Although a victory has thus far eluded him, Pro Modified veteran Mike Janis has enjoyed quite a year thus far in the NHRA Pro Mod Drag Racing Series behind the wheel of what’s proven to be one of the quickest cars in the category week in and week out.

After a slow start in Gainesville where he qualified 13th and bowed out in the second round of eliminations, Janis turned it up in Houston, qualifying in the top half of the field before ripping off low elapsed time of the race to that point with a 5.84 in the first round. Then in Atlanta, the Jan-Cen crew charged to the head of the pack, qualifying No. 1 with a 5.87 — more than three hundredths ahead of the rest of the field, but dropped another second round match to Don Walsh Jr.

If the class didn’t know Janis had a fast car by that point in the season, they certainly found out in Englishtown, when the Jan-Cen Camaro ripped off a stunning 5.775 at over 250 mph to pace the field into eliminations. That run was a mere three-thousandths of a second off of Melanie Troxel’s four-year old national record of 5.772, and is the quickest run recorded all season.

After that monster run, Janis powered his way to the semifinals, before all that home-grown horsepower launched him into tireshake and ending his weekend. Janis was again performing strongly at Bristol, qualifying second with a 5.85, but shook the tires again in round one and dropped his match.

The Elma, New York native owns and operates Jan-Cen Motorsports and Jan-Cen Racing Engines, which provides engines and superchargers to racers in multiple disciplines around the world. In their own car, the Janis’ rely on Ferrea Racing Components and their titanium intake and exhaust valves to make the kind of horsepower needed to run in the 5.70s.

Ferrea’s renowned titanium valves are a high-temp alloy that are heat-treated and stress-relieved before being machined. Ferrea used a proprietary Chrome Nitride coating as insulation against high engine temperatures.

Photo courtesy NHRA/National Dragster