beat Daryl Stewart in the second round . Cowger matched that performance with his 4.175 at 173.56 in the semis , but it wasn ’ t enough to stop Giangrande and his 4.15 at 176.88 .
After watching final-round opponent Johnny Pluchino run a 4.109 to take out Dwayne Rice in the semis , Giangrande and the Enoch Love Motorsports team knew they ’ d need to step up for the final round . They did just that , running a 4.108 at 175.37 to turn on the win light over Pluchino and his 4.137 at 175.71 .
“ After that . 15 , we knew the conditions were coming to us – weather and track ,” Giangrande said . “ We didn ’ t do anything silly . We just made a little bit of a bigger move than we would have , but not anything that was going to get us in trouble . When we saw the . 10 come up , I didn ’ t even know it was low of eliminations until we were on the ride home . I was just looking for that flashing light on the scoreboard . I was screaming in the car .”
A little over 660 feet behind him , wife Jennifer and the team were having a celebration of their own .
“ I really was thinking about what was going on back on the starting line and just thinking about my wife and Tim [ Fannin ] and Dewayne [ Neville ] and Joe [ Treakle ] and all the hard work they put in ,” Giangrande said . “ To go back and watch it on the live feed , that will be something I remember for as long as I live . Just seeing them get excited was more exciting than me seeing the win light come on . It was fantastic . What a great weekend . Still on cloud nine . Can ’ t believe we ’ ve got the trophy . We ’ re going to be a WSOPM Mountain Motor Pro Stock Invitational champion forever .”
Like Ward in Pro Mod , Giangrande came in as an underdog and left as a champion . That ’ s not the only thing they have in common , though . While Ward ’ s 2005-built ’ 68 Firebird is considered old in Pro Mod , Giangrande ’ s car is even older , but it too continues to prove its worth .
“ Even though we got that new ‘ 19 body on
that Camaro , it ’ s a 2002 Cavalier underneath that ,” Giangrande points out . “ It ’ s a pretty old piece , but obviously she ’ s still got something left in her and hopefully we get a little bit more out of her . Evidently , those old cars still run pretty darn good .”
Giangrande stressed the team effort that it takes to campaign a winning Mountain Motor Pro Stock program , starting with car owners Enoch and Shirl Love . It was Giangrande ’ s first-ever Mountain Motor Pro Stock win , while it was Love ’ s first since Buddy Perkinson drove his car to victory at the 2016 PDRA World Finals .
“ It takes a group of people to make it all happen ,” said Giangrande , the Director of Business Development for Ram Clutches . “ You have to be diverse . You can ’ t all do the same thing well . You have to be able to do your own little thing well . I think that ’ s what we do good . We finally showed that .
“ I ’ ve always thought how difficult it is to put four runs together on race day ,” he continued . “ You might get a win here or a win there , but unfortunately , drag racing is a lot more losing than winning . I like the percentages , though . You have that 50 % chance every time you line up on the starting line . I ’ ll take those odds any day of the week , but there ’ s a lot more losing than winning , so when you finally do it , we ’ re going to ride this as long as we can . The phone hasn ’ t stopped ringing . The texts haven ’ t stopped coming in . It ’ s been very exciting . It reminds you why you do this kind of stuff .” DI
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