After an NHRA J&A Service Pro Mod race from hell during the NHRA Houston Spring Nationals just a couple of weeks ago, the pro mod contingent came into Atlanta with their sights set on a fast, clean, and drama free race. The cool thing is that they almost had just that but there’s always something to see when it comes to pro mods and in this case it was Shane Molinari from Washington State and Colorado based racer Steven Whitely providing the thrills.
As you will see, Whitely’s silver Cadillac gets slightly upset at the start of the run and never totally settles down. Meanwhile, Molinari’s car makes a wild move a couple hundred feet into the pass and we figured that he was going to coast to the finish line. Not so much. Because there were so many cars and the bump was so soft, Molinari decided to hammer down back on the gas to try and get any elapsed time whatsoever to help his qualifying cause.
As Whitely gets to the finish line his car drift toward the wall and when he corrects it, the machine turns sideways and heads almost straight across the track. Driver that he is, Whitely gets the parachutes out and instead of a massive head on disaster he angles in and does some damage to the nose of the car but otherwise avoids a complete calamity. Molinari on the other hand is an interesting case.
After getting back in the power and zipping down the track, he gets to the finish line and abruptly notices a Cadillac and a couple of parachutes in his face. It looks to us like he really lands on the brake pedal and now HIS car goes rocketing across the track towards the other wall. Parachute deployment reduced the impact by a lot but the car still took a shot. The driver did also as we understand he got bumped and bashed around in the cockpit pretty well.
This is a wild one from Atlanta that could have been way worse!
Was that absolute luck or smart driving or both?