ICEMAN INCHES TOWARDS THE "O" ZONE

Who says you need a late model body style to be fast in Pro Mod? Evidently Shannon Jenkins and Mike Castellana don't think so.  Jenkins recorded the quickest Pro Mod pass in history at the IHRA World Finals in Rockingham, NC last week with a stellar 6.150/224.88 lap. Here are the incrementals: 60ft -1.008; 330ft - 2.658; 660ft - 4.002/183.84; 1000ft - 5.160. As impressive as that time is, the eighth mile times indicate that Shannon could have and perhaps should have run the first six-oh nitrous oxide-aided lap. The Agent's records show that every six-oh pass recorded in Pro Mod has had eighth mile times of 4.00 seconds or below, so the question is why didn't Shannon run the first six-oh on that pass?

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The Agent went to SpeedTech nitrous engineer Brandon Switzer for the answer. Switzer said in part that Jenkins' engine has just three stages of nitrous and the bottle pressure dropped as the cars went up the track and the engine went a little rich, but the good news is they didn't hurt an engine part on that lap.

Here's a suggestion from the Agent: bolt on two more stages of nitrous like Billy Harper supposedly has on his Viper, and we'll see the six-oh time Rickie Smith said was possible earlier this year. Of course, they'd probably kill the engine in the process, but that's part of the price of fame! (DRO file photo by Jeff Burk)  [10-27-2004]

GET YOUR KICKS JUST ONCE IN 2006 ON
ROUTE 66!

One of the Agent's Midwest operatives called to say that after the 2005 season the dragstrip at Joliet (which is owned by ISC, the parent company of NASCAR) will only have one NHRA national event instead of two. Judging from some of the crowds seen at that premier track in the past two or three years the Agent can't see a problem in doing that. Maybe with just one race they will start filling the seats. [10-27-2004]