This win over Sidnei Frigo in the quarter-finals gave Coughlin the 2015 championship. Coughlin earned $50,000 for winning the ten-race series. He also was the RPM Champion in 2012. (Rick Shute photo)

Qualifying and First Round Eliminations

Qualifying for the last J&A Service series race of the 2015 season was as entertaining and hard on cars and drivers as any eliminations could be. NHRA’s Pro Mod class racing and qualifying program is unlike that for any other NHRA professional class. The Pro Mod teams get only three qualifying sessions instead of four and their first round of Eliminations is Saturday night. When there are thirty professional Pro Mod teams trying to be one of the quick 16 you know those three qualifying sessions will be ugly and brutal for the drivers and tuners who’ve pushed their cars to the limits.

At Las Vegas it required an ET of 5.948 or better to make the field and no fewer than 22 cars made passes of 5.99 or quicker.

After the first two qualifying sessions on Friday, South American Sidnei Frigo, who also has a NHRA Top Fuel dragster covered the quarter-mile distance in his turbocharged, Artivinco Racing Corvette in 5.874 seconds at 251.67 mph. Frigo also led qualifying following one of the sessions at the Chevrolet Performance U.S. Nationals at Indianapolis earlier this season.

Steven Whiteley was second overall in his late model Cadillac CTS-V with a 5.876 at 246.12 and Gatornationals winner Bob Rahaim sat third in his silver TLC Waste Disposal Services Corvette with a 5.876 at 236.71.

With one qualifying round remaining, series points leader Mike Janis qualified 12th with a 5.941 at 243.59 in his supercharged late model Camaro. Troy Coughlin qualified 14th in his JEGS.com Corvette with a 5.951/250.09.

The final qualifying session on Saturday saw the top three qualifiers from the first two rounds get bumped off their spots when the turbocharged Camaro driven by Don Walsh went to the pole with a stellar 5.774/259.66 lap that gave him a tenth of a second on the rest of the 16-car field. Four of the top five qualifiers at Las Vegas had turbocharged powerplants.

Rick Snavely booted his ubiquitous ‘69 Camaro to the second spot with a 5.845/257.83 and Khalid alBalooshi in his ‘69 Camaro moved into the third spot on the qualifying ladder with a 5.847/246.89 that pushed Sidnei Frigo to the fourth slot despite a 5.845/252.10 lap.

Later that Saturday night the RPM Pro Mods ran their scheduled first round of Eliminations and that round of eliminations saw more than a few upsets and basically decided the 2015 RPM/NHRA Pro Mod Championship.

New York racer Mike Janis, who led the Championship chase going into the last event, was in trouble. He qualified 10th and then lost to Rahaim and his Corvette. Janis didn’t have lane choice and that was critical as Rahaim ran an off-the pace 6.001/217 lap, but it was easily good enough to eliminate points leader Janis who could only muster a shut-off 6.860/142.63. That loss coupled with a win by Troy Coughlin Sr took the former champ out of the Championship race and paved the way for Coughlin and his turbocharged ‘Vette to make a run at a second Championship.