NEOPMA Crowns Winners at Maryland International Raceway’s Superchargers Showdown
Courtesy of NEOPMA
Mechanicsville, MD – The Northeast Outlaw Pro Mods fourth “Extreme” Event” of the season at MIR October 21st and 22nd was a huge success with huge crowds, great weather and over 33 Pro Mods contesting sixteen qualifying positions in
each of the two classes. Turbo cars are on the rise in the series with 6 of the 17 cars in the Blower/Turbo class running turbo’s.
In the cool October weather, with track temperatures at times as low as 60 degrees, which means nothing when Royce Miller and the MIR staff are prepping the track, as the track was perfect all weekend. Taking the pole position on the Blower/Turbo side was Eric Latino all the way from Canada in his beautiful G-Force built 1968 Camaro with a blistering 5.89 ET at 245.32 MPH. This is the first race for Eric this year with the series, and the team made a statement right away.
On the Nitrous side, Matt Deitsch qualified number one with a 6.03 at 234.29 in his 68’ Camaro.
In the Nitrous eliminations side number 3 qualifier Ed Burnley ran thru the field to the finals with consistency and performance running between 6.10-6.12 in all four rounds of eliminations, defeating R.Tyree in round one, 6.12 to a losing 7.27, E. Donavan in round two 6.11 to a losing 32.00, Nick Montana in round three 6.10 to a 8.08.
Todd Fontana also ran thru the field to the finals with consistency and performance, qualifying number 4, defeating Andrew Handras in round one, 6.20, Handras broke on starting line, Jeff Rogers in round two 6.19 to a losing 7.98, Matt Deitsch round three 6.19 to a red light by Matt.
Final round was a tight race with Ed Burnley edging out Todd Fontana 6.114 to a losing 6.230
In the Blower/Turbo eliminations side number 4 qualifier Tim O’Hare ran thru the field to the finals defeating Jim Bersani in round one, 6.03 to a losing 6.22, Larry Plummer in round two 6.23 to a losing 6.66, Steve Drummond in round three 6.06, Steve broke the rear pinion on the launch.
Steve King also ran thru the field to the finals qualifying number 2, defeating Barney Squires in round one, 7.43 to a losing 10.75, Larry Higginbottham in second round 9.55 to a no time as Larry hurt engine, Dave Hance in round three 6.04 to a losing but close 6.09.
Final round was uncontested as Steve King hurt his engine on the pass versus Dave Hance and could not make the call, with the win going to Tim O’Hare
This was an exciting race for all involved, especially 2nd round in the Blower Turbo class with fast tight racing and 4 Five second side by side races, Eric Latino 5.938/244.65 to a Holeshot victory 5.957/245.32 by Steve Drummond, and Bill Lutz’s 5.998/246.44 to a winning 5.961/245.58 by Dave Hance.
In the Nitrous class, Ed Burnley set low ET and top speed of elimination 6.10 and 230.06.
In the Blower Turbo class, Eric Latino set low ET of elimination 5.899; Bill Lutz set top speed 246.44 in eliminations.
The NEOPMA would like to thank Rockin’ Rob and Johnny Rocca for their professional announcing and support, and Royce and Jason Miller and all of their staff at MIR for preparing and executing a great event, and a huge thank you to all the drivers and teams who made this such a great event.
Thanks also to the NEOPMA staff, John Mazzorana, Vito Micciolo, Rockin’ Rob, Gino Micciolo, Rocco Micciolo, and Joe Vigorita of ECAM Racing Engines for their assistance in pulling off another great event for the series.
In other event news Kevin Fortney experienced an engine fire at the end of his run vs. Matt Deitsch in the second round but walked away experiencing smoke inhalation. MIR’s safety crew was on scene immediately and extinguished the fire and attended to Kevin, who was transported to a local hospital for observations and released the next day. A huge thank you to MIR’s safety crew.
