If you’re into nitrous doorslammer racing good news rests on the horizon.

 
The 2009 season could go down as the quickest on record.
 
That’s the consensus among the two leading nitrous drivers in Pro Modified – Mike Castellana and Jim Halsey.
 
Halsey and Castellana remain the only nitrous drivers who have breached the quarter-mile’s five second zone and after a series of low-3.80s appear headed for the 3.70s in the eighth-mile.
 
Halsey has a brand new, lightweight Tim McAmis Camaro for 2009 combined with a new Gene Fulton engine.

If you’re into nitrous doorslammer racing good news rests on the horizon.

 
The 2009 season could go down as the quickest on record.
 
That’s the consensus among the two leading nitrous drivers in Pro Modified – Mike Castellana and Jim Halsey.
 
Halsey and Castellana remain the only nitrous drivers who have breached the quarter-mile’s five second zone and after a series of low-3.80s appear headed for the 3.70s in the eighth-mile.
 
Halsey has a brand new, lightweight Tim McAmis Camaro for 2009 combined with a new Gene Fulton engine.
 
Castellana has a new Reher & Morrison engine coming that promises even more potency than the lethal monster currently between the fenders. He’s also got a new lightweight car on the way.
 
The end result promises to be what anyone could imagine, even Castellana. One thing is for certain, the frontrunners have set the stage for what it takes to run fast.
 
“It seems that’s what you have to do these days,” Castellana confirmed. “You just can’t sit back, you have to move forward.”
 
Moving forward for the nitrous cars will be 3.70s in the eighth-mile and for the quarter-mile, the duo could be knocking on the 5.70s by season’s end.
 
“With track conditions, the car being as light as we want and if we can get the engine to do what we want, anything is possible,” Castellana said. “It’s possible you could see something later on in the year, I don’t think you’ll see anything like that early in the season.”
 
Halsey currently holds the unofficial quickest eighth-mile run at 3.84 seconds recorded last weekend in Valdosta, Ga.
 
“We weren’t trying to send a message but we did want to run as quick as we could,” Halsey admitted. “We kind of surprised ourselves.”
 
They may have been surprised but from an outsider’s view, a 3.84 backed up what many have concluded – the competitive nature of the two teams is for them to reach for heights once viewed as unattainable.
 
“I think a lot of that can be attributed to being in a very competitive class,” Halsey explained. “If you want to cut to the chase, the nitrous portion of this class has become like a Pro Stock class with nitrous.”
 
Just to think there were many that believed nitrous had reached its performance limit.
 
Castellana always felt the potential was there for the nitrous combination to advance.
 
“I always knew that we were on the verge of making something happen,” Castellana surmised. “For a while there it seemed like we had gone as far as we could. We had always been making strides with our program.”
 
Then there came the undeclared rivalry between David Reher and Gene Fulton that woke the sleeping giant known as nitrous Pro Mod.
 
“Other guy’s nitrous programs will always push you; the competition keeps pushing you,” Castellana said. “It’s going to get real fast out there.”

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