Drag Illustrated Issue 149, October 2019 | Page 105

WORLD SERIES OF PRO MOD 2019
RICK SNAVELY
■
Rick Snavely wasn’t able
to repeat his magical U.S.
Nationals win, but his first trip on
Thunder Mountain still proved
plenty worthwhile.
He ran an impressive 5.94
during testing, picked up a round
win and gave eventual winner
Scott Oksas a tough fight in their
second-round matchup. Most im-
portantly, Snavely had an incredi-
ble time at Bandimere Speedway,
running at the World Series of Pro
Mod for the first time in his tur-
bocharged Turbos Direct Camaro.
“I really liked the facility and
the idea of the race,” Snavely said.
“It was great all the way around
and it was a great experience. I
was glad to be here. We all loved
it here. Anytime you get to race it’s
good, and when you come to a race
like this, it’s even better.”
Snavely tried to replicate the
underdog role that led to his
U.S. Nationals win in 2015, and
he did make significant progress
during testing.
The team put to use a couple
of theories they wanted to try for
the race. They used a new tire and
once they were able to get the Gar-
rett Advancing Motion turbos to
spool, Snavely was satisfied with
the results, making the first sub-
six second pass before the shake-
down sessions.
“It’s an awesome facility. Both
areas we were testing were much
better than when we first started.
We saw some big improvements.
The track is incredible and it’s just
incredible to be part of an event
like this. To be here, really it’s just
the next level. This is it. You have
to come here to this race. This race
has been a major attraction.”
It’s a team effort for Snavely and
Scott Rakestraw, the owner of Tur-
bos Direct. The company was a
sponsor for the WSOPM and after
wanting to be part of the race the
first two years, both jumped at the
opportunity to join the participant
and sponsor list in 2019.
“It’s been pretty exciting,” Rak-
estraw said. “Our guys worked re-
ally hard the last six weeks and this
was a race we’ve wanted to come
to since they announced it. It’s a
challenge racing at this altitude,
but I’ve always liked this place.”
It was great visibility for Turbos
Direct, which is based in Glen-
dale, Arizona, and the Los Ange-
les-based Snavely represented the
West Coast well.
He beat fellow West Coast
standout Ed Thornton in the
opening round with 6.149 at
238.85 before facing off with
another L.A. driver, Oksas. Sna-
vely and his team tried to turn it
up, but they didn’t have enough
for Oksas’ 5.863, going 6.039
at 243.24. Still, Snavely was all
smiles afterwards.
“We had a pretty good set-up,
but we just lost it a little bit,” Sna-
vely said. “We gave it our best and if
you’re going to run somebody that’s
going to run an .84, you can’t just
give it up and go slow. We were
really pleased with that 5.94. Un-
fortunately we couldn’t repeat that,
but that happens sometimes. I’m
just so happy I got to be here and
be part of this.” – JOSH HACHAT
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ED THORNTON
■
Ed Thornton came to
Bandimere Speedway for
the first time hoping he could put
together a series of strong perfor-
mances en route to a $100,000
payday. Unfortunately for the Los
Angeles-area native, the team
never had the opportunity to get
on track.
The team was forced to make
a handful of major changes be-
tween the final day of testing and
the shakedown runs on Friday, not
quite finding a rhythm necessary
to win big on Thunder Mountain.
Thornton and a host of standouts
on the team made their best effort,
but there simply wasn’t enough
time to get it all together in a lo-
cation as challenging at Bandi-
mere Speedway.
Thornton put together a series
of solid passes in testing, but car
troubles forced a series of changes.
He made a go of it in the turbo-
charged D Bar D Racing Camaro
owned by Derrol Hubbard, but
Thornton fell in the first round
to Rick Snavely, running a 6.327
at 227.77 mph.
Amidst all the changes and fre-
netic schedule once he arrived in
Denver, Thornton still enjoyed his
time on the mountain.
“I liked it. The people here
are great, the track is awesome.
It’s been a great experience,”
Thornton said.
A man of few words, Thornton
had hoped to do his talking with
the car. He had won the first two
races of the Xtreme Pro Mods West
season before committing to the
biggest and richest Pro Mod race
in history of the known universe.
Thornton and Hubbard, along
with a team led by standout tuner
Shane Tecklenburg, wanted to a
chance at the six-figure payday,
quickly agreeing to making the
trek to Denver.
“Derrol asked me what I
thought about going to Denver.
We probably gave up the cham-
pionship to go to the race, but
we wanted to take a crack at
$100,000,” Thornton said.
The no-nonsense approach has
served Thornton well through a
standout career that includes a
number of wins, series champi-
onships and, just last year, his first
Street Car Super Nationals victory.
Thornton, who owns SU Sand
Cars just outside of Los Angeles,
had hoped to have similar success
in Denver. It didn’t quite happen,
but Thornton still praised the ef-
forts of the likes of Tecklenburg
and Doug Stewart, along with the
rest of a team that worked dili-
gently to try to make it work on
Thunder Mountain.
“They’re the ones that make the
car run and they’re really good at
it,” Thornton said. “There were
just a lot of questions we had to
answer.” – JOSH HACHAT
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October 2019
DragIllustrated.com
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