It was an amazing 2016 season for NHRA pro mod racers with Rickie Smith snatching the championship from the dozens of racers chasing him and the good news is that the 2017 season will expand to more races! There will be 12 J&A Service Pro Mod races in 2017 and we know where exactly 11 of them will be. We have a guess that the 12th will be somewhere on the western coast but you know by just reading that our gut says a western race.

We’re not 100% on that but we are 100% on the early race in the season. Can yo imagine pro mods racing four wide? It is going to be completely mental. There’s the timing on the staging procedure, the lack of ability to judge the tree and the general fact that these cars are trying to kill you at all times.

Congrats to NHRA pro mod racers for working this deal out and thanks to the Whitely family for providing the funding to support the racers. There will not be a more exciting class to see run four wide in Charlotte!

Here’s the official word from NHRA –

J&A Service, a leader in oil and gas well-servicing exploration, has signed an agreement to extend their series sponsorship of the wildly popular NHRA Pro Mod Drag Racing Series. The NHRA J&A Service Pro Mod Drag Racing Series also announced the 2017 racing schedule which will expand to 12 events for the coming season.

New for 2017 will be an event at the NHRA Four-Wide Nationals at ZMax Dragway, April 28-30. The 12th event will be announced at a later date.

The season will come to life March 16-19 at the Amalie Motor Oil NHRA Gatornationals in Gainesville, Fla. at Gainesville Raceway. The next event will take place at the NHRA SpringNationals at Houston, April 21-23, and then heads to Atlanta for the NHRA Southern Nationals at Atlanta Dragway, May 5-7.

June will be a busy month for the series with three events in consecutive weekends. The action kicks off with the NHRA Summernationals at Old Bridge Township Raceway Park in Englishtown, N.J., June 8-11. The NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals will follow over Father’s Day weekend, June 16-18, at Bristol Dragway in Bristol, Tenn. The busy month will conclude with the Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals, June 22-25, at Summit Racing Equipment Motorsports in Norwalk, Ohio.
The series will again be featured at the prestigious Chevrolet Performance U.S. Nationals, Aug. 30-Sept. 4. And then head to Charlotte, N.C., for the NHRA Carolina Nationals, Sept. 15-17, at zMax Dragway. The penultimate race of the 2017 NHRA Pro Mod season, the AAA Insurance NHRA Midwest Nationals, will be held at Gateway Motorsports Park in St. Louis, Sept. 29-Oct. 1.

The 2017 season will conclude and a Pro Mod champion will be crowned at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway during the NHRA Toyota Nationals, Oct. 26-29.

“We are very excited to return for a third year as the title sponsor of the NHRA J&A Service Pro Mod Drag Racing Series,” said Jim Whiteley, owner of J&A Service. “Our partnership with the NHRA and the Pro Mod Series has provided our business with such great exposure and opportunities to expand our business as well as the events are just a great place to entertain clients. We love that the popularity of the Pro Mod class continues to grow and we’re looking forward to once again working with the NHRA as drag racing continues to cultivate new fans.”

As part of its series sponsorship, J&A Service will provide a $200,000 purse that pays the national champion $50,000 and the series runner-up $20,000. Each individual event winner will earn $10,000 and the event runners-up will claim $3,000 each.

The NHRA Pro Mod Drag Racing Series is supported by the Real Pro Mod (RPM) Association, a group of NHRA Pro Mod Series team owners who works closely with NHRA on many initiatives to maintain the series.

“J&A Service and the dedication of Jim and Anne Whitely have been integral in the growth of the Pro Mod category,” said Brad Gerber, NHRA vice president, and chief development officer. “This category is not only popular with the racers but is also a proven fan favorite. We look forward to the start of the coming season.”

Featuring the world’s fastest and most unique doorslammer race cars, the NHRA J&A Service Pro Mod Drag Racing Series offers something for every kind of hot-rodding enthusiast. The class is highlighted by historic muscle cars, like ’67 Mustangs, ’68 Firebirds and ’69 Camaros, as well as a variety of late model American muscle cars. With more than 3,000 horsepower, the suspended door pro mod cars travel the quarter-mile in less than six seconds at speeds exceeding 250 mph.

J&A Service, owned by veteran racers Jim and Annie Whiteley, is located in Grand Junction, Colo. The company, a national oil and gas well-servicing business, leases and operates all forms of well-completion equipment and is the innovator of its patented Green Completions Unit, a self-contained, high-capacity mobile flowback separator that contains 99 percent of all airborne contaminates. Mobile units are available for sale or lease.