EMOTIONAL PM CLASS RETURNS

After a four week delay from racing when unsafe track conditions forced the postponement of the drag race at Bristol, Tenn., competitors in the AMS Staff Leasing Pro Modified Challenge presented by Tindle Enterprises, Inc. are anxious to get back to the track and chase their passion.
  
 This weekend’s event, the ProCare Rx NHRA SuperNationals at Old Bridge Township Raceway Park in Englishtown, New Jersey adds a new twist for drivers and tuners as drivers will begin earn points for the $50,000 ProCare Rx Pro Mod Clash  -- a “race-within-a-race” which pits the best-qualifying and most-consistent Pro Mods against each other with the chance to fight for a $25,000 top prize. Added to the $50,000 BAE Championship, teams are now competing for their piece of more than $400,000 in available prizes and contingency awards.
 
 The top eight qualifiers in the $50,000 ProCare Rx Pro Mod Clash after five races will be paired during qualifying at the ACDelco Las Vegas NHRA Nationals, October 25-28. The winner will receive $25,000, runner-up $12,500, and each of the semifinalists $5,000. A $2,500 bonus will be awarded to the team with the most consistent car beginning at the Englishtown event and running through the Las Vegas qualifying sessions. After a four week delay from racing when unsafe track conditions forced the postponement of the drag race at Bristol, Tenn., competitors in the AMS Staff Leasing Pro Modified Challenge presented by Tindle Enterprises, Inc. are anxious to get back to the track and chase their passion.
  
 This weekend’s event, the ProCare Rx NHRA SuperNationals at Old Bridge Township Raceway Park in Englishtown, New Jersey adds a new twist for drivers and tuners as drivers will begin earn points for the $50,000 ProCare Rx Pro Mod Clash  -- a “race-within-a-race” which pits the best-qualifying and most-consistent Pro Mods against each other with the chance to fight for a $25,000 top prize. Added to the $50,000 BAE Championship, teams are now competing for their piece of more than $400,000 in available prizes and contingency awards.
 
 The top eight qualifiers in the $50,000 ProCare Rx Pro Mod Clash after five races will be paired during qualifying at the ACDelco Las Vegas NHRA Nationals, October 25-28. The winner will receive $25,000, runner-up $12,500, and each of the semifinalists $5,000. A $2,500 bonus will be awarded to the team with the most consistent car beginning at the Englishtown event and running through the Las Vegas qualifying sessions.
 
 The scattered points chase in the BAE Championship is hitting full stride at this fifth event of ten, with leader, Josh Hernandez in his Dr. Moon’s Rage ’68 Camaro eclipsing his competition thus-far this season, winning every event to date. Fighting for position behind the Houston-native are 2006 champion Jay Payne, series co-sponsor Tim Tindle, and the hottest contender in the pack, Canadian Raymond Commisso.
  
 Pro Modified qualifying at the ProCare Rx NHRA SuperNationals is scheduled for two rounds on Friday and one Saturday, with the first round of eliminations scheduled for Saturday evening. The remainder of eliminations will be completed on Sunday, June 24.
  
 Australian Troy Critchley and the flagship AMS ’70 Barracuda has withdrawn from Pro Mod Challenge competition for the remainder of the year following the tragic accident in Selmer, Tenn., where, after a straight start in a planned exhibition burnout in his ’90 Pro Mod
Corvette, the car skidded off the road. According to a team report, Critchley did everything humanly possible to keep the car on the road, but unfortunately, there was nothing he could do to avoid tragedy.
  
 Pro Mod Challenge Director Matthew Brammer said, “Our hearts go out to the families who have suffered. Despite the fact that the event in Tennessee wasn’t sanctioned by any organization and had nothing whatsoever to do with the AMS Pro Mod Challenge, we obviously still feel the pain, because Troy is one of our own and the fans who were watching that event were drawn by the same excitement we offer at every one of our drag races. We want to support him and the injured during their difficult times.
  
 “You can expect sweeping changes and rules as a result of this tragedy, hopefully assuring that it will never, never happen again. I’m sure, to a person, drag racers agree that racing should only happen in a safety and access-controlled environment on a drag strip, and that although this event was meant for charity, the safety of everyone involved was obviously not considered nor assured.
  
 “Before the end of this weekend, we plan to implement a prohibition of any display of this kind by any of our participants.  Drag racing is thrilling, adrenaline-filled excitement, and it belongs on a track. Period. After we’ve written the mandate, we’ll encourage sanctioning bodies to adopt similar stances, hopefully applying the costly lesson we’ve all been taught.
  
 “Pro Mod racing this weekend will be stifled, for sure,” Brammer said. “We’re all working to make sense of all of this and learn from what happened. As the cars go down the track in competition, we’ll remember the lost, and look to the future.”
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