Title Time: Jim Halsey Is Ready To Defend His PDRA Championship

Pro Mod racing at its highest levels could be one of the most challenging classes in all of drag racing, so anytime you can win a championship it’s a big deal. Jim Halsey earned his first PDRA Pro Nitrous title in 2019 after a season-long battle with some of the best in the business — now he’s ready to defend his crown starting at the East Coast Nationals.

The 2020 racing season has been strange to say the least since it has been ravaged by the COVID-19 pandemic. With harsh restrictions in place, most big races and series have been postponed or canceled, but there’s finally some light at the end of the tunnel. The PDRA is set to open its season at GALOT Motorsports Park with the East Coast Nationals, but this event will be different than normal with no spectators.

Halsey never stopped preparing for the 2020 season even in these strange times. He wanted to have his nitrous-fed Camaro ready to go as soon as racing was given the green light to begin.

“We completely dismantled the car over the winter — I don’t think it had one nut or bolt left in it after we were done. That allowed us to make some changes and updates to the car since it has a few years on it. We went to Darlington three times to test as well during the offseason. Most of the work to the car was done by mid-April and we were ready to go. We have the same engine program from last year and updated our ECU to the MoTeC Outlaw Package that Switzer offers. This package provides us with more tuning options for us to use and that helps with a car as complex as this one,” Halsey says.

When you’re the champ there’s automatically a large target painted on your back the entire season. You know that every team is going to give you their best shot during eliminations so you have to be ready. Halsey believes that many of the top-level teams have been testing as much as possible during this downtime — this means there won’t be any easy rounds during the East Coast Nationals.

“We’re going to use the same strategy as always: qualify number one and win the race. I think the car count is going to be up because people haven’t been able to race. There are going to be some heavy-hitters there, so it will be a tough one to win. Depending on the weather, it could take 3.60s to win it. We’re pretty pumped up to defend this title, and it has us very motivated coming into this season,” Halsey explains.

Jim Halsey is locked and loaded for the PDRA East Coast Nationals at GALOT Motorsports Park May 29-30. You can watch all of the racing live RIGHT HERE on SpeedVideo when the event begins. This broadcast is brought to you by Vortech Superchargers, Edelbrock Performance, Flying A Motorsports, and Jerry Bickel Race Cars.

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About the author

Brian Wagner

Spending his childhood at different race tracks around Ohio with his family’s 1967 Nova, Brian developed a true love for drag racing. Brian enjoys anything loud, fast, and fun.
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