STEVE SUMMERS
be. Ample power created by the turbos helps to
offset the weight handicap.
With only limited testing on the new ride, Sum-
mers began his 2017 season at the NMCA race
in Bradenton, Florida. There, he qualified fifth
with a 3.872 at 214.33 mph hit and went on to get
a round-one win over Jackie Sloan. “I generally
show up at Bradenton with new stuff and mini-
mal test data, so I’ve never actually won there. I
need to be more prepared at the beginning of the
season,” laughed Summers, poking fun at himself
for preferring to push the envelope rather than
win the race. from his ability eliminate any other electronic
control devices. Although Summers lays his
own tune, he receives guidance and consulting
assistance from PTP Racing’s co-owner, Pat-
rick Barnhill.
Summers’s plan for the next NMCA event in
Atlanta was to simply
race the racetrack and
not beat himself. “We
had been trying some
different ratio packages
and air-shift components
with the transmission
and found what worked
for us,” said Summers,
After Bradenton, Summers made even more
changes. A four-speed Extreme-T transmission
from Liberty was installed along with a Bruno
lockup drive unit and a Coan lockup converter.
“That converter is fantastic and really nailed it
with what we needed,” Summers noted. He had
installed a Haltech system on the new car, too,
and credits the true standalone system for the
Camaro’s incredible consistency which stemmed who qualified second on a 3.821 at 216.03 mph
hit and took four elimination-round wins before
going out to Adam Flamholc in the finals. Along
the way, Summers also reset the class speed re-
cord when he flew through the traps at 216.06
mph. “If we can figure out how to make the car
hook harder on the back half, we’ll be able to go
even faster.”
For the third stop on the 2017 NMCA tour,
Summers pulled into Bowling Green, Kentucky.
He improved again, and this time took the num-
ber-one qualifying spot with a 3.810 at 214.45
mph blast to set both the low et as well as the top
speed. Summers cruised through eliminations all
the way to the finals, but had to hustle in the pits
before the last run due to
a gear case failure. “We
had a driveshaft sensor
that went bad on that
run, so the car spun, I
recovered and pedaled
to catch up, but then
the fuel pump belt broke
and I came up short. It
was a mess from start to
finish,” he laughed of his
runner-up end to the try-
ing weekend.
With his multiple re-
cords and wins over the
years, many folks believe
that Summers is one of
the larger teams in the
sport when in fact, the opposite is true. He han-
dles the maintenance of all his componentry on
his own, and does all of the fabrication, plumbing,
and electrical work – everything short of painting
and chassis building – by himself.
When he goes to the track, he does so with a
skeleton crew consisting of mostly family. “My
wife, Jerilynn, does whatever needs to be done
on the car. My daughter, Italy, 11, helps out with
food preparation and keeps everything organized.
My son, Colin, 9, can put the car on the Pro Jacks,
take off the belly pans, drain the oil, take off the
tires, and a lot more,” said the proud husband
and father of his incredibly supportive family.
The patriarch is the backbone of the operation,
though, and Summers is his own crew chief who
handles the bulk of the work.
By providing such a strong role model for
not just his own kids but many other youths in
the sport to look up to, Summers has garnered
a reputation as a respected, likeable, and for-
midable racer. Despite having changed classes
several times throughout his career, he’s found
his niche in Pro Mod and plans to continue with
the class for years to come, undoubtedly setting
more records and hopefully winning another
championship along the way.
DI DI DI
DI DI DI DI
DI DI DI
Phil Shuler's Shadow 2.0 has a Bruno on Board, shouldn't you?!
25+ Years of Champions
LIGHTEN Up!
with the New
Magnesium BRT
7 . 5 lbs lighter
3.71 on Radial Tires!
Order your new unit or convert your existing unit to Mag
Don’t waste your time or money testing other company’s gimmick of the week.
We Invented, Patented & Perfected the Converter Drive. Available in Lockup or
Non Lockup with proven fluid manipulation features that no others can touch.
Built by Championship winning racers for racers.
Trust the first name in Converter Driven Performance, Trust Bruno’s!
FOR MORE INFO CALL 630.458.0043 OR LOG ONTO www.brunosAutomotive.com
26 | D r a g
I l l u s t r a t e d | DragIllustrated.com
Like Us on Facebook
Issue 121
Dirt