Melanie Salemi a Fan Favorite in Pro Boost

PITTSBORO, NC – Midway through last season, Melanie Salemi waltzed into GALOT Motorsports Pro Boost as if she’d done it all her life. In just her second race out in her ‘68 Firebird she won the whole shebang, giving her early confidence and notoriety among fans. Salemi has continued to gain experience behind the wheel this season, going rounds consistently to earn a fourth place points standing. While driving takes top priority at events, the Canada-born racer puts a special focus on interacting with fans.

During this season Salemi implemented a t-shirt giveaway program to connect with her youngest fans. She came up with several trivia questions that would be read over the PA. The first kid to reach the tower with the right answer won a Melanie Salemi t-shirt. The idea was such a hit that other drivers began to follow suit. Salemi says she loves the chance to interact with the kids, who meet her at the trailer to cash in on their prize. Still, there are some fans who don’t immediately recognize the petite young woman as pilot of the blown Pro Mod that can cover the eighth-mile in just 3.78 seconds. Salemi tells of how she recently surprised a fan:

“The last race I was packing the parachute and a gentleman walked up and looked at me and said, ‘Oh you have one of the most important jobs.’ One of my crew guys spoke up and said, ‘She actually has two important jobs. Packing the parachutes and driving this car.’ The fan was just beside himself that I was actually the driver of the car. He was like, ‘That has made my day! I’m so glad I came to this race.’ He was in disbelief.”

Salemi admits that she surprises fans fairly often. In turn, she’s often humbly surprised by them as well. “We were at a race in Canada recently and I saw a few people wearing my shirts. I get really excited when I see that. I never expect that, but it’s neat. Out of all the shirts, they chose my shirt to wear, even if I wasn’t there racing.”

As heard time and again by PDRA racers and fans, the Motor Mania Live Feed is a critical piece of the fan puzzle, multiplying the number of people who “attend” events. “Even times at the track when there haven’t been as many people in the stands, I still feel like I’m racing in front of a huge crowd because there’s so many people watching online,” Salemi added. “You still feel the fan presence because there’s 20,000 or however many people watching online.”

Perhaps one of the reasons Salemi has connected so easily to PDRA fans is her relatability. Although she can thunder down the track at over 200 miles per hour and she’s normally the only female in the 16 car field on race day, through the week and even while at the track, she’s a family woman. In fact, racing is a complete family affair with both hers and her husband Jon’s family in attendance at every event. Jon Salemi, owner of Resolution Racing Services, and his brother Jim, owner of G-Force Race Cars, serve as the driving force of the team, along with Mike Stawicki owner of MSR performance.
“My dad plays a big role in my team, also,” Melanie continued, elaborating on her family-centric team. “He does the between round maintenance on the car while we are at the track. When I won, actually, was the first time he wasn’t at the race track when I was racing. It was sad I had to celebrate without him, but he was watching through Motor Mania, so that was kind of cool that he was able to still feel part of it. My mom is with us every time, too. She takes care of feeding all the grouchy people when we get hungry. She’s just such a nice person to have in the pit, because she’s always happy. If something goes wrong or something is broken and we have to be in a bit of rush to fix it, she’s always still smiling and bringing positivity to our pit. My nephew and my stepson play a big part in our racing also. They’re at the track, and at the shop they help maintenance the car and help get everything ready to go to the track. It’s a big family atmosphere in our pit. My husband and I are both from racing families and now we have both our families at the races together. It’s kind of like a family reunion every time we get to the track.”

Salemi also has a growing family of partners, many who have supported her since her Top Dragster days. Salemi Motorsports thanks Delta Faucet Canada, Motorsports Unlimited, Quick Drive Racing, Flatout Gaskets, Hoosier Racing Tires, NGK, Ross Pistons, FuelTech, Atomizer Racing Injectors, Big Sky Motorsports, Jeff Pierce, Santos Motorsports, and TT Motorsports.

Despite being a female in a male-dominated sport and rarely having the chance to compete against someone of the same gender, Salemi hasn’t run into much difficulty in gaining respect from her peers. She’s been behind the wheel of one race car or another for two decades now. Her experience, success, and seamless transition to Pro Boost have quickly proven her staying power in the class. She’s even proven herself on the quarter-mile, boasting a best run of 5.88 at 239 miles per hour.

With just four events left in the PDRA season, Salemi and her crew are looking to make clean, consistent runs that produce win lights in efforts to hunt down GALOT Motorsports teammates Kevin Rivenbark and John Strickland. During the offseason the team made the switch to electronic fuel injection for Melanie’s roots blown machine, utilizing a Fueltech EFI FT500 engine management system, which controls all of the tuning functions and shifting.

“We’re just trying to make clean runs and run at the front. I’ve made the fastest runs in my car with the EFI on it. We’re just picking away and picking away, trying to make more efficient runs. It might be tough to catch Kevin, but it’s still not impossible right now. That’s our ultimate goal and we’re not going to give up. We’re just going to keep pressing on and try to get that number one spot. Right now I have a car that’s going down the track nearly every pass so I think having a consistent race car has played into helping me win some rounds. Obviously we want to be the fastest every time, but the consistency has something to say about how well you do in points, too. Everything from doing a burnout and staging the same way every time, it’s all part of the consistency of the program and making solids run every time.”

At this weekend’s PDRA North South Shootout at Maryland International Raceway (MDIR), Salemi will hope to use the consistency of her program to become the first non-GALOT Motorsports driver to win in Pro Boost this season. Tickets and complete event details can be found at www.pdra660.com. Tune in and watch all the action live on MotorManiaTV.com.