Pat Musi may be as far from IHRA Mountain Motor Pro Stock as he can be in today’s world, but if you ask him about his days driving one, you’ll find it is as close to his heart as a drag racing category can be.

Musi ran in the formative days of the format and finished runner-up twice for the championship. In his four full-time seasons, he finished no lower than seventh in the point standings.

“I had always read about Ronnie Sox, Don Nicholson and Bill Jenkins and I got to race against them,” Musi said. “That’s one thing I was always grateful for this whole deal, I got to race them. They were tough and I was a young pup. I don’t think those days will ever return again. It was a neat time for me.”

Musi amassed a record of nine final rounds with three victories. One of his finer moments was qualifying for the very first mountain motor event.

Pat Musi may be as far from IHRA Mountain Motor Pro Stock as he can be in today’s world, but if you ask him about his days driving one, you’ll find it is as close to his heart as a drag racing category can be.

Musi ran in the formative days of the format and finished runner-up twice for the championship. In his four full-time seasons, he finished no lower than seventh in the point standings.

“I had always read about Ronnie Sox, Don Nicholson and Bill Jenkins and I got to race against them,” Musi said. “That’s one thing I was always grateful for this whole deal, I got to race them. They were tough and I was a young pup. I don’t think those days will ever return again. It was a neat time for me.”

Musi amassed a record of nine final rounds with three victories. One of his finer moments was qualifying for the very first mountain motor event.

Musi was the kind of driver who accepted a challenge and fought tooth and nail to deliver. The finest example was in 1981 when Musi ran all three major sanctioning bodies (IHRA, NHRA and the now defunct American Hot Rod Association) during the 1981 season.

The IHRA and AHRA rules were similar, but in that time the NHRA contested their Pro Stock class on a pounds per cubic inch basis. That year Musi reached the finals in two of the three sanctioning bodies and if not for one round in IHRA competition would have pulled off the feat.

“It was a lot of work, but also a lot of fun,” Musi said. “I often think about those old days and I never really think of being a pioneer but I guess I was. I was just racing and those were the rules. I just wanted to win.”