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New to the PS Leader Board!
 Bruce Biegler - April 25, 2007
Canada has a new performance leader in Pro Stock racing!
The aspiring Toronto-area Paone Brothers notched themselves some Canadian drag racing history during last weekends IHRA Spring Nationals when they recorded the quickest Pro Stock time ever by a team from Canada.
After qualifying in the 16th and final slot for a very quick Pro Stock program at 6.435 secs, driver Anthony Paone took his 2006 Pontiac GTO to a barrier breaking run of 6.398 secs at 216.06 mph in round one. That marked the very first sub 6.4 secs run in the IHRA Mountain-motored class by a Canadian racer and came during a very impressive win over pre-event favorite and reputed PS driver Rickie Smith. In fact Paone put a little icing on the performance by beating Smith on a holeshot (.069 to .114 RT) which sent Smiths quicker and faster 6.370 secs at 218.97 mph packing.
 Unfortunately Paone could not advance past round two of eliminations when his car shook the tires hard while racing Bob Bertsch resulting in a centerline violation.
The Rockingham event performance in total was however a very rewarding experience for the hard-working and independent team from Canada in the very demanding an enormously expensive category.
The race marked the first event of the 07 season for the team which has a new motor program for their GTO this season.
We have a new Hemi-Chevy engine in our GTO which we purchased from Steve Spiess, Anthony Paone revealed. Steve has also stepped up to help us with the tune-up and we really appreciate that he is a down to earth guy.
 In testing before this race we went 6.44 and 6.45 secs at over 217 mph so we think we are on the right track. We debuted this car last year but only made limited appearances. We are looking to run 7 or 8 IHRA events this season.
Anthony owns the GTO and his brother Amo owns the teams second car a 2002 Chevy Cavalier which is driven by Ron Miller. That car currently runs a unique Chevrolet Wedge-head motor however it is possible that a Hemi-Chevy will be installed within that car in the near future.
We will continue to experiment and test both cars, added Anthony. Ultimately we will run the engine configuration that works best. Wed like to make the cars identical at some point so that we can gather more information. Currently the Cavalier is a much different animal as far as gearing and clutch set-up.
For more background information on the Paone Brothers check out their race team profile in DragRaceCanadas Northern Exposure subsection.
(Photos by: Bruce Biegler & Dave DeAngelis)
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