PMRA: Round one summary

Carl Spiering Motorsports Eaton Cutler-Hammer captures first PMRA event
"It wasn't pretty but I made it"

CAYUGA, ON (May 21, 2005) -- The first Pro Modified Racing Association (PMRA) event was a great success, especially for inaugural winner Carl Spiering of Jordan Station, Ontario.

Spiering, in the Eaton Cutler-Hammer sponsored 1963 Chevrolet Corvette, bested the field of 14 cars, including 2004 IHRA Pro Modified World Champion Mike Janis of Lancaster, New York, and Canadian ace Al Billes of Barrie, Ontario.

In the final run at Toronto Motorsports Park in Cayuga, Spiering met with Billes, who debuted his new Summit Racing 2005 Dodge Stratus Pro Modified. Billes, running the Oddy Racing-entry, qualified the new car number one for the Darren Mayer Performance Engineering Top Qualifier Award in the event with low ET and speed.

But severe tire shake took Billes out of contention in the final as Spiering motored to a winning 6.33-second, 225.41 mph pass.

"The track was awesome tonight, said Spiering after the win. "Our Eaton Cutler-Hammer Corvette was working good. The final was a little slippery. It wasn't pretty but I made it."

Jim Oddy was also impressed with the TMP surface. "This track had teeth tonight," said the Buffalo-area Pro Modified builder. "I wish we could take it from race to race."

In round one action, Terry Brown of Caledonia, Ontario, took out Joe Boniferro (Bear's Performance Products Consistent Qualifier) of Niagara Falls Ontario, Spiering beat Jack Grainy of North Tonawanda, New York, Billes beat Kenmore, New York's Joe Lilienthal, and in the upset of the meet, Lutch Querin of Toronto, Ontario drove his 2002 Camaro to a big upset win over world champion Janis, whose 2005 Stratus suffered from severe tire shake.

In the next round, Brown started way too early, red-lighting, and giving the round to Billes, while Querin gave Spiering a hard time, but Spiering's strong and straight 6.29-second, 227.04 pass over the Camaro's 6.74-second, 205.79 mph run put the Camaro on the trailer.

The second event in the 2005 PMRA series will be held July 1-3 at Luskville Dragway, near Aylmer, PQ, just outside of Ottawa, ON.

The PMRA is a self-governing organization with its own set of technical and safety rules based on the International Hot Rod Association (IHRA) Pro Modified division. Cars in the PMRA capture the true spirit of hot rodding, and the class offers a widely-diverse group of race cars with different types of 2000-horsepower engines propelling the cars down the quarter-mile in the 6.20-second range at 230 mph.

In its first year of operation, the PMRA will provide fans in Ontario, Quebec, and New York the opportunity to see and hear popular Pro Modified racing in the class known as "the world's fastest doorslammers."

-promodifiedracing.com