2011 NHRA U.S. NATIONALS - GSA PRO MOD
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FINAL NOTEBOOK - FIRST TIME IS THE CHARM FOR DILLIARD IN WINNING INDY
A veteran and a rookie came together in the final round of the GSA Pro Mod Series to determine who would win the Mac Tools NHRA U.S. Nationals in Indianapolis.
Eric Dillard, racing in his first NHRA event, won drag racing’s most prestigious event by defeating Mike Castellana in the final round.
Dillard made up for a slower reaction time by running a 5.830 elapsed time at 253.99 mph to chase down Castellana, who shook the tires and got out of both the groove and throttle by the 330-foot mark.
“It feels great,” said Dillard. “It’s just crazy. You come in here this morning and you don’t expect this. I had confidence that I could come out here and do it and they gave me a good race car which helped me a lot. Every round I went up there I was nervous. I was very nervous but after the first round and cutting a good light and going down the racetrack the nerves were still there but the momentum kept going. It’s just crazy. It’s my first NHRA race. I don’t have any history here and I’m creating history I guess. It’ll be hard to repeat this. “
Dillard made his way to the finals by beating Kenny Lang, Rickie Smith and teammate Melanie Troxel. He maintained a torrid pace throughout eliminations with a slowest of the weekend 5.863 elapsed time.
For his part, runner-up Mike Castellana beat Raymond Matos, Khalid Al-Balooshi and Jay Payne to reach the final round.
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SUNDAY NOTEBOOK - SUNDAY BRINGS A NEW DAY, NEW CHALLENGES
ATTABOY GIRL - Melanie Troxel raced to the No. 1 qualifying position Sunday in the NHRA Get Screened America Pro Mod Drag Racing Series at the 
prestigious Mac Tools U.S. Nationals presented by Lucas Oil.
Troxel came out on the last pass of qualifying and put down an impressive 5.907-second run at 251.25 mph in her ProCare Rx ’53 Corvette to take the top spot in Pro Mod. It’s Troxel’s second No. 1 qualifier of the season.
Troxel moved to the second round of eliminations after she defeated 16th-place qualifier Scott Ray in the first round. She will face Burton Auxier when eliminations continue on Monday.
“It’s always a little tough to run your first round of eliminations early,” said Troxel. “You have to get yourself geared up early. Scott Racy cut a .000 green light against me today. He knew he had to step up and do everything they could. Fortunately (tuner) Steve Petty gave me a car that went right down the track.”
Current points leader Khalid Balooshi also advanced to the second round with his first-round win over Troy Coughlin. Balooshi will face Mike Castellana in the second round.
THE TOP 8 CONTINUE- The top half of the GSA Pro Mod Series eliminated the entire bottom half of the ladder during first round eliminations.
FRONT HALF NUMBERS- No. 8 Auxier took out No. 9 Donald Martin with some of the best front half numbers of the round. Auxier was 0.965 to the 60’, 2.595 to the 330’ and 3.885 to the eighth-mile at 192.36 mph before posting a 5.928 elapsed time at the finish line.
CHALLENGES OF THE DAY - Rain clouds and a fierce headwind produced new challenges for the final session of GSA Pro Modified qualifying. After two days of mid-90 degree heat, density altitudes greater than 4000 feet and track temperatures in excess of 135 degrees, the conditions drastically changed during the last session to an air temperature of 79 degrees, density altitude of just over 3200 feet and a track temp of 107 degrees.
Despite the challenges, 12 of the 16 final qualifiers made improvements and while many competitors struggled to run five second runs during the first two days, Sunday produced at least eight five second runs.
THE LONE WOLF - Khalid Al-Balooshi was the only car in the top eight to that did not improve. After a 0.998 sixty foot time, Balooshi’s car slowed and would depend on his third session 5.985 to keep him qualified in the No. 7 position.
