World Series of Pro Mod - $100k Winner Take All (2 Viewers)

[Frank]

Thanks Chris for the update. I thought the entry fee was going to be $1000 for the Friday shootout, but if it truly has been waived, I would think plenty of cars/drivers would make the trip. It seems like there really will be close to 30 cars on the property.

Just to confirm, it is your understanding the cars that run the shootout Friday night will not be any of the invite/fan vote cars, correct?

 

[Chili]

The shootout cars will not be any of the 15 that are invited. Those cars will be doing test passes on Friday. I think the invited cars get three shots at the track on Friday.

 

[Chili]

Eleven names have been announced as invited entries:
Mike Knowles
Jim Whitely
Steven Whitely
Stevie Jackson
Troy Coughlin
Danny Rowe
Steve Matusek
Eric Latino
Clint Satterfield
Mike Janis
Pete Farber

Also Aeromotive is sponsoring the $10000 Friday race so anyone with a NHRA legal pro mod can run with no entry fee. Winner also gets the entry to the Saturday race.

Michael Biehle and Larry Morgan have been added to the list. One more driver to be announced plus the fan vote winner and the Friday shootout winner. Melanie Salemi has been confirmed to participate in the Friday shootout.

 

[andujar]

Michael Biehle and Larry Morgan have been added to the list. One more driver to be announced plus the fan vote winner and the Friday shootout winner. Melanie Salemi has been confirmed to participate in the Friday shootout.

I noticed there doesn't appear to be any nitrous cars entered....

 

[Chili]

I was thinking the same thing. I'm no expert but I'm thinking the Nitrous cars would have less power at altitude than the other two combos. I'm sure there will be a couple in the Friday shootout. I figured Rickie Smith or Bob Rahaim would be invited.

 

[Frank]

Looks like Harry Hruska was the final invite. Also, Norwalk winner and Bristol runner up, Shane Molinari has confirmed he'll attend the Friday shootout. Here is some rules information taken from the website:

Minimum weight at the conclusion of run, including driver:

Nitrous-assisted entries (910 cid) 2,475 pounds
Supercharged entries (526 cid) – 2,600 pounds
Turbocharged entries (526 cid) – 2,650 pounds

Nostalgia body styles (1937-1938 Chevy, 1941 Willys, 1953 Studebaker, 1953 Corvette and 1955-1957 Chevy and Buick) may deduct 50 pounds from minimum weight.

Turbocharged boost pressure limit: 34 psi

Supercharged overdrive limit: 20%

The website is www.worldseriesofpromod.com. Interesting to note, the NHRA changed the minimum weight for nitrous cars on May 30th from 2475lbs to 2425lbs. I'm assuming this was just an oversight and any nitrous car that decides to enter will be allowed to weigh 2425lbs. If not, maybe this is the reason no nitrous cars have confirmed their involvement?

 

[megadeth]

Bandimere is a gorgeous place to have a race like this. Of the national event tracks I've been to, that is my favorite.

It might be but the track elevation you won't be seeing the ET's these cars are capable of.
I can thing of a a bunch of better tracks that are nice facilities but at better elevations.

 

[Chili]

Well the clocks are turned off for the event so et's won't matter. If two cars are side by side I can't tell if they run 5.80s or 6.00s.

 

[Chili]

First round pairings were announced on Wes Buck's show yesterday.

Matusek vs. Morgan
Jackson vs. Janis
Knowles vs. S. Whitley
Latino vs. Rowe
Biehle vs. Satterfield
Friday winner vs. Fan vote winner
Coughlin vs. Hruska
Farber vs. J. Whitely

I think the two most interesting matchups are Jackson vs. Janis and Coughlin vs. Hruska.

 

[Frank]

Yep those are some interesting matchups. I wonder how the bracket lays out? Meaning, I'm curious what the potential round two pairings are? Any word on the fan vote? I haven't seen a list of names or the time when voting begins/ends.

 

[Chili]

I listed the bracket as it was posted. So the first four matchups are on the same side of the ladder. All blown cars. The Matusek-Morgan winner would run the Jackson Janis winner.

