Veteran Pro Stock racer Vincent Nobile is changing his drag racing career path in 2022.
Nobile confirmed to CompetitionPlus.com he will be competing in a dragster in the Super Comp ranks with a JA Performance Engine in the upcoming season.
“I’m actually working on my engine as we speak,” said Nobile, who lives in Long Island, N.Y. “As of right now I have a (Ray) Miller dragster in my garage and Billy Torrence is building me a car, which should be done shortly. Assuming everything gets finished in time and we get to test everything I will probably end up being in the new Torrence car, which is a dragster.”
Nobile, who has 13 national event wins in NHRA’s Pro Stock class, explained what took him down the Super Comp path. He last competed fulltime in Pro Stock in 2018.
“A while back I obviously wasn’t racing and I thought bracket races looked fun,” Nobile said. “They looked like something different and something new to do. My initial idea was to go big money bracket racing. Now, as the whole racing world knows I’m married to Taylor Iacono, Taylor Nobile now. We got married Nov. 19.
“Taylor is Jackie Fricke’s niece. Jackie runs a Top Alcohol Dragster, and her uncle Shawn (Jackie’s husband) runs Super Street and Super Comp. Her other uncle Lee Ream runs Super Comp as well. Huge family tree of racing Super Comp and Taylor runs Super Street. Now being married the whole idea of going bracket racing I lost interest in it because I would be somewhere, and they would be somewhere else. I have all the stuff and now essentially I have to bolt a throttle stop on it and try the Super Comp deal.”
Nobile has competed in nearly 200 career Pro Stock races. He has 13 wins, including three in 2018, and eight No. 1 qualifying spots. Nobile, who began his Pro Stock career in 2010, competed in a handful of Pro Stock NHRA races in 2021, highlighted by him making it to the final round at the Lucas Oil Southern Nationals at Atlanta Dragway, May 2. He lost to Greg Anderson in the finals while driving a Camaro for Richard Freeman’s Elite Motorsports team.
Prior to 2021, Nobile had not driven a Pro Stock car since the Auto Club NHRA Finals at Auto Club Raceway at Pomona, Calif., Nov. 18, 2018.
Last season, Nobile also made his debut in a Super Comp dragster at the TascaParts.com NHRA New England Nationals presented by Bandero Premium Tequila at New England Dragway in Epping, N.H.
“They built a car for Taylor’s sister, Tori Iacono and I got to drive her car in Epping,” Nobile said. “She didn’t have grade points yet because she just got her license. I think I won five rounds. There were eight cars left. It was cool. Obviously, I was learning then and I still have a lot to learn. The dial-in for Super Comp is 8.90 (seconds). I also competed in a race in Atco, N.J. I know I have not made more than 30 laps in a dragster.”
In 2022, Nobile said he will compete in NHRA’s Division 1 in Super Comp.
“I may go to a bracket race here or there, but the main goal is to go to the Super Comp races,” Nobile said. “Taylor’s father (Tony) owns her car, and she runs an S-10 truck in Super Street with a dial-in of 10.90. The plan is to go some national events as well.”
Nobile said he had planned on racing in Super Comp in 2021, but his process to reach that point didn’t materialize.
“Everybody I’m dealing with now is treating me right and doing me good,” he said. “Finally, I’m on the homestretch here.”
Nobile said he hopes to be competing in Division 1 in April.
“I definitely will be going testing before then, but when I’m not exactly sure,” Nobile said. “If by chance I could get into the Four Wide Nationals in Charlotte, (N.C., April 1-3), I would do that. Those are my tentative plans.”
Despite all his Pro Stock success, Nobile isn’t waiting for that phone to ring again.
“To be completely honest, I really don’t have an interest in racing Pro Stock unless the deal was really sweet and I knew I could go there and win,” Nobile said. “The chances someone calling me up with an opportunity like that are slim. I want to focus on my program here. I have a lot to learn. I know I’m not going to win right way, but the help I have surrounding me I have a good shot at it after getting some seat time.
“That’s what it is all about for me, is winning. It is a game that we all play to win. I have made plenty of runs going up and down the track in a Pro Stock car. I don’t need practice doing that. I want to win. That’s the main thing. Toward the mid to the end of the season, I would like to get my dad (John, a former Pro Stock racer) in a Super Comp car or in Top Dragster. We got the stuff sitting here and it does us no good sitting in the garage. I’m going to try and talk him into it.”
