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Pontieri Places 2nd in Texas
Bruce Biegler - March 31, 2008
By a very scant margin, prolific Canadian Pro Mod racer Tony Pontieri just missed winning the Jegs Pro Mod Challenge event during yesterday's NHRA O'Reilly Spring Nationals at Houston.
 Pontieri had a terrific event run driving the potent '57 Chevy owned by Toronto's Rob Sporring and sponsored by Quality Plus Compressors. After qualifying #6 in the very fast field (6.171 secs bump) with a 6.020 secs effort, Pontieri beat Scott Ray, Mike Ashley and Eddie Ware to advance to his 3rd career NHRA Jegs Pro Mod Challenge final round. He had one win and on r/up in 2007.
For the event title, Pontieri faced off against Florida's Joe Baker who was a huge upset winner in the class at NHRA Gainesville two weeks earlier. Baker, who was driving the '63 Corvette owned by Roger Burgess at Houston, earned a slight starting line advantage and held on to take a narrow 6.022 secs 219.19 mph to 6.048 secs 237.42 mph win light.
Pontieri's cross town Toronto-based class rival, Raymond Commisso, set top speed of the meet at 244.87 mph while qualifying 2nd at 5.967 secs.
Pontieri and Commisso sit 2nd and 3rd in overall Jegs Pro Mod Challenge championship points after 2 of 10 scheduled races so far in 2008.
(Bruce Biegler Photo)
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