PHOTOS : TARA BOWKER

Quartuccio unveiled his new Skinny Kid Race Cars-built , ProCharger-boosted ’ 69 Camaro at the Outlaw Street Car Reunion at Virginia Motorsports Park and promptly put it in the winner ’ s circle in Radial vs . the World . Later in the season , he brought out his familiar orange ’ 69 Camaro , which formerly terrorized the Outlaw 632 class with a nitrous engine , with a new ProCharger setup for Pro 275 competition . That car also won in its debut at the Shakedown Nationals at VMP . He also notched a runner-up finishes in Pro Mod at the NMCA Finals , the World Street Nationals , and the 50th annual Snowbird Outlaw Nationals .

“ I actually do pretty well with running two different cars or two different combinations at the same race ,” says Quartuccio , who previously raced his nitrous-fed Camaro and twin-turbo Corvette at the same races . “ We won a lot of races with both cars at the same race and did really good with them . I take the driving part really seriously . I try to do the best job I can . But this year it was actually super easy because both cars were ProCharged .”

But as Quartuccio insists , it wasn ’ t his driving that won all those rounds and made the debut of two new cars look so easy . He gives all the credit to his loyal crew that includes Jamie and Johnny Miller , Dennis Godbout , Gary Gonzalez , Richard Beaumont , Jason Gade , and Kyle Cheval . Quartuccio ’ s wife , Denise , and daughters Kaitlin and Kelsey are also key members of the team .

“ I appreciate that people recognize the hard work that these guys do ,” says Quartuccio , who also mentioned

MANNY BUGINGA , STEVIE JACKSON , TIM ESSICK ,

AND ROB GOSS

supporters like Skinny Kid Race Cars , Proline Racing , FuelTech , M & M Transmission , Menscer Motorsports , Carmack Engineering , and Marty Merillat . “ I got the easy job driving . We really had a great season with two different cars and three different combinations . We won in RVW , we won in Pro Mod and we won in Pro 275 . That ’ s pretty good . That ’ s all them . It ’ s a testament to these guys .”

Quartuccio and Miller go way back , as they first

met 25 years ago when Miller was just starting out . They live about 10 minutes away from each other in Connecticut , where Quartuccio owns a car hauling business , East Side Auto Transport . Miller started out working on Quartuccio ’ s cars and now tunes them , along with many other top-flight cars in the Pro Mod and drag radial ranks . The cycle is now repeating with Miller ’ s 21-year-old son , John .

“ Any car I ’ ve ever raced in the last 25 years , Jamie has been involved in ,” Quartuccio says . “ His son , I met him when he was born and he actually works for me full-time now . His job is to maintain the cars for me and help me a little bit at work at my shop . Johnny Miller does the day-to-day maintenance and Jamie calls the shots . If Jamie tells me to paint the cars pink and put Christmas lights inside of them , I ’ m going to do whatever Jamie Miller tells me because I ’ m a big fan of Jamie . That ’ s why him and I get along so good .”

Developing the next generation of drivers and tuners is important to Quartuccio . One of his goals for 2022 is to help his daughter , Kaitlin , get established in Ultra Street with her ’ 63 Nova .

“ She ’ s the one who goes testing when it ’ s 100 and she ’ s one of my best crew members ,” says Quartuccio , who has two daughters and two sons . “ She ’ ll do anything and she ’ s smart and she wants to race . I have to do something to reward her for the hard work she puts into my program . She ’ s going to run Ultra Street and run for that radial deal that the tracks are putting on . She ’ s built this car herself . She did pretty much all the work herself except for the roll cage .”

Quartuccio plans to run three cars at Lights Out – the Pro Mod in RVW ( perhaps for the last time ), the orange Camaro in Pro 275 , and Kaitlin ’ s Nova in Ultra Street – before starting the PDRA season . He plans to run the full PDRA tour to pursue the Pro Boost world championship , while Kaitlin will race in the series ’ new Super Street class .

– NATE VAN WAGNEN DI

January / February 2022

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