By Van Abernethy

The inception of this eventual mainstay club can be traced back in time to a New York diner on a snowy day in the winter of 1991; that’ s when Mazzorana met with a handful of racers and their crew members and presented the concept of what would eventually be known as the Northeast Outlaw Pro Mod Association. Although Mazzorana is a man who solidly possesses all the right ingredients for steady leadership, the 25-year milestone surprises even him most days. Simply put, a lot has changed since this club was first formed, and perhaps no one has gotten a more intimate view than Mazzorana. The club has weathered multiple economic recessions, skyrocketing costs of racing, never-ending tasks of achieving performance parity, internal strife, not to mention dealing with“ hardheaded racers” Mazzorana laughs.“ Honestly, who would have thought our club would have lasted 25 years!” he ponders.

The early years were tumultuous, exciting and met with the understandable growing pains as the new series attempted to gain traction. As a reflection of the geographical location of the NEOPMA, the signature format of the series is that its events are contested exclusively on the quarter-mile, which is in stark contrast of the core eighth-mile market found in the southern states. Among the first facilities to welcome the newly formed series was the legendary Old Bridge Township Raceway Park in Englishtown, New Jersey.“ Other than E-town, most of our tracks were small, somewhat unsafe, not very well prepared and somewhat scary,” reflects Mazzorana of the early days of getting the club off the ground. Eventually, Cecil County Dragway in northern Maryland began hosting events as the NEOPMA began attracting more

attention from larger, more respected venues. Shortly after Royce Miller bought Maryland International Raceway located in the southern part of the state, the NEOPMA was quickly invited, and the facility eventually forged a longstanding partnership with NEOPMA, which continues to be the club’ s home track.

The 1990s saw an unprecedented evolution of performance, and the club saw massive gains in horsepower as racers began to explore the science of nitrous oxide, which was the power adder of choice in the series’ early days. Blower cars weren’ t allowed in the beginning, and nitrous

entries were first limited to a single system. Pro Stock cars routinely entered NEOPMA events and enjoyed successful outings for quite a few years, although purpose-built Pro Mod cars eventually made it difficult for Pro Stocks to compete on this particular stage. During the intermediate years, larger nitrous engines with multiple stages were allowed in NEOPMA competition, and the rules were adjusted to include blowers and turbos, which only increased car counts. By then, the club had achieved a reputation of providing a plentiful amount of quality cars that attracted large crowds of spectators. Additionally, many club members both past and present achieved success on a national stage, including Jim Halsey, Mike Castellana, Dave Hance, Mike Ashley, John

Nobile, Pat Musi, Tommy Gray, Pete Farber, Ed Burnley, and John Pluchino, to name a few.

More than just a series of competitors, though, Mazzorana is quick to point out that the NEOP- MA is more like a band of brothers( and sisters).“ We can’ t forget about Angela Ray Kinson, who currently fields a very competitive, blowerequipped Mustang within the series, and even captured her first NEOPMA win in 2016,” he said. Mazzorana loves sharing stories of camaraderie and good will, especially when the chips are down and there’ s a racer in need. Consider the time Steve King crashed at Maple Grove and badly damaged his race car. At the conclusion of this event, Tim O’ Hare and Fred Scriba handed over their winner and runner-up checks to King so he could quickly rebuild and rejoin the group. More recently in 2016, Mac McAdams’ s car needed major repairs in order to make it to the line for the finals. Meanwhile, his competition, Kevin McCurdy, refused to report to the staging lanes until McAdams was ready to race. Mazzorana always has a good word to share of his club members and with good reason.“ They’ re some of the nicest people I know,” he maintains.

The 2016 season speaks volumes about the overall health of the club.“ More demand than supply is how I could summarize last season. We had 17 invitations to race at 7 different tracks,” Mazzorana explains. A normal schedule for this group usually reflects 10-12 outings per season at premier facilities like MDIR, Maple Grove, Atco, Capitol Raceway, and New England Dragway, with plans to return to Englishtown in 2017. The biggest news related to the upcoming season is the celebration race at MDIR for the club’ s amazing 25-year anniversary, which will feature a $ 25,000 payday to the winner! The anniversary race will be held during MDIR’ s Supercharger Showdown in September.

“ The total Pro Mod payout will be $ 50k and will be a 32-car field that’ s paid all the way down to the 32nd car,” says Mazzorana, who’ s expecting an epic turnout to mark the club’ s milestone achievement.“ Where do we go from here? As long as we continue to deliver value and entertainment for our racers, partner tracks, fans and sponsors, I see no reason why we can’ t continue to grow and succeed!” says Mazzorana proudly. DI

PHOTO: VAN ABERNETHY

26 | Drag Illustrated | DragIllustrated. com Issue 117