THE UNFORTUNATE ONES - Two big names with long resumes in Pro Mod did not make the show. Danny Rowe and Ed Hoover finished qualifying No. 17 and No. 18. Rowe’s teammate Donald Martin made the show in the No. 9 position with a 6.020.
HOME ON MONDAY - The last session made a difference for Leah Pruett who started the session qualified No. 13 and finished No. 19 not improving upon her 6.106 elapsed time. Matt Smith, Pete Farber and Steve Matusek were the notable names that did not make the 6.078 cut se
SATURDAY NOTEBOOK - IT WAS HOT, COOLED DOWN AND CREATED A DIFFERENT KIND OF HEAT
SATURDAY'S LEADERS - Khalid Balooshi stayed in the provisional No. 1 qualifying position Saturday in the NHRA Get Screened America Pro Mod Drag Racing Series at the prestigious Mac Tools U.S. Nationals presented by Lucas Oil.
Balooshi kept his Speedtech ’68 Camaro at the top of the field with an impressive 5.985-second run at 239.91 mph after three sessions of qualifying at Lucas Oil Raceway at Indianapolis. If it stands, it would be Balooshi’s first No. 1 qualifier of the season in the seventh event of the NHRA Get Screened America Pro Mod Drag Racing Series.
Melanie Troxel also posted a five-second run with her 5.993 at 239.91 Saturday night, which puts her in the provisional second spot. Troxel teammate Leah Pruett currently sits 13th with her Saturday night run of 6.106 at 242.58.
Qualifying continues Sunday at 1:30 p.m., with the first round of eliminations beginning at 4:30 p.m. Eliminations continue on Monday.
REMEMBERING STEVE ENGEL - Walking through the Pro Modified pit area on Saturday here at the 57th running of the NHRA MATCO Tools U.S. Nationals a large banner can be seen hanging across the rear door of Scott Ray’s trailer. The bright red banner reads “A Helluva Guy: Steve Engel 1959 – 2008.”
Steve Engel died on Sunday, September 14th from complications of surgery after being critically injured during the 2008 U.S. Nationals when his Diamond Heavy Haul ’63 Corvette collided head on with a retaining wall.
Fellow Pro Mod competitors remember him for impeccable personality on and off of the track.
“Steve was just like our sign says, ‘He was a hell of a guy,” said Scott Ray, who competes on the GSA Pro Modified series. “He was a racer at heart. He was a good business man. He was a good family man. He was all about doing a good job and he was really all about having fun. That was Steve’s big thing. He wanted to have fun at everything he did and he was a dedicated racer he put everything he could into it. He wasn’t afraid to spend the money to get the job done.
“He was nice to everybody. He was fun to be around and we miss him a lot. We always think about him a lot when come back here to race.”
Mike Janis, a two-time IHRA champion, remembered Engel as a fellow racer you’d gravitate toward.
“A couple times I walked through the pits I’d walk by him and he’d wave at me,” Janis said. “He’d wave you right in. He was a diehard racer. He wanted to build a racetrack and his heart was into drag racing. It’s still a real shame.”
HIGH HOPES FOR HOT WEATHER – The warm weather wreaked havoc on the tune-ups for a second consecutive day. During Friday’s opening session of qualifying, many of the quicker cars struggled to get close to the five-second zone.
“It was tough yesterday,” said Scott Ray. “The track was really tricky. We had a little trouble with some motor problems. Down the track we burnt a piston but I think that was just due to some fluke but we’ll hope that we have a little bit better results today.”
Ray was No. 14 after Friday’s first session.
“It’s still going to be very, very hot today,” Ray said prior to qualifying. “It’s going to be very tricky to get down the track. And we’ll just go back in our records and use what we’ve done here before and try to adjust to the track temperatures and the weather that we have to deal with and do the best we can.”
The air temperature remained in the low 90’s but the track temperature cooled to 114 degrees.
Ray did just fine by moving his supercharged, Ohio Crankshaft-sponsored ’53 Corvette into the No. 9 spot with a 6.120 elapsed time at 234.13 mph.
