IHRA Pro Stock racer John Montecalvo has found a new home.

Montecalvo, of Center Moriches, N.Y., scored his second consecutive final round appearance at the IHRA Northern Nationals in Martin, Mi., on Sunday. He’s been in three finals thus far in 2009.

The good fortune has elevated his team to second in the championship point standings in one of the tightest battles in the history of the class.

Montecalvo’s latest showing wasn’t without adversity as he and the crew battled the car the entire weekend, changing motors twice along with many other parts on the car.

IHRA Pro Stock racer John Montecalvo has found a new home.

Montecalvo, of Center Moriches, N.Y., scored his second consecutive final round appearance at the IHRA Northern Nationals in Martin, Mi., on Sunday. He’s been in three finals thus far in 2009.

The good fortune has elevated his team to second in the championship point standings in one of the tightest battles in the history of the class.

Montecalvo’s latest showing wasn’t without adversity as he and the crew battled the car the entire weekend, changing motors twice along with many other parts on the car.

“This has been one of the most trying weekends we’ve ever had in drag racing,” said Montecalvo after finishing runner-up to Frank Gugliotta. “It was brutal. It looks like the trailer exploded. There are parts lying all over the place. We had no business getting past Pete Berner first round. That was purely luck on our side. We’ve been battling this car and changed every component we could possibly change.

“In the final we found the problem. I can’t tell you what it was because we changed so many things we don’t have a clue what fixed it. But now the good thing is, we know we have a fast hot rod here. The car’s fixed. We outran Frank in the final and nobody could do that all weekend. Frank was flying. We went top speed of the meet and set a new track record. So we’re just overjoyed. I’m not happy with a runner up. We’ve had too many of those this year.”

Montecalvo sees the battle for the championship getting even tighter with each event.

“Right now we’re still number two in points,” Montecalvo said. “We’re battling it out with Frank Gugliotta. He’s a great person to battle with. We’ve both been doing this for quite a while, and we’ve both been up in the points for the past 5 years. Of course you can’t count out the guys that are behind us, because it’s going to be at tight battle right to the finish here.” 
 

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