Dirt
By Josh Hachat
M
elanie Salemi
would love to
have been invit-
ed to the main
event of the Drag Illustrat-
ed World Series of Pro Mod,
which takes place on Saturday,
Aug. 5 at Bandimere Speedway
and offers a $100,000 prize to
the winner.
But the good news for the
Pro Mod rising star is she can
show just how deserving she
is a day earlier. The Aeromo-
tive Wild Card Shootout kicks
off the highly-anticipated Drag
Illustrated World Series of Pro
Mod on Friday, Aug. 4, with
the winner earning a $10,000
payday and an automatic berth
into Saturday’s main event.
That was all Salemi needed
to hear to throw her name
into the mix.
“The purse, at the end of
the day, is going to draw a lot
of people for the Friday night
deal,” Salemi said. “I just hope
we can come out on top. To be
able to be part of the big race
and even have that opportunity,
it would be awesome. There’s
a lot of excitement around Pro
Mod and I think it’s really cool
that an event like this is going
to happen.”
It’s an opportunity Melanie
and her husband, noted tuner
Jon Salemi, couldn’t pass up
as they continue to make im-
pressive strides in the Pro Mod
world. Melanie finished third in
the PDRA Pro Boost standings
a year ago in her Purple Reign
G-Force Race Cars ’68 Firebird,
and has shown no trepidation
for taking on new challenges.
Racing at Bandimere Speedway against the
Pro Mod elite certainly counts as that, espe-
cially when you factor in racing at an altitude of
nearly 6,000 feet, but that’s part of what drew
the team into competing at Friday’s