Title chase heats up considerably in JEGS ProMod Challenge
<img src="http://www.nitromater.com/gallery/files/5/JEGS_Pro_Mod_08.jpg" alt="JEGS_Pro_Mod_08"align="right"borders="0" />
RICHMOND, Va. (Oct. 11) -- Just when it looked like Josh Hernandez would streak away to his second straight championship in the JEGS ProMod Challenge, the series came to Virginia Motorsports Park and everything went haywire.
Instead of closing out his rivals at the third annual Virginia NHRA Nationals, Hernandez inadvertently opened the door for top contender Tony Pontieri, who through one round of eliminations was more than happy to walk through the portal and put some considerable heat on the class leader.
Pontieri fired the first salvo Friday evening when he qualified No. 1 while Hernandez struggled slightly to get down the track under full power. But showing championship form, Hernandez regained his swagger in Saturday's final qualifying session when he ran the quickest Pro Mod pass in history -- a whopping 5.900 at 242.71 mph -- pushing Pontieri into second place on the grid.
The problem for Hernandez is that he hadn't run quick enough in his other passes to back-up his would-be record run so it wasn't an official national record. By NHRA rule, a record run must be backed-up by another pass that's within one percent of the pending record during the same event.
Pontieri, meanwhile, had the record in hand with a 5.905 and a back-up run of 5.947 from Friday evening. All he needed to do was hope no one took it away, with his most likely foil being Hernandez.
Then Round 1 rolled around, Pontieri advanced in his Quality Plus Compressors '57 Bel Air, and Hernandez lost when the transmission on his Team Rage '68 Camaro inexplicably broke.
The end result: Pontieri closed to within 20 points of the JEGS ProMod Challenge championship lead, assuming he holds onto the record (worth 20 bonus points) through Sunday's final three rounds of eliminations.
"This is definitely a Cinderella story for me and my crew," Pontieri said. "I didn't expect for Josh to get knocked out so early. Our luck seems to be changing and we could possibly get a good lead by the time the weekend is over.
"I am so pleased with the consistency of my car and the hard work from the crew. I think what is causing us to be so successful is we are just a group of friends going racing. The team chemistry is incredible and it's showing.
"Everyone talks about rivalries in drag racing, but ProMod is one big family and I couldn't respect and love Josh any more than I do. It makes it fun for me and him to be the ones fighting it out in the end."
Low elapsed time of the opening round came from Scott Ray, who defeated Danny Rowe with a solid 5.919-second run. Jay Payne advanced to the second round after eliminating Scott Cannon Jr. on a .048- to .105-second holeshot, leaving giving Cannon as the fastest loser of the first session with a 5.941 to Payne's 5.987. Other Round 1 winners were Kenny Lang over Raymond Commisso, Tim Tindle over Kirk Kuhns, Tommy Gray over Chip King, and Mike Knowles over Mike Castellana.
<img src="http://www.nitromater.com/gallery/files/5/JEGS_Pro_Mod_08.jpg" alt="JEGS_Pro_Mod_08"align="right"borders="0" />
RICHMOND, Va. (Oct. 11) -- Just when it looked like Josh Hernandez would streak away to his second straight championship in the JEGS ProMod Challenge, the series came to Virginia Motorsports Park and everything went haywire.
Instead of closing out his rivals at the third annual Virginia NHRA Nationals, Hernandez inadvertently opened the door for top contender Tony Pontieri, who through one round of eliminations was more than happy to walk through the portal and put some considerable heat on the class leader.
Pontieri fired the first salvo Friday evening when he qualified No. 1 while Hernandez struggled slightly to get down the track under full power. But showing championship form, Hernandez regained his swagger in Saturday's final qualifying session when he ran the quickest Pro Mod pass in history -- a whopping 5.900 at 242.71 mph -- pushing Pontieri into second place on the grid.
The problem for Hernandez is that he hadn't run quick enough in his other passes to back-up his would-be record run so it wasn't an official national record. By NHRA rule, a record run must be backed-up by another pass that's within one percent of the pending record during the same event.
Pontieri, meanwhile, had the record in hand with a 5.905 and a back-up run of 5.947 from Friday evening. All he needed to do was hope no one took it away, with his most likely foil being Hernandez.
Then Round 1 rolled around, Pontieri advanced in his Quality Plus Compressors '57 Bel Air, and Hernandez lost when the transmission on his Team Rage '68 Camaro inexplicably broke.
The end result: Pontieri closed to within 20 points of the JEGS ProMod Challenge championship lead, assuming he holds onto the record (worth 20 bonus points) through Sunday's final three rounds of eliminations.
"This is definitely a Cinderella story for me and my crew," Pontieri said. "I didn't expect for Josh to get knocked out so early. Our luck seems to be changing and we could possibly get a good lead by the time the weekend is over.
"I am so pleased with the consistency of my car and the hard work from the crew. I think what is causing us to be so successful is we are just a group of friends going racing. The team chemistry is incredible and it's showing.
"Everyone talks about rivalries in drag racing, but ProMod is one big family and I couldn't respect and love Josh any more than I do. It makes it fun for me and him to be the ones fighting it out in the end."
Low elapsed time of the opening round came from Scott Ray, who defeated Danny Rowe with a solid 5.919-second run. Jay Payne advanced to the second round after eliminating Scott Cannon Jr. on a .048- to .105-second holeshot, leaving giving Cannon as the fastest loser of the first session with a 5.941 to Payne's 5.987. Other Round 1 winners were Kenny Lang over Raymond Commisso, Tim Tindle over Kirk Kuhns, Tommy Gray over Chip King, and Mike Knowles over Mike Castellana.
