Drag Illustrated Issue 113, September 2016 | Page 85
PHOTO: MIKE SANTORO
priceless information from having surrounded
okay; this is how it’s supposed to be.’ Somebody
supercharged applications, such as Melanie’s. As
himself with intelligent people.
came running across the stage, jumped over our
one of the lesser-funded PDRA Pro Boost teams,
Now, while he works with several other teams, singer’s head and landed in the audience, and
Salemi finds he has to outsmart the other guys,
the primary driver that Salemi tunes for is none
Melanie was like, ‘Oh my gosh, I can’t believe
rather than outspend, and switching to EFI gives
other than his own wife, Melanie, who fields a
somebody’s not dead!’”
him a competitive advantage. “It’s so costly to do
roots-blown, G-Force Racing-built ’68 Pontithis that if you don’t have enough brainpower on
Given his involvement in Pro Boost, Salemi’s
ac Firebird known as “Purple
projects, they can go awry, so we
Reign” in PDRA’s Pro Boost
all try to work together,” he says.
“My main deal at Resolution is
class. Salemi met his Canadian-born wife in May 2010,
flowing fuel systems for superwhen both were competing at
charged alcohol combinations,”
a drag race in Canada.
Salemi notes. “But we stepped
“I’d been through a divorce—a
into EFI on supercharged applilot of which had to do with becations this year and we’ve been
ing gone racing all the time—
using Melanie’s car to showcase
and I always thought if I ever
our work.” Alongside fellow
get serious with another girl it
crew chief Jeff Pierce from Jeff
would definitely be a girl that
Pierce Race Car Tuning, the
would want to go to the race
team unveiled their car’s new
track or be part of racing. AnyFuelTech GT500 EFI system
way, I had a friend there who
(with Atomizer fuel injectors)
said, ‘Hey there’s this hot blonde
in January while racing in Florgirl driving this dragster here,
ida. There’s tremendous synergy
so you should go talk to her.’ I
between the Salemis’ business
remember there was a break
and its associated entities, as
because of a crash or oil down
the EFI install was performed
or something and she walked
at G-Force and dyno’d at MSR.
by our pit area. I decided to
In regard to his signature
follow her and was almost in
tuning style, Salemi is fairly
a light jog to catch up with her.
uncomplicated. He prefers to
I followed her all the way up to
simply get the car running as
the starting line and awkwardly
efficiently as possible and bestarted talking to her. Then the
lieves the person who keeps all
inevitable Facebook friendship
variables in check will be most
turned into marriage a couple
successful. “If you’re not makof years later and a racing parting efficient runs where you’re
nership and everything else that
using the most power you can
we have was started.”
as quickly as possible, you’re
Salemi also laughs when
not doing the best job,” Salemi
he recalls the first time Melastates confidently. “It comes
nie attended a Snapcase confrom understanding all angles:
cert with him.
chassis setup, clutch, convert“I tell this story all the time
er, gear ratios, and how that all
because when I met Melanie
relates to power. If it’s not all
she knew that I was in a band
in synch, you’re not making as
but she had no idea what it was
efficient a run as possible.”
about or anything. So probaSalemi can see parallels in
bly about eight months into our
the ways he developed as a murelationship we got these large
sician in the early ‘90s and how
offers to play these shows and
an engine tuner has to learn the
she came with us for a weekbasics but still remain open to
end when we played in New
new ideas.
Salemi goes in on a guitar riff on stage with his bandmates in the internationally
York City at Webster Hall with
“Having to play to tape made
known hardcore punk band Snapcase based out of Buffalo, New York. Recordfriends of ours, a band that was
me
so much better of a player
ing and touring actively from 1991 to 2005, with intermittment reunion shows in
very parallel to ours, one we had
and more precise,” he explains.
the years following, Snapcase is regarded as one of the pioneering acts of the
toured Europe with,” he says.
“I’m not sitting here down playhardcore music scene. “There’s a lot of parallels with Pro Mod racing and what we
“Anyway, when we struck our
ing modern technology either
did with the band,” says Salemi. “It’s such a tight-knit scene; you don’t realy know
first note and the crowd went
because Pro Tools (computabout it unless you’re a part of it - unless you’re involved.”
crazy, she was standing on stage
er-based recording) is amazing
off to the side and she thought
also, but it’s your same parallel
power adder of choice is most definitely a super- in drag racing. Now we have two steps on the
a huge fight had started. People were running
across the stage and jumping off into the crowd. charger. Although he’s dabbled in some turbo- starting line, we have auto-shifted cars, where
People were swinging their arms and kicking their
charged setups and has yet to get his hands on a
before you had to rev them up and swap feet and
legs on the dance floor, and she was like, ‘Oh my
worthwhile nitrous project, it’s the blowers that
shift them yourself. It’s the same parallel with
still give him goose bumps.
gosh, what the hell is going on?’ She had this look
having two-inch tape versus ProTools to having
Alongside his brother at G-Force, Salemi pi- two steps and auto-shifters versus swapping feet
on her face like she was thinking, ‘what in the
oneered the use of electronic fuel injection in
hell is happening to me right now.’ I told her, ‘It’s
and pulling levers or whatever. It’s just technology.
September 2016
DragIllustrated.com
| D r a g I l l u s t r a t e d | 85