HOUGH EVAN Salemi just recently became old enough to legally take part in the champagne celebrations that come with the major victories he ’ s been a part of , the second-generation crew member and aspiring tuner is one of the most respected young mechanical minds in the Pro Mod pits .

Salemi , the 21-year-old son of Resolution Racing Services tuner Jon Salemi , stepson of PDRA Pro Boost and outlaw Pro Mod standout Melanie Salemi , and nephew of G-Force Race Cars chassis builder Jim Salemi , started helping on the family ’ s Pro Mod when he was just eight years old . Since then , he ’ s evolved into one of the primary crew members on Melanie ’ s Eddie Whelan-owned , screw-blown Camaro .

“ They would let me drain the puke tank on the car and put air in the tires – just little easy things ,” Salemi remembers . “ Not until I was 15 or 16 did I really start having a big role on the race team . Over the last three or four years , it ’ s grown like crazy . Now it ’ s me and Eddie working on the car . It ’ s grown way further than I ever thought it would ’ ve , but when I look at what we ’ re doing every day at the shop , it makes sense . Everything else progresses .”

When Evan was in his late teens , he started traveling to other races to help his dad work with customers . Jon eventually trusted Evan to go to test sessions and local races himself to consult . Those efforts paid off earlier this year when Evan got the call to work with family friend and tuner Jeff Pierce on Kye Kelley ’ s new screw-blown “ Jang A Lang ” Buick Regal in Street Outlaws : No Prep Kings competition .

“ Kye had talked with my dad and Jeff Pierce and said he wanted to run a screw blower , so Jeff was going to tune it this year and Kye wanted a knowledgeable crew guy with blower experience ,” says Salemi , who spent time racing Jr . Dragsters as a kid and now bracket races a ’ 69 Nova when time permits . “ Jeff said , ‘ I have the perfect guy .’ So Kye hired me for the season , and any time we weren ’ t at PDRA races with Melanie ’ s car , I was at No Prep Kings .”

Success with the new combination came immediately for Kelley , who previously raced nitrous-assisted cars . The early success set him up to win the 2023 No Prep Kings Individual championship .

“ We didn ’ t expect to have such instant success like we did ,” Salemi admits . “ We won the first two races of the No Prep Kings season and ran strong for the first 10 races . These last three or four , we ’ ve been struggling , but not many people have perfect seasons . Every time we struggle , we ’ re learning from it .”

The grueling No Prep Kings schedule added a bunch of races to Salemi ’ s already packed schedule , which primarily features the eight-race PDRA schedule along with the winter races in Florida . That ’ s all in addition to his daily efforts at the G-Force Race Cars shop , as well as his college studies as a mechanical engineering major .

“ When I was deciding what I wanted to go to college for , I figured that ’ s what I could get a degree in that relates the most to drag racing ,” says Salemi , who will graduate in the spring . “ I ’ m considered a full-time student . The balance is tough , for sure , but lots of my professors are very understanding . When I need to go racing , as long as I have my work done , they don ’ t usually tend to fuss about it .”

Moving forward , Salemi is looking forward to helping the team accomplish their long-stated goal of winning a PDRA Pro Boost world championship . He also wants to continue progressing as a tuner , and with the support system around him , it seems that won ’ t take long at all .

“ We switched combos this year , so we had a lot to learn ,” says Salemi , who thanked his parents and uncle Jim Salemi for their guidance . “ We had decent success for switching . Every time we ’ d run the car , we ’ d come into uncharted territory . Hopefully now we have most of that figured out so we can really start strong in 2024 . After that , a goal of mine would be to win a championship tuning a car by myself .” – NATE VAN WAGNEN DI

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