Drag Illustrated Issue 136, September 2018 | Page 76

N
ot right now,” says Dan
Dysart, one of Musi’s long-
time crew members, as I
walk into the pit area.
“He’s still figuring it out.”
Just as photographer Cole
Rokosky and I start pack-
ing up the lighting equipment to head back
to the tower, a few rain drops appear on the
front clip of Musi’s Dart. A few drops turn into
a steady shower, prompting race director Bob
Harris to confirm the race’s inevitable cancel-
lation over the PA system. Musi emerge s from
the trailer and chuckles, “Well, boys, it sounds
like we have some time now.”
Musi pulls up an extra stool in front of his Dell
laptop, perhaps one of the most valuable piec-
es of equipment in nitrous racing. It’s chocked
full of tune-ups and data for two of the quickest
and fastest nitrous oxide-assisted race cars, be it
Musi’s PDRA Pro Nitrous entry or Chad Green’s
Bond-Coat ’17 Corvette in the E3 Spark Plugs
NHRA Pro Mod Series. Musi has been tasked
with tuning both of these cars this season, and
after seven NHRA races and three PDRA events,
he’s handling the responsibilities as if each car
was his sole focus. Both drivers are third in points
76 | D r a g
I l l u s t r a t e d | DragIllustrated.com
in their respective series. As a fifth-year Pro Ni-
trous driver, Lizzy is a guaranteed Top 5 player,
but Green? He’s a rookie in a series full of drivers
with years – decades, even, in some cases – of
experience behind the wheel of a finicky Pro Mod-
ified entry. But with Musi in his corner, it should
come as no surprise that Green was an immediate
power player when he made his NHRA Pro Mod
debut earlier this year.
Green, a clean-cut businessman from Mid-
land, Texas, made his first pass in NHRA Pro
Mod competition to the tune of a 5.797-second
pass at 245.94 mph in the opening qualifying
session at the NHRA Gatornationals in Gaines-
ville, Florida. A 5.793 at 248.93 in the fourth
and final session allowed Green to start from
the No. 7 spot – not a bad deal for a new guy.
A wire-to-wire first-round win over 2011 world
champion Khalid alBalooshi – also running a
Musi powerplant – followed, along with a new
personal-best 5.788 in the process. At this point,
Green could’ve easily stuck the Corvette back in
the trailer and called it a strong debut weekend.
But after he was quicker than 2017 Rookie of
the Year Stevie “Fast” Jackson on the starting
line and at the finish line in the second round,
it became apparent to everyone on the prop-
erty that Green and Musi were there to win. A
violent impact with the retaining wall stopped
Green in the semifinals, but the message was
delivered: the supercharged and turbocharged
guys would have a new nitrous car to worry
about this season.
“I don’t think they knew what to think,” Musi
surmises about what the NHRA Pro Mod com-
munity expected from the seasoned veteran and
the rookie. “Look, in 1981 I went through a sim-
ilar deal. I had run IHRA (Pro Stock), which
was looked down on at the time, even though
we were the No. 1 or 2 qualifier for four years,
finished first or second in points in the early
days of the mountain motor deal. I decided to
go to NHRA Pro Stock in ‘81 – finished fourth
in the points. All we ever heard was, ‘He’ll get
an education when he comes over here.’ Instead,
Issue 136
PAT MUSI