Numerous drivers have proven over two years that experience at Bandimere Speedway isn’ t necessary to do well at the World Series of Pro Mod. Jeremy Ray took that concept one step further this year, his first season in NHRA Pro Mod competition after years of eighth-mile racing in PDRA Pro Boost. The Lugoff, South Carolina, driver fired off two of the four quickest supercharged passes of eliminations. He started race day with a 5.983 at 238.13 over Scott Oksas,

then improved to a 5.980 at 238.09 next to Mike Bowman in the second round, though it was negated by a red light disqualification.

“ It is different conditions and you have to adapt to it and make it work,” Ray said of the challenge of racing on Thunder Mountain.“ I’ ve never competed in a race like this with a $ 100,000 winner-takes-all prize. Wes( Buck) invited me to come and I told him I would be here, and I did what I said I was going to do.”

- NATE VAN WAGNEN DI

In making his World Series of Pro Mod debut, Marc Caruso was also making his quarter-mile Pro Mod debut. The PDRA Pro Boost standout converted his supercharged Caruso Family Racing‘ 69 Camaro over from eighth-mile trim to a quarter-mile setup with the assistance of tuner Lee White and supercharger guru Al Billes. The Rochester, New York-based driver and his team tested rigorously in the days leading into the race. Caruso left on Carl Stevens Jr. in their opening-round bout, but Caruso’ s timing plug came unplugged and slowed the Camaro to a 6.064 at 232.51 to Stevens’

winning 5.93. Still, merely being invited and proving his mettle on the quarter-mile was enough to satisfy Caruso, at least for now.

“ I was very impressed with what we were able to accomplish,” Caruso offered.“ I had all the confidence in Lee White and our brand-new 4.9 Noonan race engine. Obviously, Al Billes is no stranger to what it takes to win races with his superchargers. He made sure that we had what we needed to go up there and be competitive. From what I was told and what we saw on the scoreboards, we were definitely competitive. Now I just can’ t wait for next year.”

- NATE VAN WAGNEN DI

PHOTOS: JOE MCHUGH

Jim Whiteley has raced a lot and succeeded a lot on a number of different levels and in a number of different classes, most recently winning a NHRA Pro Mod race earlier in 2018 at Houston.

But even in his vast experiences and achievements, there is something special about racing at the World Series of Pro Mod.

“ I’ ve been racing for 25 years and last year when we did this, it was hands down the funnest race,” Whiteley said.“ Another thing, it was

at Denver. I love these folks over here and they treat us like we’ re kings. They’ re wonderful folks and the track is outstanding. It’ s just, overall, the funnest race you could ever partake in and I hope they just continue to build on it.”

Whiteley has been one of the

WSOPM’ s staunchest supporters, as his J & A Service business served as one of the event’ s presenting sponsors for a second straight year.

That’ s how much Whiteley believes in the event, while he also enjoyed some success on the track in 2018. He took out Todd Tutterow, a driver many thought could win the race, in the opening round before falling to Stevie“ Fast” Jackson a round later.

Whiteley remains a huge fan of the entire set-up of the WSOPM as well, from the scoreboards being shut off during the shakedown runs to Pro Mods getting the center stage in Denver.

“ I like the aspect of running qualifying and you’ re not seeing what the other folks are running,” Whiteley said.“ That aspect is really, really neat and doing it for Wes( Buck) is pretty cool. He’ s worked to put this together and put a lot of time in to pull it off, and he does a great job. There’ s several things like that, but the biggest thing is it’ s a little different.”

- JOSH HACHAT DI