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Red-Light Stinger for Commisso!
Bruce Biegler - October 10, 2007
 Toronto's Raymond Commisso arguably came within a scant .002 of a second of winning his first career NHRA national event title last Sunday.
The driver of the R2B2/Steelback Chevy Camaro advanced all the way to the final round of AMS Pro Mod competition during NHRA's Torco Racing Fuels Nationals at Virginia Motorsports Park.
Commisso and his talented team, spearheaded by tuner Al Billes, got progressively quicker throughout the event. After qualifying 9th (6.110 secs) they improved during each and every round while
beating fellow Canadian Tony Pontieri (6.098 secs), '07 AMS Points Champion Josh Hernandez (6.075 secs) and New York state standout Mike Janis (6.044 secs).
Raymond had lane choice but in the final round left just a tad too soon. A -.002 foul gave the event victory to Kentucky's Rick Stivers who ran a winning 6.138 secs at 231.04 mph. While Stivers celebrated his first ever AMS Pro Mod title, Raymond coasted through after seeing the evil red eye.
While Ray was obviously disappointed with the end result he and his team showed again they are fully capable of mixing it up with the very best in the sport at each and every event attended.
 The team will thus take that notion plus some additional determination into the final NHRA AMS race of the season at Las Vegas (Oct. 26-28th) where they will not only compete in the event's AMS Pro Mod program but will also be part of the elite 8-car $50,000 ProCare RX Pro Mod Clash which will be held on the Saturday. The winner of that gets a cool $25G.
Toronto's Tony Pontieri also made the final cut and will join Commisso in competition against U.S. Pro Mod star racers Josh Hernandez, Tim Tindle, John Russo, Jay Payne, Shelly Payne and Steve Engel.
(Bruce Biegler Photos)
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