Round One

The opening round of eliminations had Tim Ortiz on a single and that helped his cause for the championship as at the hit the yellow Camaro launched and shook the tires hard and he had to nurse it down track to a 5.43/105.63. The next pair up had the Championship title in the balance as Gulitti squared off against local runner Willett. Ortiz having a bye to the semifinals put all the attention on Gulitti and his Cummins Motorsports 2011 Camaro who needed the win to clinch the championship. The tree flashed green and Willett strapped a .04 holeshot on Gulitti and ran down the left lane registering an off pace 4.89/114.97 that was not enough for the clutch run Gulitti unleashed clocking 4.07/178.36 for the round win and claiming the 2016 Texas Automatic Outlaws Pro Mod Championship.

Gulitti and team took the TAO championship.

Domino rolled up next against Roach, who got the jump at the green but Domino ran him down taking the win with a 4.27 @ 159.07 to Roach’s 4.32 @ 166.17. The last match up for the first round pitted 2015 series champion Blomberg in his vaunted ’97 Firebird and Brandt. The blown entry of Brandt again had issues with the trans brake and rolled the light staging turning on the red light and then posting a coasting 14.23 @ 53.23. Blomberg’s mount sounded significantly off key and he nursed it down track for the win, stopping the clocks at 5.10/134.53.

In a conversation after the first round regular Texas Automatic Outlaw Pro Mod member and runner Richard Willett told me that this event would be his last competing in the series. “I just can’t keep up with these guys and run like they are now. We’ll still be here and come to the track, but no more TAO.” The entire TAO family was saddened to hear this but happy that Richard and his wife Judy had made the decision with no regrets. The Willetts are most liked and respected in the series and will be dearly missed on the track competing next year.

The championship decided with Gulitti’s first round win meant that for the second year in a row Ortiz and the Team “O” Motorsports camp are runner up in the series. Ortiz reflected about the season and effort saying, “I take my hat off to Bob; he has had a stellar year. We’ve fought a lot of parts issues this year and we are fortunate to finish second again. Maybe one day I’ll get this bridesmaid deal off me. If it weren’t for Richard (Otwell) and these guys I wouldn’t be driving this this year so hopefully next year something happens and I do again, but if not I’m grateful for what I have done and what they have let me do.”

Having clinched the 2016 Texas Automatic Outlaws Pro Mod Championship Gulitti commented, “This is my first points championship of any kind. I’ve won a lot of big races but never a yearlong points championship. I have a lot of people to thank, like Jeff and Annie Cummins, Jeffrey Cummins Jr., New Tech Global, All Star Properties, Jeff Naiser and Naiser Racing Engines, Kenny Hubbard for hoping this thing up, my guys Larry Rosenquist and Paul Rose. My wife Lisa and my kids Emma and Zachary for letting me sacrifice what it takes to put the effort into this to be successful at it, and without their support I could not do it.

“I want thank my dad who is my business partner, and the one that infected me with this disease (racing) at an early age. I’m looking forward to 2017 and defending the Championship, and we still got two rounds to win tonight. I want to win this race now and put a cap on this deal, and have a party tonight.”