R & R Racing Products is proud to announce Melanie Salemi is your winner of the PDRA 4th Annual Brian Olson World Finals at Virginia Motorsports Park. She was the 2nd fastest car out of 16 fastest Pro Boost in the country. Melanie was on a mission by running times 3.661, 3.642, 3.624 at 206..20 (Root Blower ET World Record), 3.648, & 3.662 Thank you Melanie Salemi for using our products in your Pro Boost. If anyone is interested running our products in your application please give us a call 941-621-8143. We’ll be glad to help you in any way possible.
Following a career-best 3.70 in the Pro Boost final round at the Fall Nationals, Melanie Salemi jokingly asked her husband and tuner, Jon, for a 3.6-second time slip. He delivered in spades, tuning Melanie and the “Purple Reign” ’68 Firebird to a string of 3.6s at the World Finals. Most notably, Salemi fired off a 3.624 at 206.20 to reset the Pro Boost ET world record in the second round, then a 3.662 at 204.66 in a decisive final-round victory over first-time finalist Kurt Steding and his 3.886 at 196.16.
“It’s really awesome to finish off the year like this,” Salemi said. “I just want to thank Jon, (brother-in-law) Jim, (stepson) Evan, the guys at the shop, (engine builder) Mike Stawicki, and everybody who has a hand in this. This win came with really good timing and it’s awesome for all of us to capture the win and the record right before winter. We have one more race in Florida, then we’re going to get super-serious on the dyno and work on our program for next year.”
Salemi qualified No. 2 with a 3.661 at 204.76, then improved to a 3.642 at 206.07 over Mike DiDomenico and the record 3.62 over Larry Higginbotham. An unopposed 3.648 at 205.07 in the semifinals gave the Buffalo, New York, resident lane choice over Steding and his P2 Racing ’16 Corvette in the final round. For his spot in the final, Steding moved past the first round on a single, won a pedalfest over Andy Jensen in the second round, and a career-best 3.743 at 197.62 to defeat 2018 world champion Tommy D’Aprile in the semifinals. (c) Drag Racing Illustrated
