Shawn “Murder Nova” Ellington scored his first career Pro Modified victory Saturday evening at the Midwest Drag Racing Series’ season-opening Xtreme Nationals at Xtreme Raceway Park in Ferris, Texas.

Ellington, piloting series founder Keith Haney’s baby-blue-hued, twin-turbocharged 1968 Chevrolet Camaro, drove away from veteran Pro Modified competitor Ron Muenks in the final round, clocking low elapsed time of eliminations in the process at 3.60 seconds at 220 mph to seal the win. Ellington entered eliminations from the number one qualifying position, after he rocketed to a 3,593 at a booming 221.35 mph on Friday evening — that run was a career-best for the veteran Street Outlaws television star and street/no-prep competitor. It also marked a personal performance milestone, as it was his first trip into the 3.50-second zone.

Ellington got a single in round one when scheduled opponent Kyle Dvorak could not make the call. He then earned a competition bye in the second round on the heels of his top qualifying effort and used the free lap to its potential to blast to a 3.61 at 220 mph. That earned him a date with Keith Goolsby in the semifinal round; there, he took a sizable .008 to .100 starting line advantage and lit the boards with a  3.61 at 219 to Goolsby’s 3.68. In the final, Muenks lost traction early and had to pedal and could only watch the turbo’ed rocketship blast off into the night and into the Xtreme Raceway Park winner’s circle.

“It hasn’t hit me yet. This is the first Pro Mod win I’ve ever had,” Ellington says. “I’m still upset about the light I cut in the finals. I had to bump one more time because the beams were flickering, and then I went brain-dead after that. But obviously, it wasn’t a dealbreaker. We got the win. That was my first time actually competing. I’ve never actually been in competition racing anybody [in Pro Mod] until this race here. We had a couple goals when we set out here: go fast—we did that; be the number one qualifier—we did that; be consistent—we did that; win the race—and we did that.  It’s amazing. We talk about being humbled all the time, I can’t stop being humbled by drag racing. It’s amazing.”

The reigning Street Outlaws No Prep Elite champion made his Pro Modified debut at the U.S. Street Nationals at Bradenton, Florida in January, and also competed in the World Series of Pro Mod in March, failing to qualify for the historically-tough fields at both events with a best of 3.650 seconds. But at the Midwest series opener — his first in competition in Pro Mod — he was untouchable.