TheHOTTEST2018
ou hungry ?” Melanie Salemi asks . Having just completed the four-hour drive from Cleveland to G-Force Race Car ’ s Buffalo , New York-area shop , followed by a six-hour photoshoot , photographer Cole Rokosky and I responded to Salemi ’ s question , nearly in unison , with a hearty “ Absolutely !” The three of us clear out of the small garage space occupied by Salemi ’ s Roots-blown ’ 68 Firebird affectionately known as “ Purple Reign ”, snaking through a short , narrow hallway lined with various chassis tabs and accessories before ending up back in the main chassis fabrication area . Salemi ’ s brother-in-law Jim is performing some maintenance work on a center section . Her husband and tuner , Jon , is double-checking a shipment of parts scheduled to go out to one of his Resolution Racing Services customers on Monday . It ’ s quittin ’ time here in Tonawanda , a Buffalo suburb that is , at this time in early January , as cold as it is fun to say . Jim finishes up what he ’ s working on and heads home , while Melanie , Jon , Cole and I bundle up and prepare to brave the 2-degree weather in search of tacos and margaritas .
We pile into Jon ’ s pickup truck , where the stereo is blasting tunes from Royal Blood ’ s eponymous debut album . He turns down the volume as I begin to ask Melanie about her first season in the Professional Drag Racing Association ’ s Pro Boost class in 2015 . Since Salemi is embarking on a planned full season in the E3 Spark Plugs NHRA Pro Mod Series presented by J & A Service , it seems like an appropriate place to start the conversation . She earned her first Pro Boost win in just her fourth event , one race after debuting “ Purple Reign ”. With the NHRA Gatornationals , which will be her second NHRA Pro Mod appearance , just weeks away , one must wonder if a similar early victory is possible in the shark-infested waters of the NHRA Pro Mod scene .
“ Our first win ( in Pro Boost ) came super-fast , so it was unexpected ,” she says . “ It took me a long time to win a Top Dragster race . Obviously , you go to every race prepared to win , but I thought it would be maybe tougher to do . But with these guys behind me , it was easy .”
She ’ s referring to Jon and Jim , the leaders of the family-based team . The brothers grew up racing together and eventually banded together with Mike Stawicki , who now provides the horsepower for Salemi ’ s Firebird . That trio ’ s time racing together laid the groundwork for what would become Melanie ’ s win at PDRA Dragstock VII in Rockingham , North Carolina .
“ Rockingham was kind of a crazy situation ,” Jon says . “ We had been close a couple other times with Mike driving . We knew we had the capability . That day at Rockingham , it just all came together .”
An emotional celebration followed as the Canadian-born driver and her team paraded back up the return road , basking in the cheers from the crowd that had toughed it out through a long day in the sweltering Carolina heat to witness this moment .
“ People were just stopping us and stopping us ,” Melanie stories . “ I remember Denise Tutterow stopping me , jumping up and down with me , and I said , ‘ Oh Denise , I have to stop ; I ’ m getting so overheated , I ’ m going to pass out !’ I was so excited , but it was so hot and I just remember getting that lightheaded feeling . It was a crazy feeling .”
A sobering DNQ at the next race at Virginia Motorsports Park cooled down the situation like a splash of cold water . Problems plagued “ Purple Reign ” all weekend until the final qualifying session , when Salemi laid down a good-but-notgood-enough run , coming up just a couple thousandths short of the 16-car field .
“ And it was the first race nobody had ever broken at ,” she laughs . “ I was in the 17th spot , going around the pits like , ‘ Are you guys gonna race ? Are you guys gonna race ?’ Everyone ’ s like , ‘ Uhh , yeah .’ Come on , come on !”
A strong sophomore season followed in 2016 as Salemi reached the final round at two PDRA races and an event at Ontario , Canada ’ s Grand Bend Motorplex . She finished the season third in PDRA Pro Boost points , a feat she repeated in 2017 on the strength of a win at Darlington and a runner-up finish at the GALOT fall race .
As a smaller team racing in the stacked Pro Boost field , two Top 3 points finishes is a big deal . Finishing ahead of Salemi was young rookie Ty Tutterow out of the three-car GALOT Motorsports camp , who secured second place behind Jose Gonzales and the tuning-talent-rich Pro Line Racing team .
“ To me , personally , it ’ s a huge accomplishment ,” Jon says . “ I don ’ t want to sit here and cry about not having enough funding , because we do have enough funding to race , okay ? But our funding doesn ’ t allow us to do the R & D that we want to do , or have tons of extra parts or go out and get the next whiz-bang thing for the next race . It takes us a little bit longer to get that .
“ Companies like Liberty Gears , Quick Drive and Neal Chance , then Eddie Whelan from Al-Lee Installations – all these companies and people believed in us like we believed in ourselves . Thank God , we proved ourselves like we knew we could .”
The Salemis also endorse a host of performance parts manufacturers , whether it ’ s through branding on Melanie ’ s race car and fire suit or through Jon ’ s Resolution Racing Services . Companies like
68 | Drag Illustrated | DragIllustrated . com Issue 130