Departments - Missed Races

Only the faces are the same

Words by Jeff Burk
Photos by Jeff Burk and Steve Gruenwald
3/24/04

he NHRA AMS Staff Leasing Pro Mod Challenge opened their 2004 season as they traditionally do at the NHRA Gatornationals the third weekend in March. NHRA has mandated that Pro Mod is an "exhibition" class and that participation is "by invitation only," so there were precious few new faces or cars for the Pro Mod fans.

Scotty Cannon made his NHRA Pro Mod debut in his tried and true '53 Studebaker, but has replaced the AJ wedge with a Hemi.

The one really new machine was Brad Anderson's '67 Camaro driven by NHRA veteran Jay Payne who slid into the seat when his wife and Brad Anderson's daughter, Shelly, became pregnant with their second child. (Burk photo)

Danny Rowe and Mike Ashley (photo) had new rides, with Rowe getting out of his '37 Chevy to drive yet another '63 'Vette for Ashley, while Ashley got out of his Willys and into a brand new GT-500E '67 Mustang that had backing from the legendary Carroll Shelby. (Burk photo)

Canadian veteran Al Billes showed up with a '53 'Vette built for him by Pro Mod racer Tim McAmis. The car was decal free with the exception of one can of "Whoop Ass" on the door post. McAmis is not driving this year, as he has too much work to leave his Hawk Point, Missouri shop. All the work in the shop must have paid off, as Billes won his first AMS event. (Gruenwald photo)

Jim Oddy and Fred Hahn came with their 2002 Summit Racing Equipment 'Vette. The body looked like it always did but that was all that was the same. The car has a McAmis rear-end and four-link suspension under it and a brand new Jim Oddy Hemi that uses Ken Veney heads designed by Oddy and built exclusively for him by Ken Veney. The defending NHRA Pro Mod champs came to the race with zero laps on the car. As a result they only made one good pass -- the last one -- and just missed the field when nitrous star and part-time Pro Stock driver Rickie Smith bumped Fred Hahn out of the field with a 6.225 lap that bettered Hahn's 6.228. (Burk photo)

Speaking of Smith, he was one of two Pro Mod drivers that did double duty at the event. Smith qualified Dick Maskin's 2004 Cavalier into the eighth spot in Pro Stock field and put his own Jerry Haas-built '63 'Vette into the eighth spot in the Pro Mod field. Jay Payne also did double duty driving both his Alky funny car and the '67 Camaro Pro Mod. He only qualified the Alky flopper. NHRA has a rule prohibiting drivers from competing in two classes but since the Pro Mods are an "exhibition" class the rule doesn't apply. (Gruenwald photo)

The youngest driver in the class, Zach Barklage, qualified for his first NHRA Pro Mod field with a 6.201/231.48 blast. The speed stood as Top Speed of the meet. It was the 19-year-old's career-best e.t. and speed. Over the winter the Barklage team signed up with Darren Mayer as their engine builder and it obviously paid benefits early. (Burk photo)

There were a variety of chassis combinations at the race. Scotty Cannon was the only car using the swing-arm type suspension that was so popular a few years back. The rest of the field has the conventional four-link type suspension except the Brad Anderson '67 Camaro which features a non-adjustable four-link suspension designed by Murray Anderson (no relation).

If it weren't for Rickie Smith's last ditch effort the field at Gainesville would have been all supercharged. In the history of NHRA Pro Mod competition there has only been one field with no nitrous cars and that was last year's E-town race where Mike Castellana's sub-6.20 lap didn't get him into the field.

Castellana had a very tough and expensive weekend in Gainesville. He and teammate Shannon Jenkins ran near identical laps on Friday to temporarily get into the program. They each ran 6.24 elapsed times at 223.99 mph. Castellana just edged Jenkins with a 6.240 to Jenkins 6.248. The team supposedly burned up four engines in just three laps of qualifying and they didn't make the fourth qualifying session on Saturday.

Ed Hoover returned to form as he qualified his blown '63 'Vette fourth with a 6.190/228.31. When asked if he was going to race his brand new Tommy Mauney-built nitrous injected car, he answered, "Not over here (NHRA). That would be bringing a knife to a gun fight."

Mike Hedgecock, who was once one of the premier nitrous injected engine builders in Pro Mod, was seen in Scotty Cannon's pit and reportedly is doing all of the engine work on Cannon's supercharged Hemi engines. So much for all of the talk about Hemi engines dominating the class. At Gainesville five of the eight qualifiers, including the top four, had wedge-headed engines and only three had Hemis.

ROUND ONE -- Al Billes, Chevy Corvette, 6.246, 230.29 def. Von Smith, Ford Mustang, 17.256, 44.00; Ed Hoover, Corvette, 6.246, 226.87 def. Zach Barklage, Pontiac Grand Am, 6.325, 226.70; Mike Janis, Corvette, 6.206, 232.25 def. Rickie Smith, Corvette, 6.277, 210.23; Mike Ashley, Mustang, 6.194, 229.88 def. Mitch Stott, Corvette, 6.246, 230.35

SEMIFINALS -- Hoover, 6.216, 228.71 def. Janis, 6.726, 163.36; Billes, 6.215, 230.00 def. Ashley, 15.306, 52.91

FINAL -- Billes, 6.206, 229.88 def. Hoover, 15.744, 56.22