I think the fan vote begins next week and will run until Friday or the event. Not positive though. I think Wes mentioned that on this weeks show. I would assume the fan vote would consist of the all the cars in the Friday night shoot out. So far he has mentioned Melanie Salemi, Shane Molinari, Vern Mills, Rob Costas and Derek Mineholt (sp). I would think two local guys would be ther too (Tommy Johanns, Daniel McKune) but they have not been confirmed. Other potential west coast guys would be Michael Bowman Rick Snavely and Mike Maggio. For the record he did reach out to the top running nitrous teams and all of them passed on an invite.

 

[justafan]

[QUOTE="Chris Davis, post: 367391, member: 51"For the record he did reach out to the top running nitrous teams and all of them passed on an invite.[/QUOTE]

I'm guessing the Nitrous cars can't produce the power that the supercharged and turbo cars can in the thin air.

FYI, both days are scheduled to be streamed on Motormania TV. Oh, hell yeah!

 

[Nunz]

Don't nitrous cars make their own oxygen? Obviously I'm wrong or they would participate. Maybe somebody here has a little nitrous know -how.

 

[Chili]

I talked with Matt Smith (Ricky's son) today about it. He said that there is no way that nitrous cars can run as quick as blower cars or turbo cars in the thin air. He didn't get into specifics but the only way to make them equal would be to slow down the other two combos.

 

[justafan]

I talked with Matt Smith (Ricky's son) today about it. He said that there is no way that nitrous cars can run as quick as blower cars or turbo cars in the thin air. He didn't get into specifics but the only way to make them equal would be to slow down the other two combos.

I talked to Melanie Salemi at the PDRA race in Indy last weekend and she basically said the same thing.

 

[Frank]

That's unfortunate. I would have thought Wes Buck and the guys at Drag Illustrated would have manipulated the rules to make all three combinations want to get in on the action. According to the rules page on worldseriesofpromod.com, I see they raised the blower overdrive from the current 16% to the previous limit of 20%. Turbo boost is 34psi which I believe is the current NHRA limit but I don't have a rule book handy. In my opinion, the rule makers should have left the blower cars at 16%, left the turbos at whatever the current NHRA rule is, and then added 50 or so pounds here (blower and turbo) and subtracted 50 or so pounds there (nitrous). They have a private test session ahead of time, plus shakedown runs on Friday, so there would be enough runs to get a handle on the added or subtracted weight.

It'll still be a fun event, but I was looking forward to seeing all three combinations battling it out.

 

[Chili]

i think there will be a couple of independent west coast cars who run nitrous will be in attendance. I believe Vern Mills runs nitrous.

I think the guys who set the rules feel they are equal for all three power adders. The Nitrous guys seem to feel they are always at a disadvantage compared to the other two even though a nitrous car has won the championship I believe 3 of the last 5 years. Maybe the nitrous front runners didn't want to play unless they felt the rules tilted their way?

 

[Cliff]

Why are nitrous cars limited to 910 CI? Most of the PDRA cars run 959 motors. That might make a difference & maybe some of the PDRA cars would be willing to run.

 

[justafan]

Is there any update on the fan vote? Where and how to? The race is only 10 days away.

 

[Chili]

Is there any update on the fan vote? Where and how to? The race is only 10 days away.

I was wondering the same thing. I have looked around everywhere and there is no vote posted yet. My gut says they are having a tough time getting a lot of cars for the Friday race. I think if they had 16 confirmed cars the vote would be in progress. The vote will be for the the Friday entries giving one of them a spot in the Saturday race. At this point I have only heard 5 names for the Friday race. Salemi, Molinari, Mills, Costas and Mieinholdt (sp). I'm sure there are a few more confirmed names that have not been released but I doubt we see 16 cars for the Friday race. Wes Buck mentioned on his Facebook live feed a couple weeks ago that he was giving some teams some time to confirm their entry for he Friday race. Today on a post it almost seemed like some desperation asking teams to come out for the Friday race. Hope I'm wrong but I get that impression.