GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Steven Whitely raced to his first NHRA J&A Service Pro Mod Drag Racing Series event win at their portion of the Amalie Motor Oil NHRA Gatornationals Sunday at Gainesville Raceway. This weekend’s Pro Mod racing was presented by Jerry Bickel Race Cars, Inc. and is the first of 12 races on the season.
Whitley in his ’14 Cadillac faced series veteran Mike Castellana in the final round. Whitely was able to post a winning time of 5.791 seconds at 253.52 mph to the trailing run of 10.192 at 87.94 of Castellana.
The Whiteley family was able to celebrate the victory in style as his mother Annie won the Top Alcohol Funny Car event on Sunday as well.
“It doesn’t get any better than this. It’s such a blessing being in the winner’s circle with my mom,” Whitely said. “I can’t express how thankful I am. Not only for J&A Service on a couple of accounts. They sponsor this series, but it’s more intimate than that, at least for me. You know, J&A Service, that’s Jim and Annie Whiteley, that’s Mom and Dad. These guys don’t understand how much more this hits me. I just let the clutch petal go. My guys make this happen. I cannot thank them enough.”
Also during the course of the racing action Eric Latino recorded a national elapsed time record with his pass of 5.727 seconds in his losing run of semifinals. Latino had this to say about the pass: “I’m excited. I mean, I lost on a hol
e shot – doesn’t matter. Normally if I lose on a hole shot in a race without a national recored, [my crew] would all be frowned and down. Overall, we win as a team and we lose as a team. We’re ecstatic; we’re just so excited. We’ve got this car – we put 21 runs, all aborted runs, on it and we thought ‘ok, we’re done with this car, we just can’t figure it out’. We made a change and we went to the dark side, where we’ve never been before, and it liked it. It woke it up, and here we are: national record holders.”
By the end of qualifying Saturday, Steven Jackson had successfully claimed and defended the #1 qualifying spot during the NHRA J&A Service Pro Mod Drag Racing Series portion of the Amalie Motor Oil NHRA Gatornationals at Gainesville Raceway. Jackson made his NHRA J&A Service Pro Mod Drag Racing Series debut in his ‘17 Camaro and raced to the top qualifying position with his track record elapsed time pass of 5.781-seconds at 251.58 mph.
Of his time in 
qualifying, he says: “It’s awesome, I mean, we got here just hoping to qualify. And everybody always says that, but we picked the car up six or seven days ago,” Jackson said. “I told the guys before we took it and tested it we wanted to try and qualify 16th and get beat first round and we’d call it a success. We took it out. First round down the track in Bradenton two days ago, it ran good. So we got here, I told the boys, I don’t want to just qualify – I want to qualify in the top half. After the first run today I thought we were gonna go to the front. We had it real wicked up there. I wasn’t going up there to putt it up to the green, I was going to knock it in the hole from about 300 yards out.”
The NHRA J&A Service Pro Mod Drag Racing Series returns April 21-23 at Royal Purple Raceway for the NHRA SpringNationals in Houston.
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GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Final finish order (1-16) at the 48th annual Amalie Motor Oil NHRA Gatornationals at Gainesville Raceway. The race is the first of 12 events in the NHRA Pro Mod Drag Racing Series.
ROUND ONE — Troy Coughlin, Chevy Corvette, 5.807, 252.24 def. Steve Matusek, Chevy Camaro, 5.825, 252.38; Kevin Rivenbark, Corvette, 5.857, 245.76 def. Khalid alBalooshi, Camaro, 5.837, 247.38; Danny Rowe, Corvette, 5.840, 246.57 def. Shannon Jenkins, Ford Mustang, 7.360, 135.88; Steven Whiteley, Cadillac CTS-V, 5.799, 252.19 def. Todd Tutterow, Camaro, 5.865, 247.16; Mike Janis, Camaro, 5.901, 247.16 def. Jim Whiteley, Chevy Chevelle, 5.903, 248.75; Michael Biehle, Mustang, 5.843, 253.90 def. Rickie Smith, Camaro, 7.948, 121.62; Mike Castellana, Camaro, 5.897, 249.72 def. Sidnei Frigo, Corvette, 5.786, 256.36; Eric Latino, Camaro, 5.779, 256.45 def. Steve Jackson, Camaro, 6.664, 146.30;
QUARTERFINALS — Castellana, 5.850, 250.27 def. Rivenbark, 7.707, 124.45; Rowe, 5.877, 251.44 def. Biehle, 8.626, 110.00; S. Whiteley, 5.806, 251.30 def. Janis, Foul – Centerline; Coughlin, 5.758, 255.10 def. Latino, 5.727, 256.36;
SEMIFINALS — Castellana, 15.718, 51.88 def. Rowe, Foul – Red Light; S. Whiteley, 5.826, 251.02 def. Coughlin, 6.213, 197.16;
FINAL — S. Whiteley, 5.791, 253.52 def. Castellana, 10.192, 87.94.
Point standings (top 10) following the 48th annual Amalie Motor Oil NHRA Gatornationals at Gainesville Raceway. The race is the first of 12 events in the NHRA Pro Mod Drag Racing Series.
1. Steven Whiteley, 114; 2. Mike Castellana, 91; 3. Danny Rowe, 74; 4. Troy Coughlin, 72; 5. Mike Janis, 55; 6. Kevin Rivenbark, 52; 7. (tie) Michael Biehle, 51; Eric Latino, 51; 9. Steve Jackson, 38; 10. Rickie Smith, 36.
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