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HAHN HOLDS ON FOR PRO MOD HONORS
Hahn resurrected his championship run, however, and going into the season-ending Autumn Nationals at Rockingham Dragway, the Summit Racing-backed driver led Stott by 67 points, meaning all he had to do to win his first world title was outqualify Stott’s LeeBoy Paving team by four positions. Hahn, from Elma, NY, set the bar high during qualifying by seizing the top spot in the 16-car field with a 6.212-second pass at an incredible 232.55 mph. Meanwhile, Stott managed a 6.358 at 216.17 that was good enough only for 12th place, so the championship battle was over before the race even started. The bump spot featured a stout 6.379 by Alan Pittman that would have been good enough for fourth place on the ladder at Rockingham’s spring race. "It was a long time coming," Hahn said about the $50,000 P/M championship. "[Team owner and crew chief] Jim (Oddy) and I have been together a long time and we’ve been working on this from the start. It’s going to be nice to be the top guy all next year." In round one of eliminations, Hahn’s flamed ’54 Corvette went even faster, officially boosting the national Pro Mod speed record to 234.53 mph during a winning pass over Pittman. All that work may have been too much for the engine, though, as it let go in a big way at the top end of a winning run over Mike Castellana in round two. A quick thrash in the pits got Hahn out in time for his semi-final match against Stott, where he left first but quickly got out of the groove and had to shut down early while Stott motored through to advance to the final round against Steve Vick. "I wish we could’ve won the race," Hahn said. "That’s what we came here to do. It would’ve been nice to cap off the Summit championship with a win, but we’re pretty happy with that speed record, too. It’s still a great way to end the year." Vick, the number-three qualifier behind Hahn and Troy Critchley in Johnny Rocca’s blown ’49 Merc, had his nitrous-assisted ’68 Camaro running quick all day and he won the race with a 6.294 at 227.77, while Stott’s 1963 ’Vette got squirrelly out of the gate, forcing him to shut down early.
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Fred
is definitely not dead. Earlier in the season, when Quain Stott was
on a tear and took over the IHRA Mopar Pro Mod points lead from Fred
Hahn, he made the now infamous "Fred is dead!" declaration.
