Riding a wave of momentum going into a big race can give a team a healthy boost of confidence — if you’re PDRA Pro Nitrous racer Danny Sauro you’ve paddled into a tsunami-sized wave of momentum rolling into the World Finals. Sauro shocked the Pro Nitrous class by making his way to the final round at the recent Fall Nationals and then ripping off a record 3.65-second pass on his way to his first win.
Sauro got his start in Pro Nitrous racing two years ago after spending time in the sportsman ranks of the NHRA. A visit to the Jerry Bickel Race Cars website introduced Sauro to an ex-Randy Weatherford racecar and he instantly fell in love with the Camaro. When Sauro received the car he reached out to Pat Musi to add some power via one of his 903 cubic-inch engines. After having a hard time cracking into the ultra-competitive Pro Nitrous fields last season Sauro stepped up his engine program with Musi to a 959 cubic-inch mill.
Besides adding some big horsepower, Sauro hooked up with Justin Elks and Mike Earl from Modern Racing to assist with making his Pro Nitrous operation a top tier team.
“Justin and Mike from Modern Racing worked in NHRA Pro Stock for many years and got tired of running 32 races a year. I met up with Justin at the end of last year, and he was looking for someone who needed a crew chief that wanted to make their car do well and be competitive. Now that they have this big nitrous engine figured out more they are having a good time,” Sauro says.
The culmination of the hard work between Sauro and the Modern Racing team came to fruition during the PDRA Fall Nationals at Darlington Dragway. Sauro’s own goal was to just be competitive in 2018 but to come this far has been a welcome surprise for him.
“At Darlington we were making some changes to the car and they worked. Justin is a great tuner, he knows how to look at the whole car, the data, and then is able to make the car happy. We made a lot of changes as far the tune-ups we’ve been putting in and not hurting the engine. We’ve been leaning on the engine harder and it has needed more maintenance, but hasn’t been hurt and keeps running great. All of that led to the big pass that set the record, beat Tommy Franklin, and won the event at Darlington,” Sauro explains.
Sauro is ready to hit the track at Virginia Motorsports Park and take advantage of the momentum the team has after their first win. Every time Sauro gets behind the wheel of his Camaro and gets more seat time he has gained more understanding of how to get the most out of the car. The addition of some amazing weather conditions mixed with a track surface that will be on-point could be the recipe for more records, and Sauro is prepared to be in contention for the win on race day.
“I’m cautiously optimistic at this point going into the finals. I just wanted to be competitive and didn’t expect us to win an event or set the record. It’s all been gravy on top of the mash potatoes at this point and I just couldn’t be happier with this year and what we’ve done. I’m hoping we can surprise a few more people at the finals and do well again.”
Danny Sauro and the rest of the PDRA Pro Nitrous racers are ready to rumble at the PDRA World Finals this weekend at Virginia Motorsports Park. You can see all the racing live RIGHT HERE on SpeedVideo.com starting this Friday. This broadcast is brought to you by presenting sponsor Jerry Bickel Race Cars along with Crane Cams, Driven Racing Oil, FuelTech, Moser Engineering, Flying A Motorsports, Miller Electric, Neal Chance Racing Converters, Stage 8 Fasteners, and Mark Williams Enterprises.
Photos provided by PDRA and Modern Racing
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