These days, the lion’s share of the media and fan attention in the doorslammer racing world surrounds the turbocharged engine combination, the world record numbers they’re able to produce, and the championships they’re now delivering on a consistent basis. Lurking in the shadows and still as competitive as ever, however, is the nitrous oxide contingent that’s still pushing once-unthought-of boundaries with the power adder combination that started it all in Pro Modified.
Helping spearhead that charge is longtime nitrous Pro Mod frontrunner Mike Castellana, whose Shannon “The Iceman” Jenkins-tuned Al-Anabi Racing entries have been record-breaking machines in every venue he’s competed in. Castellana still holds the 1/4 mile record for a nitrous-assisted doorslammer with his 5.78 carded in Englishtown a couple years back, and this weekend, he put his name back atop the 1/8 mile charts when he stole the record away from former teammate Burton Auxier with not one, but a pair of 3.72-second blasts at the Qatar Race Club in Doha, Qatar.
Competing in Round 1 of the Arabian Drag Racing League’s five round season over in Qatar — where the mercury hovers around 80 degrees this time of year — Castellana made work of the Pro Nitrous field on his way to the race victory, carding laps of 3.800, a world record 3.721 at 200.74 mph, and a parting-shot 3.728 at 200.23 mph in defeats of Top Fuel ace and former NHRA Pro Mod champ Khalid Al Balooshi, Rashid Bin Tamim, and Sultan Al-Zaabi, respectively.
Like those in other categories biding their off season over in Qatar that have already posted sub-record numbers, Castellana still has four races and a number of mid-week tests to further fine tune the combination, so there’s no telling what kind of numbers we might see before the close of winter.