Earlier this year, Flying H Drag Strip in Odessa, Missouri, announced a winner-take-all Pro Mod event that featured a $45,000 purse. The action would include side-by-side sub-six-second elapsed times with speeds pushing 250 mph. Quarter Mile Mania had thirteen top-name NHRA Pro Mod racers come to Flying H, all with hopes of winning the $45,000 payday.
After testing earlier in the week, qualifying started with two rounds on Friday night and the final round on Saturday morning. At the top of the sheet was Justin Bond of team Al-Anabi, running low ET in two rounds during qualifying. Pairings for eliminations were done by random chip draw by each of the drivers instead of the typical ladder-style pairing. As the drivers were paired, Bond drew Al-Anabi teammate Khalid Al Balooshi for his first-round match-up. In a close race, Bond got the win running 3.804 at 245.86 mph versus Balooshi’s 3.880 at 243.49 mph.
Bond would go on to face Stevie “Fast” Jackson in round number two where he would also get the win against Jackson. In the semi-final round, Bond would match up with Mason Wright. In an upset win, Mason Wright gets the hole-shot over Bond running 5.759 at 247.42 mph to Bond’s losing 5.743 at 249.49 mph effort.
Sitting in the number two qualifying position, Derek Menholt draws the number eight qualifier, Dmitry Samorukov for first round. Dmitry was locked door to door with Menholt, but Menholt was able to drive around and get the win light and move on to the second round. The chip draw for round two would have Menholt line up with Billy Banaka.
Continuing with the same consistency he had during qualifying, Menholt was able to hold off Banaka with his 5.770 at 247.44 mph run to Banaka’s 5.806 at 244.79 mph. The semi-final round Menholt had to face off and race teammate Ken Quartuccio. Quartuccio left first with a huge advantage, but had engine problems down track and backfired the supercharger which slowed him allowing Menholt to drive around for the win.
In an all Camaro final, it was the late model of Mason Wright versus the old school Camaro of Derek Menholt. At the starting line, Wright had a slight advantage but would go on and run low elapsed time of not only of eliminations, but of the entire weekend with his 5.731 at 237.42 mph blast again Menholt’s 5.740 at 248.87 mph. Mason Wright and team celebrated their win as well as collected the big $45,000 check to close out the night.