Rowe Runner-Up at Norwalk in 3rd Straight Final
(Photos by Ian Tocher; Click images for larger versions)
A win light in the final round of Get Screened America NHRA Pro Mod Drag Racing Series action at Summit Motorsports Park in Norwalk, Ohio this past weekend would have made it a little sweeter, but Danny Rowe and the Sterling Bridge team aren’t complaining. Matter of fact, they’re reveling in their back-to-back-to-back final-round appearances and the tremendous amount of ground they’ve made up in the championship point standings.
En route to their fourth final of the 2011 GSA season, Rowe and the Sterling Bridge ’68 Camaro qualified No. 1 atop the 16-car field with a 5.863-second, 246.93mph, which put him in line for a first-round meeting with Mike Janis.
Rowe left first in the opening stanza against Janis and never looked back as he blasted through the quarter-mile traps at 246.57mph in 5.904-seconds – just four-thousandths-of-a-second shy of low elapsed time of the round. In the quarter-final round, it was Mike Knowles who would fall to Rowe’s consistent low 5.9-second Camaro, followed by longtime nitrous stalwart, Dennis Radford, who suffered mechanical problems and wasn’t able to take the starting line for the semis.
In the final round, Rowe went head to head with one of the toughest Pro Mod teams the sport has to offer in Al-Anabi Racing and driver Mike Castellana. The cars were within seventh-thousands of a second of each other coming off the starting line, but Rowe and his potent Camaro didn’t have quite enough to get around Castellana, who took the win with a 5.896-second, 243.24mph pass over Rowe’s 5.960 at 244.78.
“Only way we could be happier is if we added another ‘Wally’ to our collection in Norwalk,” Rowe said. “Looking at the overall picture here, we’re 23 points out of [Khalid] Balooshi in first-place, and we’re in a position to battle it out for the championship in these last three races. We knew it’d take some unlikely circumstances for us to take the No. 1 spot, and with the quality of teams that are out here, you really can’t bank on any of them dropping the ball or falling off the pace.
“Our goal has been to do everything in our power to control our destiny,” Rowe continued. “I couldn’t be any more proud of this Sterling Bridge team than I am right now. Balooshi jumped out to a fairly dominating lead early in the season and we knew we had our work cut out for us if we wanted to close the gap. Here we are, though, headed into our annual summer break just 23 points out of the lead.”
For the last several years, the Get Screened America NHRA Pro Mod Drag Racing Series has taken a two-month layoff during July and August before returning to action at the Mac Tools NHRA U.S. Nationals at Lucas Oil Raceway in Indianapolis, Indiana over Labor Day weekend in September.
“We’ve had a great year so far,” says Rowe, “but we have a lot left to accomplish. We set out to win a world championship, and we’re not going to stop working towards that goal. The pressure is on, and we’re going to be looking to make a move at the U.S. Nationals.”
The Get Screened America NHRA Pro Mod Drag Racing Series will return to the quarter-mile on Wednesday, August 31 through Monday, September 5, at Lucas Oil Raceway in Indianapolis, Indiana.
NORWALK, Ohio — Get Screened America Pro Mod Drag Racing Series final round-by-round results from the Fifth annual Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals at Summit Racing Equipment Motorsports Park, the seventh of ten events.
ROUND ONE – Mike Knowles, Chevy Camaro, 5.986, 240.29 def. Raymond Commisso, Camaro, broke; Donald Martin, Camaro, 5.997, 244.07 def. Chip King, Dodge Daytona, 6.121, 245.23; Jay Payne, Camaro, 5.986, 240.77 def. Kenny Lang, Camaro, DQ; Dennis Radford, Plymouth Duster, 5.974, 236.96 def. Troy Coughlin, Pontiac GTO, 6.096, 240.38; Khalid Balooshi, Camaro, 5.942, 240.64 def. Ed Hoover, Camaro, 6.098, 223.43; Mike Castellana, Camaro, 5.900, 239.19 def. Chuck Cheeseman, Chevy Corvette, 6.051, 234.00; Rickie Jones, Camaro, 5.912, 240.55 def. Pete Farber, Daytona, broke; Danny Rowe, Camaro, 5.904, 246.57 def. Mike Janis, Ford Mustang, 32.558, 62.17; QUARTERFINALS – Radford, 6.051, 235.43 def. Balooshi, 6.086, 238.60; Jones, 5.944, 239.23 def. D. Martin, 7.970, 118.44; Rowe, 5.949, 245.94 def. Knowles, 7.552, 138.02; Castellana, 5.997, 238.34 def. Payne, 6.049, 239.36; SEMIFINALS – Rowe, 5.955, 244.65 def. Radford, broke; Castellana, 6.019, 235.02 def. Jones, 6.347, 214.35; FINAL – Castellana, 5.896, 243.24 def. Rowe, 5.960, 244.78.
NORWALK, Ohio — Point standings (top 10) for Get Screened America Pro Mod Drag Racing Series following the Fifth annual Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals at Summit Racing Equipment Motorsports Park, the seventh of ten events.
1. Khalid Balooshi, 508; 2. Danny Rowe, 485; 3. Ed Hoover, 359; 4. Kenny Lang, 355; 5. Mike Castellana, 351; 6. Roger Burgess, 342; 7. Raymond Commisso, 325; 8. Rickie Smith, 317; 9. Mike Janis, 298; 10. Melanie Troxel, 291.
Information regarding Danny Rowe Racing can be found at www.dannyrowe.com
Visit Danny Rowe Racing Sponsors: www.hottingergroup.com , www.sterlingbridge.ca, www.gainsboroughcapital.com , www.rcdengineering.com, www.impactracing.com, www.hoosiertire.com, www.redlineoil.com, www.ngksparkplugs.com, www.weldracing.com, www.permatex.com, www.promodzone.com, www.competitionproducts.com, www.fstopaerialmedia.com, www.mr-horsepower.com
