveried car with a winning time of 5.920 seconds at 243.15 mph to a losing pass of 5.952 at 243.28.
Balooshi’s runner-up finish kept him in the lead of the Get Screened America Pro Mod Series points by 65 over supercharger racer Danny Rowe.