Northeast Outlaw Pro Mods The Northeast Outlaw Pro Modified Drag Racing Association
3/24/2025 UPDATE
Positive news for the club…
After having several conversations with former NEOPMA race directors Vito and Rocco Micciolo, they have decided to volunteer their combined 20 years of experience to help the club. Both Vito and Rocco have experience with the tracks that we race at and also with club members that would have run with the club between 2009 and 2020. Vito recommended I call Jimmy Biggs and after a productive call Jimmy decided to join our team as well. Jimmy brings with him 30 years of TV marketing and promotional experience and is currently the head of marketing and motorsports for MBE cylinder heads and intake manifolds.
The addition of these team members will benefit the racers and tracks in that they will provide experienced race direction as volunteers so this will free up more resources to bolster the payout to the racers. Furthermore, Jimmy has agreed to lend his fundraising skills to the club – which I am confident will result in additional sponsorship funds being secured, which will all be directed to the racers through higher payout structure and booking more events at quality venues.
Not so positive news…
About two months ago, I had a conversation with Jerry Jr.- the new manager at Empire Dragway – and we discussed the details for the club racing there in 2025. Both Jerry and I are new at this and still figuring things out, so we agreed on some preliminary details and decided to proceed with the scheduled races for 2025. About 2 weeks ago, we spoke again to finalize the race details and at that time Jerry indicated that the club might not be a good fit for his track and decided to hold off on scheduling the races for 2025. I figured I would wait a few weeks to see if anything changed – but it has not so at this time, I think it is best to inform the club members that there will not be races at Empire in 2025. I wish Jerry success with any races he has at Empire in 2025 and hope the club can return to race there in the future.
Making lemonade…
I will always make the best of a not so good situation. While I regret the Empire races being removed from the schedule, the positive impact will be that I can redirect the funds I have allocated for the Empire events to the 3 remaining events. This also allows more options for scheduling races at other venues although I know time is running out for this.
Poll results…
The elimination format respondents lean towards a chip draw. The tower draw for the drivers after the 1st round was not popular so we can draw in the lanes or the pits after 1st round. Whichever is most favorable to the drivers will be fine as long as we can do it in a timely manner so we don’t hold up the show.
Rules and Nitrous Parity…
The feedback on spotting the nitrous entries at the tree and/or giving them perennial lane choice was 100% negative so we will NOT be implementing those ideas.
I would still like to offer the nitrous entries a “last standing” bonus if we can secure funding for that. If any nitrous racers know of a nitrous engine builder or supplier that would help with that, please let me know how to contact them.
The rule package feedback indicates that we should follow the PDRA Pro Boost rules for supercharged entries but allow the nitrous entries more “freedom” from the PDRA Nitrous package to allow them to compete on a more level field. I would appreciate help / ideas from some nitrous guys with this!
Please feel free to share any thoughts and ideas that you think might help the club grow.
Thanks,
Andy
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Andy Jensen
Jensen’s Engine Technologies, Inc.
570.379.3069
www.jensensenginetech.com
