INAUGURAL WORLD DOORSLAMMER NATIONALS
DOUBLE DUTY WITH THE CARUSO FAMILY’S ROOTS-BLOWN
PRO MOD AND HIS ELITE-POWERED HAVOLINE PRO STOCKER,
LAUGHLIN WAS THE ONLY DRIVER ON THE PROPERTY WITH A
SHOT AT THE DOUBLE-UP. A SECOND-ROUND EXIT IN PRO STOCK
WAS SOFTENED BY THE $50,000 WIN IN PRO MOD.
up to run at NHRA weight was a little more challenging
than I expected, but once we got on track
everything was good.”
Laughlin qualified No. 3 with a 5.66 at 251.77.
He moved on past the first round of eliminations
by beating Jim Whiteley’s 5.738 with a 5.717 at
249.76. The Texas native caught a break in the
second round when Sidnei Frigo slowed to a
10-second pass, allowing Laughlin to race on to
the semifinals with a 5.825 at 248.16.
Laughlin and White stepped up for the semifinal
matchup with Michael Biehle. Laughlin won on
the strength of a 5.704 at 250.64 to Biehle’s 5.731.
Laughlin and Tutterow were both aggressive
in the final round. Tutterow left the line first with
a .042 light to Laughlin’s .045. It was an even
race until Tutterow had to drive through tire
shake, ultimately backfiring the supercharger
downtrack. Laughlin made a clean 5.671-second,
251.53 mph pass down the Orlando quarter mile
to take the win.
“I pretty well knew we had to make the best
possible run because Todd is an extremely good
racer,” White said. “Heck, he’s one of my heroes
as a racer. I knew we couldn’t leave anything on
the table, at the starting line or the finish line.”
Laughlin heaped on the praise for White, as
well as the whole Caruso Family Racing team,
which includes Marc, his father, Joe; Marc’s
daughter, Camrie; Marc’s girlfriend, Kristi Dellaria;
and crew members Hank Jackson, Kyle
Dvorak and Jackie Cannon. The Caruso team
was also assisted by Australian Top Doorslammer
car owner Maurice Fabietti and his crew
member Duane Wilson, who performed engine
maintenance between runs.
“Man, Lee White is definitely an underestimated
crew chief,” Laughlin said. “The dude knows what
he’s doing. He deserves all the credit for this. The
Carusos have some of the nicest equipment money
can buy in the class. Props to them, props to Lee.
We just won the first-ever World Doorslammer
Nationals and it’s an unbelievable feeling.”
Even a few days after the feat, White shared
Laughlin’s surreal feeling. It was a major victory
for both driver and tuner. While each member
of the equation had experienced success on high
levels separately, the group as a whole was unproven
going into the race.
“You really can’t even explain it. It didn’t quite
seem real,” White said. “It felt like we were a bit of
an underdog team, so we weren’t really expected
to win. I think if you had to pick 16 cars to win
the race, I don’t reckon we would’ve been picked.”
“It was really cool to win as a team,” White
added. “We have a really good group of people.
Marc and Joe and the Carusos are great people
and they’re great to race with. I couldn’t be happier
for them.”
Laughlin, who prides himself on his ability to
secure partnerships with industry-leading companies,
put together a major one-race deal with
ATI Performance Products to field the Caruso’s
car at Orlando. ATI joined Laughlin and Caruso’s
roster of sponsors, including Speed Society, Right
Trailers, NGK Spark Plugs, VP Racing Fuels and
Noonan Race Engineering.
“Huge shoutout to ATI,” Laughlin said, specifically
mentioning ATI’s Harvey Baker, who was
celebrating his birthday at Orlando. “I would not
be running this race if it weren’t for them. Everybody
at ATI that helped this deal come together,
this is all for them.”
In addition to racing in Pro Mod, Laughlin
was also competing for $75,000 in Pro Stock. He
qualified No. 9 in Pro Stock before falling to Elite
Motorsports teammate Aaron Stanfield in the
second round. He was the only driver competing
for the double-up in both classes.
“After qualifying third, I thought we absolutely
had a shot at it,” Laughlin said. “The Pro Stock
car was running pretty decent and this thing was
running pretty decent, so I thought we had a
shot at winning both – definitely a good shot at
winning one, and it turns out we did.”
While Laughlin didn’t pull off the double-up,
he did get to share the winner’s circle with another
one of his Elite Motorsports teammates,
Jeg Coughlin Jr.
“What a day,” Laughlin closed with a sigh of
relief. “Me and my teammate won both classes.
That’s rad – raaaad.” – NATE VAN WAGNEN DI
68 | Drag Illustrated | DragIllustrated.com Issue 156