Special Section
PRO 632 JEFF MELNICK
● Jeff Melnick claimed his second world championship in Pro 632 presented by PTC Converters competition teamed up with Alan O’ Brien and the Greenbrier Excavating & Paving team. Driving the Greenbrier’ 20 Camaro – now powered by a Ford engine – Melnick picked up three wins in five final-round appearances.
Melnick won three consecutive events – the North vs. South Shootout, the Northern Nationals, and the Thunder Valley Throwdown
– and picked up multiple No. 1 qualifier awards with power from Barry Allen and tuning by Patrick Barnhill.
“ You look back 10 years and it’ s like,‘ Wow, how did I get here?’ I don’ t really know, but I did, and I’ m very blessed to be surrounded by a lot of great people is the reality of it,” Melnick said.“ There’ s a saying,‘ If you want to be the next millionaire, you hang out with millionaires.’ Well, I hang out with world champions. You’ re going to be the next world champion if you hang out with a bunch of people that win a lot. That’ s really how it goes.”
SUPER STREET CONNOR MCGEE
● A season-long battle among young guns for the Super Street presented by Brian’ s Heating & Cooling LLC. world championship ended with Connor McGee hoisting the big trophy at the World Finals. The college student won three races in four final rounds to earn his first-ever world championship.
McGee’ s season started with a win at the East Coast Nationals in his Fulton-powered Mustang. He won again two races later at the North vs. South Shootout before successfully defending his 2024 win at the Thunder Valley Throwdown. A runner-up finish at DragWars put McGee in the position to clinch the title early at the World Finals.
“ This is all due to my dad’ s hard work and the team’ s efforts,” McGee said.“ He looks over every bit of data and sees where we can improve. We’ re going testing all the time. Almost every single race we showed up with different parts and pieces than what we had at the last race, trying to see what can take us to the next level instead of getting complacent. We’ re already getting ready for next year and we’ re going to be ready to try and go back-to-back.”
ELITE TOP SPORTSMAN BRYAN LAFLAM
● The MagnaFuel Elite Top Sportsman presented by PAR Racing Engines championship battle was fierce, with past world champions like Dewayne Silance and Glenn Butcher in the hunt until the final days of the season. But a new world champion was crowned, as Bryan LaFlam powered his way to the title by less than one round over Silance.
Consistency was key for LaFlam, who steadily racked up round wins in his supercharged BigStuff TPM’ 67 Mustang at the first few races before winning the Northern Nationals. An early loss late in the season threatened his title hopes, but similar misfortune for his challengers helped his case, as did his qualifying points – he earned one No. 1 qualifier award and made the top three at all but one other race.
52 PDRA660. com