Despite running quicker in the evening session, with a 6.081, 233.88, Ray dropped one spot to tenth.
AIMING FOR THE 5’S – Running a five second pass isn’t usually a challenge for Mike Janis. Then again, he’s usually not trying to race on a track in excess of 
130-degrees either.
Janis is ninth after three sessions with a 6.071, 237.92 mph.
“We’re going to try to go like a 5.97 or 5.98 … that’s our plan,” said Janis, who ran a 5.881 to pace the field.
“Our first run we were pretty conservative just trying to get in the show and then today we’ll see what the track can hold. So far this year we’ve had a pretty good handle on different weather conditions and making it down the track.”
In between navigating a complex racing surface, Janis is also working in new aerodynamics on his supercharged Mustang.
“We have this different new whole Cowl Induction scoop that we put on the car so we’re testing that,” said Janis. “So it’s kind of like ‘Is the car going to go down? ‘Is it more power less power?’ Today we’ll see what we can do even though it’s going to be hot out we’re going to try to get in the fives. We’d like to get in the fives.”
Janis is no stranger to the legendary Indianapolis track, having attended his first NHRA U.S. Nationals in the early 1970s. He believes the event has gotten better with age.
“This is the place to be,” said Janis. “I’ve always loved coming to Indy. I mean win lose or draw it’s just nice to be here. We’ve got a pretty good feather under our hat. We’re trying to do the same thing this year.
RICKIE’S ALL GROWED UP - Rickie Jones, a nitrous Pro Modified racer, says the tally is 16. The son of well-known chassis builder Rick Jones, of RJ Race Cars
fame, has been coming to the NHRA U.S. Nationals since he was 8.A lot has changed for Jones in those 16 years.
He’s no longer the starry-eyed kid, having grown into a matured businessman and taking note of the family’s business success. Last year he watched turbo racer Brad Personnet, a company client, won the prestigious event.
Jones would like to see an RJ car win this year again. If he has his druthers, the winning car will be his.
“There’s a lot of cars here and it’s definitely not going to be easy,” said Jones.
Easy isn’t the best word to describe his path in qualifying thus far.
Jones was disqualified during the first session of the Get Screened America Pro Mod qualifying for crossing the centerline.
“The track was really hot and we went up there trying to be aggressive like we were at Norwalk,” said Jones. “We were hoping we’d run a low 5.90 or something like that so we were pretty aggressive.
“We just spun the tire and shook. I tried to pedal it and that was a mistake. Lucky, I just crashed it without hitting anything. I was lucky but today we’re going to make a lot of changes and I feel confident that we’ll be able to get it figured out.”
Qualifying greatly improved for Jones as he briefly led provisional qualifying with a 6.032 second pass before Khalid Balooshi and Melanie Troxel bumped him to third, neither of which have an RJ car.
SAFTEY SHUT OFF IN EFFECT- NHRA announced in mid-July, the use of an Electrimotion controller would be mandatory equipment for Pro Modified entries.
This device, primarily used on nitro-burning race cars, is designed to automatically shut off a car should the driver lose consciousness in an accident or suffer a medical emergency. A receiver mounted on the retaining wall will trigger a device in the car to shut the engine off and deploy the parachute.
“This is the first race that they put that shut off deal on the car where we go past the finish line and it shuts the power off and deploys the chutes and everything,” said Rickie Jones. “I think that’s a really good thing.
“Everybody’s kind of nervous about how it’s going to work and things like that but I think taking steps like that is going to be safer.”
And for Jones, he has no problem with leaning on the side of caution.
“Rules like that and safety things like that are always important,” said Jones. “It’s definitely tragic any time somebody gets hurt and hopefully we can always learn from that to prevent it in the future.”
KING WALKS AWAY FROM TOP END CRASH- NHRA Pro Mod racer Chip King was uninjured in an accident during Saturday qualifying for the Mac Tools
NHRA U.S. Nationals presented by Lucas Oil in Indianapolis.King, driving a turbocharged 1969 Dodge Daytona, ran into the retaining wall after the car smoked the tires, then shook the tires violently and made an abrupt turn to the right. The incident happened just shy of the eighth-mile mark.
