Drag Illustrated Issue 137, October 2018 | Page 94

WORLD SERIES OF PRO MOD 2018
STEVE MATUSEK
Steve Matusek’s weekend
at Bandimere Speedway for
the World Series of Pro Mod
embodied the full scope of
what the unique event is all
about. Matusek didn’t have the
race he wanted on the track, falling
in the second round to Rick Hord,
but in so many other ways it was a
tremendous success.
His company, Aeromotive Inc.,
was a key partner for the WSOPM
in two outside-the-box ways, as
they purchased 500 event tickets
and handed them out at Bandimere
Speedway as part of the track’s Col-
orado State Patrol “Take it to the
Track” test night. They also spon-
sored WSOPM’s unique “Embed-
ded” video series, which gave fans a
daily behind-the-scenes look at the
race, the competitors and everything
else that made the weekend such a
memorable one.
It was two projects that Matusek
was passionate about and also two
big reasons why the WSOPM con-
tinues to grow at a rapid rate.
“This is a passionate sport and
industry, and we’re trying to bring
people into it and to this race that
are passionate,” Matusek said of the
“Take it to the Track” partnership.
“This is a once-a-year event and it’s
growing and continuing to gain in
popularity. It’s a unique event and
offers a unique experience with
a format that nobody else has in
drag racing.”
Matusek was also front and cen-
ter during the WSOPM media day,
taking media members and others
down the dragstrip in a Dodge
Challenger while facing off with
teammate Danny Rowe. Matusek
enhanced the experience with big
burnouts and playful banter, too,
enjoying every bit of it leading into
the actual race.
Matusek believed he had the
car to beat a year ago, lamenting
on a missed opportunity to win
$100,000, and that motivated him
heading into 2018. The Pro Mod
veteran had high expectations
heading in Bandimere Speedway,
so the loss to Hord was a certain
disappointment.
But with everything Matusek and
Aeromotive accomplished during
the week, the race was anything but
a failure. - JOSH HACHAT
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Harry Hruska’s HPL Oil
‘14 Camaro was sporting
a new look at the World Se-
ries of Pro Mod. Sure, the new
features weren’t noticeable when
the car was on the ProJacks or in
the staging lanes, but the fresh
look became apparent when the
turbocharged heavy hitter left the
starting line. Gone were the power
wheelies that made Hruska a fa-
vorite of fans and photographers
but didn’t always translate into
winning time slips.
“We’ve been tuning the car to
handle those wheelstands that we
were so upside-down on our tune-
up,” Hruska said. “Now we have a car
that looks like it’s gonna go straight
down the track. Right off the trailer
from Jerry Haas, it went right down
the racetrack.”
The team at Jerry Haas Race
Cars, led by shop foreman and
PDRA Extreme Pro Stock star
John DeFlorian, put in long weeks
and late nights to prepare Hruska’s
Camaro for its trip to Bandimere
Speedway.
“For the last three weeks, they’ve
been hauling ass on this car, making
a bunch of great changes,” Hruska
said during Thursday testing.
“They’re all great changes, but our
challenge is that the car is so dif-
ferent that we’re lost. Up here on
the mountain, we’re even more lost.”
Hruska used his aggressive,
never-lift driving style to avoid
what was looking like a cer-
tain first-round loss to Tommy
Johanns, who quickly lit both
stage bulbs after his ‘53 Corvette
struggled to roll forward after
the burnout. Hruska left the line
nearly four hundredths of a sec-
ond after Johanns and got loose
around the 330-foot mark. He re-
covered to drive around Johanns
in a 6.54-to-6.985 race. Hruska
fell in the second round to Bran-
don Pesz, running a 6.183 at
241.28 to Pesz’s 6.058 at 234.98.
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I l l u s t r a t e d | DragIllustrated.com
Issue 137
HARRY HRUSKA