Just think, last year people were talking like all the IHRA nitrous Pro Mod drivers were going to go away. Three drivers and their teams refused to adopt this mind-set, and their performances this year are proof enough that IHRA’s Pro Modified class is as strong and diversified as ever.

Mike Castellana, Jim Halsey and Pat Stoken…you could not find three more different people. Castellana is a New Yorker who operates a chain of grocery stores. Jim Halsey, from Street, Maryland, is a drag strip operator. Pat Stoken is a logger from the great state of Montana. If you saw them on the street standing next to each other, and someone challenged you to pick which one was the New Yorker, which was the logger and which was the drag strip operator there is not much of a chance you wouldn’t be able to tell which was which.

But on the track and in the pits, they are very similar. They are all hard workers, they all don’t complain and they all have a specific goal…to make their nitrous-assisted Pro Modified to go as fast as they can go. When people were complaining about a perceived disparity between nitrous entries and supercharged entries, they didn’t join in. When other nitrous drivers abandoned their IHRA dreams, Castellana, Halsey and Stoken shrugged their shoulders and continued to work on their combinations. Just think, last year people were talking like all the IHRA nitrous Pro Mod drivers were going to go away. Three drivers and their teams refused to adopt this mind-set, and their performances this year are proof enough that IHRA’s Pro Modified class is as strong and diversified as ever.

Mike Castellana, Jim Halsey and Pat Stoken…you could not find three more different people. Castellana is a New Yorker who operates a chain of grocery stores. Jim Halsey, from Street, Maryland, is a drag strip operator. Pat Stoken is a logger from the great state of Montana. If you saw them on the street standing next to each other, and someone challenged you to pick which one was the New Yorker, which was the logger and which was the drag strip operator there is not much of a chance you wouldn’t be able to tell which was which.

But on the track and in the pits, they are very similar. They are all hard workers, they all don’t complain and they all have a specific goal…to make their nitrous-assisted Pro Modified to go as fast as they can go. When people were complaining about a perceived disparity between nitrous entries and supercharged entries, they didn’t join in. When other nitrous drivers abandoned their IHRA dreams, Castellana, Halsey and Stoken shrugged their shoulders and continued to work on their combinations.

And their work is paying off. In fact, one of the three will be a part of drag racing history in Epping, New Hampshire when the first-ever nitrous pass in the five-second range is recorded. It will happen, just ask the drivers.

“If the weather conditions are right I think we’ll see someone run in the fives,” Castellana said. “Halsey can do it, Stoken can do it and I think we have the power to do it. I don’t know who’s going to be the one, but I’m pretty confident we are going to see it.”

Halsey is also looking for history to be made at the Amalie Oil North American Nationals at New England Dragway.

“I think we’re going to see it in New England,” he said. “When you look at the numbers we have been running in conditions that haven’t been very favorable, it is very possible unless it gets really hot and humid in New England. Mike has a lot of power, Pat has run some really good numbers this year and I think we can do it.”

After his performance in Martin, Michigan during the Northern Nationals at US 131 Motorsports Park last month, it would be foolish to bet against Castellana running a sub-6 second run. He came as close as humanly possible during the first round of eliminations in the heat of the day on Sunday, clocking a 6.000 at 235.56 mph. During qualifying he had already ran the quickest nitrous Pro Mod pass in history, a 6.009 at 238.05 mph.

Castellana’s Awesome/Al Anabi 1968 Firebird has come a long way since the beginning of the 2008 season. Even though he advanced to the final round at two of the first four 2008 IHRA event, but he was not pleased with his car’s performance or the numbers it was posting. Things have definitely changed.

“Everything has really started to come together,” Castellana said. “We knew we had the power, but we just weren’t able to make the right calls to be able to use it all. We struggled at the beginning of the season, but after awhile we got the car figured out and have been able to run some really nice numbers.”

Halsey’s quickest pass of the season was a 6.045 at 233.76 mph…also at US 131 Motorsports Park.

“We’ve been working on our program for a long time now,” Halsey said. “We’ve had big power, but it took us awhile to figure out how to get it down the track and make it efficient.”

 

Efficiency and power are two things the nitrous Pro Mods have been putting on display quite frequently at IHRA national events as of late. In fact, the last two IHRA events (Martin and Tulsa) have seen nitrous cars (Castellana and Halsey) finish 1-2 on the final qualifying sheet. In Martin Halsey defeated Castellana in an all-nitrous final round. In Tulsa Castellana set both ends of the track record and advanced to the final, where he fell to current points leader Kenny Lang.

Both Castellana and Halsey believe their cars have not maxed out performance-wise.

“We’re not on the edge every run, you have to be smart about it,” Halsey said. “If you qualify #2 why would you want to put it on the edge in the first round of eliminations? That doesn’t make any sense. We just try to get down the track quicker than our opponent, and we try to be smart about it.”

“We usually are close to the edge because we have to push things a little bit,” Castellana said. “We hurt a motor in Tulsa because we pushed things a little too far. The strange thing about these cars is in the hot, humid weather you can lean on things a little more. In the cool weather in New Hampshire we’re probably going to have to tune it down a little bit.”

Don’t let that fool you; even though Castellana expects his team to “tune it down” in Epping, he still expects large performance gains.

“Even though we’ll probably dial back our tune-up a little in New Hampshire we’ll still be able to run some big numbers,” he said. “In that great air the car will be making more horsepower, so there is going to be plenty of potential there.”

Halsey is expecting everyone to put up great numbers, regardless of their engine combination.

“I think you’re going to see the blower guys pick it up in New England as well,” he said. “So it’s going to be interesting. I don’t think there will be a distinct advantage, blower or nitrous, one way or another.”

Make no mistake about it, Castellana wants to be the one to shatter the barrier and run the first nitrous pass in the fives. He currently holds the IHRA record for the quickest and fastest nitrous passes, his 6.000 at US 131 Motorsports Park in Martin, Michigan and a 239.40 set during eliminations at the President’s Cup Nationals in Budds Creek, Maryland earlier this season.

“It’s really satisfying to see how far we’ve come as a team,” he said. “This team has worked so hard for a long time and it’s great to see all that hard work starting to pay off. I hope it’s us (first in the fives) but you never know. We know we have the horsepower to do it, but we’re still going to have to make the right calls.”