ELIMINATIONS

The traditional Saturday first round of eliminations for NHRA Pro Mods went off on schedule featuring some upsets and some very good racing. The biggest upset of the race came when #13 qualifier Harold Martin beat #4 qualifier Danny Rowe in a classis blower vs nitrous matchup.
Martin’s .024 RT against Rowe’s tardy .158 got him the win despite his 6.007 ET to Rowe’s 5.938.

Low ET of the first round by a bunch was Jim Laurita’s Low ET of the meet 5.820/245.90 single when alternate Steve Matusek’s turbo Mustang had drivetrain issues at the start.

The closest race of the eliminations was Canadian Lang’s loss to Robert Patrick’s nitrous Mustang. Lang put a huge holeshot on Patrick with a .031 RT to Patrick’s .079, but Patrick managed to run down Lang’s Vette with a clocking of 5.934/240.72 to Lang’s 5.986/244.56. Patrick got to the stripe first by just .004 of a second and ended any chance Lang had of winning the 2013 championship.

After the first round lane choice was critical and those with lane choice prevailed in almost every race for the rest of the event.


(Michelle Simmons photo)

The nitrous cars of Rickie Smith and Mike Castellana were the quickest cars in every round on Sunday and met in an anti-climatic final round. After the first round, Smith’s car was smoking badly but still ran well. Smith said that he had damaged the rings on a couple of pistons in the second round on Sunday and just didn’t have time to change pistons so he just ran it until it gave up -- which it did in the final round against event winner Mike Castellana.

Castellana had advanced to the final round by scoring early round wins over Ron Muenks, Dan Stevenson and Robert Patrick. In the final Castellana ran 6.084 at 194.72 mph to Smith’s 7.060/144.81.

Rickie Smith’s chances to clinch the series crown at St. Louis were improved when title challengers Mike Janis, Von Smith, Kenny Lang and Danny Rowe all lost in the first round and defending world champ Troy Coughlin lost to Laurita in the second round. Smith’s win over Laurita in the semi-finals guaranteed he would be the series champ for 2013.

The NHRA Pro Mod Drag Racing Series season concludes with the NHRA Toyota Nationals, Oct. 24-27 at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Pro Modified points Standings after nine of ten races:
1. Rickie Smith, 703; 2. Mike Castellana, 561; 3. Von Smith, 557; 4. Mike Janis, 556; 5. Troy Coughlin, 537; 6. Kenny Lang, 490; 7. Danny Rowe, 470; 8. Pete Farber, 416; 9. Chip King, 360; 10. Clint Satterfield, 341.