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NHRA GET
SCREENED AMERICA PRO MOD SERIES
TO MAKE DEBUT AT TIRE KINGDOM NHRA GATORNATIONALS
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – NHRA’s newest
national touring series will make its debut at the Tire Kingdom
NHRA Gatornationals: The NHRA Get Screened America Pro Mod Drag
Racing Series.
Conducted for nine seasons as an exhibition at select NHRA
national events, the new series will feature some of the world’s
fastest and most unique doorslammer cars, featuring an eclectic
mix of vintage and late model body styles, in quarter-mile
competition. A diverse group of drivers in the series will
compete for Wally trophies, official NHRA points and world
championship titles.
The Tire Kingdom NHRA Gatornationals, the first of 10 events in
the NHRA Get Screened America Pro Mod Series, will be contested
March 11-14 at historic Gainesville Raceway and will be
televised on ESPN2 and ESPN2 HD.
West Virginian Burton Auxier enters the season with the coveted
No. 1 on his car as the status of NHRA Pro Mod racing makes its
shift from exhibition to official. He finished on top in the
2009 Pro Mod Challenge standings by getting off to a great start
in the early season with a win and a runner-up finish and not
suffering any DNQs during the 10-event schedule.
“We’re going to try to do the same things as we did last year,
but we’ll need to be quicker and more consistent,” Auxier said.
“We’ve already tested in different conditions, and I think we’ve
learned quite a bit. Like always, we’ll be looking for ways to
keep the car consistent through the whole season.”
Auxier will enjoy plenty of support from the powerful Al-Anabi
Pro Mod team, which features some of the best talent working
today with nitrous-oxide-injected engines. His new Jerry
Bickel-built ’68 Camaro is tuned by Jack Foster with team crew
chief Shannon Jenkins, an eight-time Pro Mod exhibition event
winner, also available in the pits.
As a class, Pro Mod has become noticeably more consistent and
deeper over the past three or four seasons, which means Auxier
will certainly have his hands full as he seeks the first
official NHRA Pro Mod title. At the top of any list of
championship threats for 2010 would have to be Roger Burgess’
three-car stable of powerful supercharged entries, which
features Burgess, record-setting Canadian Raymond Commisso, and
Melanie Troxel, who also drives the In-N-Out Dodge Charger in
Funny Car competition in the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing
Series.
A number of other drivers with supercharged powerplants are
likely to be challenging for the top few spots in the points
standings. Jay Payne, already well-known as one of the best
alcohol-class drivers ever in the Lucas Oil Series, has also
established himself as a heavy hitter in Pro Mod, scoring seven
exhibition event wins and 82 round-wins, the second-highest
total in class history, since he made his debut in 2004. Danny
Rowe is a veteran driver who has been competing in the
exhibition races since they began in 2001, and his team is as
solid as they’ve ever been. Joe Baker, who opened the 2008
season by winning the first two NHRA Pro Mod races he entered,
is always a threat to win, as are drivers Tim Tindle and Rick
Stivers.
“It’s really going to be hard this year; there’s a lot of guys
who really have good programs going,” Auxier said. “There’s no
easy rounds out there. I expect it to be harder than ever now
that NHRA made it a series.”
In terms of performance, the sky seems to be the limit lately
for the Pro Mod class, which has obliterated its performance
standards on a consistent basis since the first 5-second run was
recorded at the 2007 season-opener. Entering the 2010 season,
the best-ever marks posted at an NHRA track are Commisso’s
5.817-second elapsed time and the best speed belongs to
turbocharged-driver Brad Personett, who posted a 253.28 mph run.
NHRA recently announced the official national records for the
Get Screened America Pro Mod Series and Commisso’s 5.817 holds
down the spot for time, but Personett didn’t back up his
career-best 253 mph performance within the required 1 percent
per NHRA rules. However, he does hold the national speed record
at 250.92 mph, which he recorded in Las Vegas last October.
• SCHEDULE: Get Screened America qualifying sessions are
scheduled for 1:45 p.m. and 4:30 p.m. on March 12 and March 13.
Pro Mod eliminations are scheduled to begin at approximately
12:30 p.m. on Sunday, March 14.
• TICKETS: Tickets are available for the 41st annual Tire
Kingdom NHRA Gatornationals. Call NHRA at (800) 884-NHRA or
visit www.ticketmaster.com to purchase tickets.
• ON TV: ESPN2 and ESPN2HD will televise 30-minutes of racing
highlights from the Get Screened America Pro Mod Series portion
of the NHRA Tire Kingdom NHRA Gatornationals on Sunday, March 21
at 11 a.m. (ET).
• ON THE WEB: Get live timing, scoring, multimedia and the
latest news updates from every NHRA Get Screened America Pro Mod
Series event on the Internet at www.nhra.com. Visit the official
NHRA pages on Facebook, YouTube and Twitter.