“It went out and shifted to second gear and started shaking a little bit,” said King. “I thought I was going to drive through the shake. We had just put an automatic shifter in this weekend for the first time and it shifted into high and it took off. It went from shaking to moving around a lot.”
King and his fellow Get Screened America Pro Modified competitors faced the most challenging racing conditions they’ve experienced over the course of the event. The air temperature was recorded at 93 degrees, with a density altitude over 4000’ and track temperature of 127.
“It’s a little slick out there,” King said. “I got the ‘chutes out hoping that it would save it and pull it back straight when I realized I couldn’t save it. I thought it was going to roll over there for a second. Its slick and we went head on into the wall.”
King managed to keep the car upright, going as far as to put high-horsepower Mopar up on two wheels. He crossed the centerline, taking out the 1000’ cone shortly before colliding head-on with the right retaining wall. The errant race car did a 180-degree turn and slid to a stop.
“It’s a good racecar,” King said. “Mike Bell built it and he’s the crew chief. He did his job. I don’t have a sore muscle. The car can be fixed there’s no doubt. The R3 device and safety solution belts did their job. Everything did its job and I’m good to go,” said King.
King exited the car on his own and was examined by on-site medical personnel.
“We’ve got a spare car at home but it’s set up for blown so that would be quite a transition,” King said. “We’ll see what the crew wants to do. I’m pretty neutral. I appreciate my sponsors sticking with me Strutmasters.com. It’s a racecar. It’s unfortunately not the first one I’ve crashed. I hope it’s the last.”
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FRIDAY NOTEBOOK - A VERY WARM DAY FOR DOORSLAMMERS
AND A NITROUS CAR SHALL LEAD THEM - The first day of Get Screened America Pro Modified qualifying challenged even the most seasoned of doorslammer drivers and tuners. With an air temperature of 95 degree heat and the track sweltering at 133 degrees, more cars aborted their runs than made full passes.
Khalid Al-Balooshi was one of those who made it to the finish line as he drove his way to the provisional No. 1 spot with a 6.056 elapsed time at 240.29 mph.
FATHER AND SON - Rickie Smith made his return to Pro Mod sporting his brand new Jerry Bickel’11 Camaro while also serving as the crew chief on the 1968 
Camaro which his son Matt Smith is piloting this weekend.
“He’s the best tuner out there," said Matt Smith, who is racing as his father's teammate this weekend.. "I had Frank Manzo teach me how to drive and he’s one of the best out there. My dad’s one of the best tuners. I’ve got a win-win situation.
“I didn’t have a good lap in the Pro-Mod car we shook so I just let out. I don’t have enough laps in it to drive out of it and I’m not going to do that right now. It’s miserable out there because it’s so hot,” said Smith.
The second-generation Smith, who previously raced a supercharged Pro Mod overseas and known for his success in Pro Stock Motorcycle, is now making the transition to driving a nitrous powered machine. Smith now has six laps under his belt in the nitrous category.
“You get no breeze and that sock covers your whole neck at least on the motorcycle you’ve got air that can go down your suit. It’s hotter in the car. I can tell you that,” said Smith
“I actually messed up. I set my line lock and I let the clutch out a little bit and the car shut off so I had to start the whole routine over and crank it back up. I didn’t panic. I did everything right. I went out there and did a burn out, backed up and got ready before that. It’s the U.S. Nationals, it’s big but you can’t let that bother you. You gotta go up there and focus on your lane and your side and just worry about your deal and that’s what I did,” said Smith.“We would have made a good lap if we’d got through second gear. It left pretty decent but we’ll be there tomorrow.”
