King— along with everyone else at Pilot Racing— enter GALOT with newfound confidence. No longer are they flying under the radar and able to play the underdog role. While the other Pro Mod drivers almost unanimously like the soft-spoken man from Strasburg, Virginia, and offered hearty congratulations on his WSOPM win, they’ re also focused on taking him down. It’ s a double-edged sword for King, because with that confidence comes higher expectations.
“ When you go into the World Series and come out winning that race, it really puts a lot of pressure on you to come back to the PDRA series and say,‘ Hey, this wasn’ t a one-hit deal,’” King says.“ We’ re coming out here to prove that it wasn’ t a fluke. It puts pressure on you to make things happen and try to ride that momentum, knowing full-well these guys put a big bullseye on you and want to knock you off.”
King indeed proved that his WSOPM victory was no fluke, qualifying No. 5 at GALOT with a 3.637 and making it to the semifinals. There he fell to veteran Melanie Salemi and her“ Purple Reign”’ 68 Firebird— tuned by her husband, Jon Salemi of Resolution Racing Services, who just happens to also tune King’ s car. There’ s a bit of solace in knowing he lost to the same man that
KING SHARES A CELEBRATORY REAL AMERICAN BEER WITH CREW MEMBER CHAD WRIGHT IN THE WINNER’ S CIRCLE.
helped him win the biggest race of his career.
“ Jon is just doing an absolutely great job tuning,” says King.“ He has a very good package right now. I don’ t even pay attention anymore. I have enough confidence in him that if he rolls up there when I’ m sitting in the water box and grabs the computer and gets punching on it, I know he’ s doing it to make the best run possible. He’ s just doing a phenomenal job.”
With a solid start to the PDRA season under his belt, King can reminisce once again about the WSOPM, and the absolutely surreal experience
of the final round: from pulling up to the water box against Jackson with music blasting and fans’ cell phone flashlights shining throughout the stands, receiving raucous cheers from all the other teams as he headed back up the return road, to money flying and champagne and beer flowing in the winner’ s circle. And while the Real American Beer that King was drinking might have had Hulk Hogan’ s likeness on the can, it’ s the image of King double-fisting them like“ Stone Cold” Steve Austin that will be forever etched in WSOPM lore.
“ I’ ve been in a few winner’ s circles, but I don’ t know if I’ ve ever seen anything like that one,” King says.“ And the ride back up the return road … that was the highlight of my racing career. Every team— Scotty Cannon, Bubba Greene, the Tutterows— was out there as we rolled through, giving us high-fives and congratulating us. I think their showing that type of respect shows where we stand as a team. It was really a humbling experience.”
King admits it took a day or two for the win to truly sink in. The all-night celebration, along with hundreds of calls and text messages he received immediately following the race, left little time to reflect. The following day, the team stayed busy loading everything up to head home.
KING HEATS THE TIRES OF THE“ SAVAGE” C7 CORVETTE ON A CHAMBER OF COMMERCE DAY AT BRADENTON MOTORSPORTS PARK.
94 | Drag Illustrated | DragIllustrated. com Issue 194