PRO BOOST

In just her second outing with a new, supercharged MSR '68 Firebird, Melanie Salemi started from the third position in Precision Turbo Pro Boost with a 3.86 pass at 192.11 mph, then ran like a bracket racer with runs of 3.86, 3.92, 3.86 and 3.86 respectively through Joe Baker, Larry Higgenbotham, Ric Fleck and finally Anthony Disomma to earn her first professional win.

"I'm completely overwhelmed. We've had this great vision of everything coming together and this is even better than what I imagined," the transplanted Canadian from Buffalo, NY, declared. "First and foremost I have to thank my husband Jon, my brother-in-law Jim Salemi and Mike Stawicki, as well as my father, Roger Simmons. He couldn't be here this week but we won it for him."

In the final round, Salemi left first with a .047 light while Disomma was dead late at .158 in his twin-turbocharged '67 Shelby Mustang. Regardless, Salemi also outran her opponent with a 3.86 at 192.63 as he put together a 3.87 at a slowing 123.84 mph.

"I knew I got out on him and I took a quick look over a couple of hundred feet out or so and still didn't see him, but I was so worried he was going to come flying by me at the finish line," Salemi described of her final run. "When I got there it just got quiet, but when I looked up and saw the 'W' on in my lane I just started celebrating in the car. I couldn't understand why I didn't hear from Jon for what seemed like an eternity, but he finally came on the radio and said he got mobbed on the starting line. It was pretty exciting."