Drag Illustrated Issue 149, October 2019 | Page 96

WORLD SERIES OF PRO MOD 2019
against the left guardwall by the
starting line on the final day of
testing, the sense of satisfaction was
evident. The scoreboards were off,
but his face told the story.
“Things are very good,” Oksas
said on the Thursday before the
race. “I’m having a blast and the car
is doing everything it needs to be
doing. It’s a great feeling. It’s faster
than it was last year already with
less boost. It confirms what we’ve
worked on and the package we’ve
put together. It just shows we can do
it. It’s an awesome feeling to have.”
That feeling only got greater
during Friday’s shakedown runs, but
the (unfortunate) luck of the draw
gave Oksas the tenuous situation of
matching up with NHRA Pro Mod
points leader Stevie “Fast” Jackson
in the opening round.
Some days, though, it’s just your
day, and that day on the mountain
was Oksas’. Jackson went red on a
pass that was the quickest in history
for a blower car in Denver, erasing a
run of 5.932 that would have beat-
en Oksas’ 6.071 handily. But Oksas
was cool, calm and collected on the
starting line, while Jackson left ear-
ly, and that’s all the momentum the
Los Angeles-area native needed.
“That guy is a world-class racer
and that was the most scared I’ve
ever been in my car,” Oksas said.
“But after that it was just sweetness.
He red-lit and I knew after that we
were going to do our thing and win
this thing.
“That was my lucky pass of the
day and I needed that. Then, Jeff
took over and he literally didn’t
touch it from that pass in. It was
crazy. He said, ‘We’ve got a hot rod.
Go send it.’ I told him no problem.”
Pierce knew they had a hot rod
far before that. By the second run
in testing (5.96), he had already
surpassed what he ran on Thunder
Mountain a year ago, improving to a
pair of 5.92s on Friday. By then, the
entire team was beaming with confi-
dence. After the break against Jack-
son, they were ready to burst with it.
“He doesn’t go into this to lose and
he’s happy no matter what, and he
kept telling me we were going to win,”
Pierce said. “That morning I woke
up and just had that feeling. We had
that lucky around against Stevie, and
then we fixed one problem and tried
to keep it consistent. The car was just
great and was straight as a string. It’s
pretty incredible.”
96 | D r a g
Along with key crew
members Roger
Rompal and Keith
Howard, Oksas
brought his wife,
Kristy, and sons Joey
and Anthony, to be a
part of the WSOPM
experience this year.
The group celebrated
as hard on the starting
line as Oksas did just
over a quarter mile
away in his Mustang.
“IT’S MONUMENTAL. I’VE WON A
FEW BIG RACES, BUT I’VE NEVER
EXPERIENCED ANYTHING LIKE THAT IN
MY LIFE. IT’S THE BIGGEST WIN EVER.”
After the run against Jackson,
Oksas and his Mustang delivered
one massive blow after another.
Even with less boost, he put to-
gether some of the most impressive
runs in WSOPM history. He went
a blistering 5.863 at 247.57 to beat
Rick Snavely in the second round,
topping Rick Hord in the semifinals
with a 5.872 at 247.79.
That set up the meeting with
Winters, who went 6.012 at 231.56
to beat Terry Haddock in the open-
ing round. Winters had byes in the
I l l u s t r a t e d | DragIllustrated.com
next two rounds after defending
champ Carl Stevens Jr. broke and
couldn’t make the second-round
call, but nobody could match
Oksas’ pace.
“We said, ‘Let them come beat
us,’” Oksas said. “You can’t ask for
anything better than how we ran.
It’s just a tribute to Jeff and this
entire team.”
Oksas, though, was confident in
the weeks leading up to the event,
knowing the improvements his team
has made in the past year.
Oksas and Winters posted iden-
tical .053 reaction times in the final
round, but it didn’t take long for the
Mustang to pull away. Once Oksas
saw the win light, the celebration
was on as the veteran excitedly
yelled, “I just won $100,000” sev-
eral times in the car – among other
things – before it stopped.
“I knew I was going to be ready.
We had been pulling in and lighting
the beam first all night and we had
a gameplan with everybody,” Oksas
said. “Jeff said just keep doing our
thing and we just did our thing.
“I don’t panic anymore and the
run was dead straight. I saw him
next to me and at the 330 I just
started to pull away. I knew he
wasn’t catching this turbo car.”
That ability to not get rattled
marks a stark improvement in his
Issue 149