Drag Racing Action Online

Images Bob Reed and courtesy David Hilner

On July 18-19 Empire Dragway brought some of the quickest Pro Mod racers in the Northeast together to battle for a $10,000 purse. And the racers came out along with the fans. The track located in Leicester NY brought in racers from Canada and New York along with other states to try and take the big money.


Pennsylvania racer Johnny Camp was the number one qualifier in Pro Modified with a 3.6049-second, 206.04-mph pass in qualifying. Unfortunately for Camp, driving the ProCharger powered Hell’s Bells Camaro,got into the wall during his 3rd qualifier. At the end of the pass, one of the parachutes got under the car causing the left rear slick to lock up, pushing the car into the top end barrier ending his weekend.

The result of Camps interaction with the wall

Sliding into #2 was Jay Santos from Georgetown Ontario with a 3.6077 with Melaine Salemi driving her ’68 Purple Reign Firebird from nearby Buffalo NY sliding into the #3 spot with a 3.6159. Mike Stawicki from Medina NY put his blown ’69 Camaro into the field in the fourth position with a 3.6367.

Round one featured a lot of bye runs. One due to Camp being a no show. Santos, Stawicki and Salemi also got a free shot to R2 to make it eight cars left in competition.

R2 winners were Stawicki and Robert Bauer III in his Galaxy Auto Place Camaro. Bauer got to the round due to Camp’s crash. Joining these two in the semis were Stawicki who beat Steve King’s blown Corvette and Melanie Salemi beating Mike Decker Jr.

Stawicki beat Bauer and Santos took out Salemi

Stawicki put his late model Camaro in the Winner’s Circle at Empire

So, it went down to Stawicki up against Santos for the $10,000. At the green, Santos was late as Stawicki was off first by a lot. Shortly after leaving the line, an oil plug on Stawicki’s Camaro came loose shooting oil all over the engine compartment resulting in wild smoke and sparks coming out, but by then Stawicki had enough of a lead to beat Santos for the win. Of course, the crown went nuts when Stawicki’s win light came on.