“I just gotta let my dad tune the car. He’ll be fine. He’s the crew chief; I just sit in there and hold on. The good thing is about my deal is that I’ve got good people working behind me. On my dad’s car all I have to do is go up there and drive. He’s taking care of everything else,” said Smith
“Right now it’s 100 degrees, tracks 130 and with a supercharged car like I have that is not in my favor," said Hoover. "It’s really for a nitrous car. If I had a nitrous car that’s what I’d be in today.
“With the supercharger being turned down at 14 over and no air like this and the density altitude is 4000 feet and the grains of water is around 96 grains the engine has no oxygen to burn because the air that’s out here is full of water. It takes that in and it can’t burn the water. So I’m down on power big time.”
NHRA changed the percent overdrive on the supercharged Pro Mods this year to 14% from 20% in an attempt to level the playing field between the superchargers and the nitrous and turbo powered machines. The change in the overdrive resulted with a 200-300hp loss for supercharger competitors.
“It’s just the package that they gave us with this 14 over. I’m just going to have to make something out of it. It is what it is,” Hoover said.
WHAT A DIFFERENCE A YEAR CAN MAKE - It’s amazing how much can change in a year. Leah Pruett-LeDuc can attest to that.
Just one year ago, Pruett-LeDuc was making her rounds in the NHRA Hot Rod Heritage Racing Series, competing with her Nostalgia Funny Car at tracks up and down the West Coast.Now, as the NHRA Get Screened America Pro Mod Drag Racing Series makes its eighth of 10 stops in 2011 at the prestigious Mac Tools U.S. Nationals presented by Lucas Oil at historic Lucas Oil Raceway at Indianapolis, Pruett-LeDuc will make her third appearance behind the wheel of her supercharged ProCare Rx ’68 Camaro, a car and a class that she has picked up very quickly.
“Yes, I can say the progression into the latter rounds has come quicker than expected when considering how competitive and random this class can be at times,” said Pruett-LeDuc, who in her first two race appearances in the class posted second-round and semifinal-round finishes. “To say that I did not expect to go rounds so soon because I am new to the class would be a false statement because every time I get into the car, I know I have a fighting chance of the win light coming on in my lane due to my confidence in Bob Newberry (crew chief), the crew and equipment. I am blessed to be a part of a pre-established competitive program, which I give the credit to our posted success.”
But for Pruett-LeDuc, the chance to compete in the most prestigious race on the NHRA Get Screened America Pro Mod circuit is a chance that she will never take for granted.
“Competing at the U.S. Nationals in a nutshell means you better bring your ‘A’ game,” said Pruett-LeDuc. “It is an honor to compete at the U.S. Nationals, especially in the super-dynamic and unpredictable class of Pro Mod. You would like to tell yourself it’s just another race, but really it is not. It’s the Big Go.”
Though a trip to the Mac Tools U.S. Nationals brings excitement and awe to racer and fan alike and competing at the event in the highly exciting Get Screened America Pro Mod Drag Racing Series brings added pressure, this is not Pruett-LeDuc’s first stop at Lucas Oil Raceway at Indianapolis.
“I have competed twice before in Indy during what I would consider high-pressure situations, the NHRA Jr. Drag Racing League National Championships when I was much younger, and was even a crew person on a fuel Funny Car last year in Indy,” said Pruett-LeDuc. “The history and prestige behind the U.S. Nationals alone is enough to give you goose bumps when thinking that you too will be a part of it.”
Though Pruett-LeDuc recognizes that 26 other competitors will be fighting for a chance to stand in the winner’s circle at Lucas Oil Raceway, the thought of winning her first Get Screened America Pro Mod Drag Racing event on the biggest stage in NHRA Drag Racing can’t help but cross her mind.
“I am not big on dreaming, as I am a doer more than a dreamer,” said Pruett-LeDuc. “But you can’t help but imagine how exhilarating that Sunday and Monday would be as you win round after round. I love envisioning myself at the U.S. Nationals, being on the starting line, staging, launching, shifting and controlling the car, all while keeping your cool and focusing on winning one round at a time. That’s what I love, the adrenaline.”
