The 2024 drag racing season is shaping up to be plenty busy for Vincent Nobile and he’s excited about the opportunities in front of him.
Nobile confirmed to CompetitionPlus.com he will be competing in his own dragster in the Super Comp ranks again in the upcoming season and he also will be driving a Camaro in the Johnson’s Horsepowered Garage NHRA Mountain Motor Pro Stock category that will have a six-race schedule.
“I have full intentions of racing Super Comp and my father (John) is putting together a Mountain Motor Pro Stock car to race in that new class for NHRA with the intentions of me driving,” Nobile said. “We’re building a brand-new Jerry Haas Camaro. I have driven Mountain Motor Pro Stock cars three times. I raced at Charlotte (N.C.), Bristol, (Tenn.), and back in 2013, I ran a race in ADRL for the O’Brien Brothers in Richmond (Va.). We have our fingers crossed that my new Camaro will be ready for Charlotte (April 26-28). If by chance we don’t make it to the first race, I’m sure we will be at the next five.”
The Johnson’s Horsepowered Garage Mountain Motor Pro Stock class, featuring powerful 800-plus cubic-inch engines, will compete at six events in 2023, starting at the Four-Wide event in Charlotte. Competitors in the eight-car field will race for a coveted Wally and in addition to an event purse, teams will also race for a world title for the first time in the class, with a champion being crowned at the end of the season.
The other five stops for the class are Bristol, Tenn., Richmond, Va., Brainerd, Minn., Reading, Pa., and the fall race in Las Vegas.
“I’m excited to race in the Mountain Motor Pro Stock class,” Vincent said. “My father and I can’t afford to race 500-cubic inch Pro Stock. It is just too expensive and very hard to find sponsorship. This is something my father and I can afford to do by finding a little bit of sponsorship. Essentially, it is the same concept just with a bigger motor and bigger clutch and my father is really looking forward to turning the screws and tuning on it and making it go fast.”
When Vincent isn’t racing, he works for his father’s business – Nobile Trucking in Long Island, N.Y.
Vincent, who has 13 national event wins in NHRA’s Pro Stock class, last competed fulltime in Pro Stock in 2018.
John, meanwhile, drove both Pro Stock cars and Mountain Motor Pro Stock cars in his day and he had plenty of success in the Mountain Motor Pro Stock ranks.
“He bounced back in forth in the IHRA and NHRA,” Vincent said. “Throughout his career he never had corporate backing and sponsorship like I did in my Pro Stock career, and he couldn’t afford to do well in NHRA. He raced Mountain Motor Pro Stock for many years in IHRA, and in 2004 he won the championship. He’s got plenty of experience with those cars. Obviously, things have changed a little bit, but the concept will still be the same.
“The way we are putting it together is that it is going to be just like a traditional Pro Stock car. We are going to have a Liberty transmission in it. It is slightly different to drive, and they are definitely more of a handful. You have to appreciate the horsepower a little bit more because it is in between a Pro Stock car and a Pro Mod. That’s the perfect analogy. Not quite on edge as a Pro Mod car, but definitely more on edge than a 500-cubic inch car.”
Vincent Nobile 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 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.
“I went to two (Super Comp) semifinals last year and I went to one final at the national event in the fall in Charlotte,” Nobile said. “Honestly, that is one of my goals to win in Super Comp. I can’t express how hard that class is. Any Sportsman racer knows how hard Super Comp is.”
In 2023, Nobile said he will compete in NHRA’s Division 1 in Super Comp.
“When I got back into racing, that’s what I could afford to do by myself,” Nobile said. “I picked that class because it is very competitive. I’m having a lot of fun with it. Outside of Division 1 races, when I’m at the national events, I’m going to run both cars – the Super Comp Dragster and the Mountain Motor Pro Stock car. It is going to be a learning curve year to see if I can juggle both cars, but I think we will be able to do it.”
