TheHOTTEST2018
GOING THE DISTANCE
Be it the GALOT Motorsports Park eighth mile or the Summit Motorsports Park quarter mile , the Salemi gang has proven they have what it takes to get to the finish line first . with non-racing friends .
“ We can turn off work , but we don ’ t ever turn off racing ,” Jon says in between bites of his veggie quesadilla . “ We just had our big Christmas party a couple weeks ago , probably 50 or 60 people at the house . At the height of the party , we stopped everything and made everybody sit around the TV and watch racing videos . This year we played the new Sidetracked year-end episode , so all of our friends and family got to see that before it was released publicly . We played the NHRA . com interview with Lewis Bloom . There ’ s a fair contingent of old folk within the family that doesn ’ t have Facebook or they don ’ t go on the internet to look at this stuff , so they got to see what we did last season .
“ To me , those are some of the most important parts of the year , where you can go back and see all this hard work and drive and passion and hopefully shared it with these people for five minutes of this seven-hour , double-throwdown party .”
Getting the family to take a few minutes to watching racing videos isn ’ t necessarily a challenge at a Salemi family gathering , though , as both sides of the family have deep ties to the sport . Melanie ’ s father , Roger Simmons , raced , as did her grandfather and grandmother , who were early adopters of the straight-line sport in the ‘ 50s . Jim , the oldest of five brothers , led his siblings into the sport , first racing at Lancaster Dragway on Friday nights , almost always with an elementary-aged Jon and their mother watching in the grandstands . After years of involvement , drag racing lingo isn ’ t only understood by the Salemi tribe , it ’ s their native language .
“ We ’ ll be at a family function and Jim and I will be over in the corner talking about tune-ups ,” Jon says . “ At the other side of it , our immediate family , they ’ re all racers , so we ’ ll be talking about Lucas and Angelo ’ s bracket race on the snowmobiles at Lancaster on Friday night – who took the stripe , who went double-oh and who didn ’ t . Then we ’ ll be talking about , ‘ Man , it rattled through 1.2 and ( John ) Strickland drove by us in the second round and we lost . Or ‘ Man , it never set the wheels down in second gear . Did you see that ?’ At the end of the day , we ’ re completely consumed and ate up by racing .”
Melanie and Jon do get a brief reprieve from racing when they take part in the afterschool activities of their two children from Jon ’ s previous marriage . Evan , 15 , is an avid hockey player , while Akyra , 12 , is into competitive dance . Both kids have made passes in Jr . Dragsters , and Evan attends around half of the team ’ s races , incorporating them into his school schedule when it ’ s possible . He helps in the shop and at the track , usually spending a couple hours working on homework in the track media center after racing is over for the day .
On the off chance there isn ’ t a race , hockey game or dance competition , the couple will spend time catching up with local friends , but as Melanie admits , racing inevitably makes its way into those gatherings too .
“ In the summer , we really enjoy going over to
March 2018 DragIllustrated . com | Drag Illustrated | 73