DANTONI GETS IT DONE
DOWN SOUTH

Words and photos by Ian Tocher
9/19/03

ound five of the six-race PRO Edelbrock Drag Racing Series was completed Sept. 12-14, at Atlanta Dragway. Eleven class champions were crowned at the 2nd annual PRO Hot Rod & Muscle Car Nationals, led by Marc Dantoni, who made a bye run in the Pro Street final when Steve Miller couldn't answer the call to stage.

Also picking up winner's checks were Kenny Bennett (Super Street), Rob Golobo (Nostalgia Pro Street), Nick Rinehart (Extreme Street), Shane Long (Pro Stock), Jeremy Taylor (Cheap Street), Walter Doyle (Open Comp), David Parris (Nostalgia Muscle Car), Jeff Puckett (Nostalgia Super Stock), and Rudy Bennett (14-second index).

New York City's Marc Dantoni credited his crew for once again helping him put
Pat Musi's (in white shirt) '69 Camaro into the Pro Street winner's circle.

Dantoni qualified fifth in the 12-car Pro Street field, led by eventual fellow finalist Steve Miller with a 6.643 in his Duttweiler-built twin-turbo '99 Chevy S-10. Mike Thomas qualified number two, followed by defending series champ Pat Musi and Kevin McCurdy in his wild, blown 2000 Trans Am. Perennial crowd favorite Annette Summer had trouble with her turbocharged '57 Chevy after qualifying 10th and couldn't stick around for raceday, denying the Atlanta faithful a much-anticipated showdown against Musi in round one.

Dantoni ran 6.74 in the opener to beat Bill Rimmer, then went 6.701 against Thompson, who shut off early. He improved to 6.69 in the semis against McCurdy (who beat Musi with a .100 holeshot to get there), but lost lane choice to Miller, who went 6.62 in a bye run to the final. Miller took care of Chris Shortridge in round one, also with a 6.62, and Tony Williams in round two with a 6.61. Miller said he thought those performances should be enough to give him the national Pro Street E.T. record.

After such a dominating performance, then, it was doubly hard to take for Miller's Buffalo, MN-based team when the flamed, black Chevy wouldn't start for the final. They never even made it out of the pits, in fact, after some sort of electrical gremlin prevented the ignition from firing.

Steve Miller clearly had the car (truck) to beat in Atlanta, but his fire went out after the semis.

"We went from having a perfect weekend to losing it all when that happened," Miller said. "It's hard when you've worked so hard to get here and you drive so far and then this happens. And we just don't know what it is right now. Nobody went quicker than we did all weekend."