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – NHRA’s newest national touring series will
make its debut at the Tire Kingdom NHRA Gatornationals: The NHRA
Get Screened America Pro Mod Drag Racing Series.
Conducted for nine seasons as an exhibition at select NHRA
national events, the new series will feature some of the world’s
fastest and most unique doorslammer cars, featuring an eclectic
mix of vintage and late model body styles, in quarter-mile
competition. A diverse group of drivers in the series will
compete for Wally trophies, official NHRA points and world
championship titles.
The Tire Kingdom NHRA Gatornationals, the first of 10 events in
the NHRA Get Screened America Pro Mod Series, will be contested
March 11-14 at historic Gainesville Raceway and will be
televised on ESPN2 and ESPN2 HD.
West Virginian Burton Auxier enters the season with the coveted
No. 1 on his car as the status of NHRA Pro Mod racing makes its
shift from exhibition to official. He finished on top in the
2009 Pro Mod Challenge standings by getting off to a great start
in the early season with a win and a runner-up finish and not
suffering any DNQs during the 10-event schedule.
“We’re going to try to do the same things as we did last year,
but we’ll need to be quicker and more consistent,” Auxier said.
“We’ve already tested in different conditions, and I think we’ve
learned quite a bit. Like always, we’ll be looking for ways to
keep the car consistent through the whole season.”
Auxier will enjoy plenty of support from the powerful Al-Anabi
Pro Mod team, which features some of the best talent working
today with nitrous-oxide-injected engines. His new Jerry
Bickel-built ’68 Camaro is tuned by Jack Foster with team crew
chief Shannon Jenkins, an eight-time Pro Mod exhibition event
winner, also available in the pits.
As a class, Pro Mod has become noticeably more consistent and
deeper over the past three or four seasons, which means Auxier
will certainly have his hands full as he seeks the first
official NHRA Pro Mod title. At the top of any list of
championship threats for 2010 would have to be Roger Burgess’
three-car stable of powerful supercharged entries, which
features Burgess, record-setting Canadian Raymond Commisso, and
Melanie Troxel, who also drives the In-N-Out Dodge Charger in
Funny Car competition in the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing
Series.
A number of other drivers with supercharged powerplants are
likely to be challenging for the top few spots in the points
standings. Jay Payne, already well-known as one of the best
alcohol-class drivers ever in the Lucas Oil Series, has also
established himself as a heavy hitter in Pro Mod, scoring seven
exhibition event wins and 82 round-wins, the second-highest
total in class history, since he made his debut in 2004. Danny
Rowe is a veteran driver who has been competing in the
exhibition races since they began in 2001, and his team is as
solid as they’ve ever been. Joe Baker, who opened the 2008
season by winning the first two NHRA Pro Mod races he entered,
is always a threat to win, as are drivers Tim Tindle and Rick
Stivers.
“It’s really going to be hard this year; there’s a lot of guys
who really have good programs going,” Auxier said. “There’s no
easy rounds out there. I expect it to be harder than ever now
that NHRA made it a series.”
In terms of performance, the sky seems to be the limit lately
for the Pro Mod class, which has obliterated its performance
standards on a consistent basis since the first 5-second run was
recorded at the 2007 season-opener. Entering the 2010 season,
the best-ever marks posted at an NHRA track are Commisso’s
5.817-second elapsed time and the best speed belongs to
turbocharged-driver Brad Personett, who posted a 253.28 mph run.
NHRA recently announced the official national records for the
Get Screened America Pro Mod Series and Commisso’s 5.817 holds
down the spot for time, but Personett didn’t back up his
career-best 253 mph performance within the required 1 percent
per NHRA rules. However, he does hold the national speed record
at 250.92 mph, which he recorded in Las Vegas last October.
• SCHEDULE: Get Screened America qualifying sessions are
scheduled for 1:45 p.m. and 4:30 p.m. on March 12 and March 13.
Pro Mod eliminations are scheduled to begin at approximately
12:30 p.m. on Sunday, March 14.
• TICKETS: Tickets are available for the 41st annual Tire
Kingdom NHRA Gatornationals. Call NHRA at (800) 884-NHRA or
visit www.ticketmaster.com to purchase tickets.
• ON TV: ESPN2 and ESPN2HD will televise 30-minutes of racing
highlights from the Get Screened America Pro Mod Series portion
of the NHRA Tire Kingdom NHRA Gatornationals on Sunday, March 21
at 11 a.m. (ET).
• ON THE WEB: Get live timing, scoring, multimedia and the
latest news updates from every NHRA Get Screened America Pro Mod
Series event on the Internet at www.nhra.com. Visit the official
NHRA pages on Facebook, YouTube and Twitter.
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