It’s clear that Musi Enterprises has been consistently on the forefront of Pro Mod performance for several years now, illustrated by a slew of championships and records. Names like Rickie Smith and Tommy Franklin are synonymous with domination of their respective fields with their Musi engines. After forming a partnership with Al Anabi Performance last fall, it was certain that things were going to get better still for Musi Enterprises.
Lizzy Musi made the trek east to race in the Arabian Drag Racing League during the stateside offseason and has been on fire ever since. She laid down a ‘shot heard around the world’ at Maryland International Raceway’s recent Haltech Door Wars with a run that effectively made the Frank Brandao-owned Dodge Dart the quickest nitrous car on the planet to the eighth-mile.
As the family patriarch tells, conditions were prime, and he couldn’t resist the opportunity for his daughter to make history. “It’s one thing to have those conditions – the air was good, the track was good – but being able to take advantage of those situations is the key,” Pat Musi storied. “You could easily not be able to get down the track. When the stakes are that high and you’re making a run like that, it speaks a lot about Lizzy as a driver, the team making the calls, everybody involved. There’s a lot of things that can go the other way. When the ET came up, we were floored. That’s a hell of a run.”
The ET that floored them was a 3.631 at 205.86 MPH. The previous quickest record run was 3.643, made by Mahana Al-Naemi.
“I’ve been racing a long time and I don’t give a damn how good the air was or how good the race track was, that’s a hell of a run,” Musi added. “To go out there and risk a shot like that was pretty bold. We took it and it worked out. I don’t know anybody that’s been .921 in 60 foot in a nitrous car.”
Musi ventured to the Door Wars to match race fellow female eighth-mile standout Melani Salemi. Salemi made solid runs, but her supercharged Pro Boost machine wasn’t a match for the history-making “King Kong 6”.
“It’s a really cool feeling, to be honest with ya,” added Lizzy. “It’s awesome to be able to drive the fastest car. I went out there and did my normal deal. I felt comfortable in the car. Every pass we attempted went down. We knew the air was good on that last run, but I wasn’t expecting those numbers. It left good and I knew if it went down the track, it was going to be a good run. I thought it would be at least a .60 something, but I was not expecting a .63. When I saw it light up on the scoreboard, I got on the radio as fast as I could.
“I feel so comfortable in the car. It rides like a Cadillac. There’s been a huge amount of people involved in getting us to this point. The entire Al Anabi team is phenomenal to work with. Tommy [Franklin] was there helping us out, too. He’s just a great guy, him and his whole family. We’ve become really good friends over the years and he’s a great customer to us. We can’t thank him enough for everything he does. He was a big part of that run.
“Royce Miller did a great job putting on the show. We fought the rain delays and he worked with us through the schedule. He treated us very well.”
As a longtime customer and friend, Franklin had journeyed up to watch the battle between Musi and Salemi. “Pat and I discussed the fact that we had the conditions to be able run a .63 and felt this would be one of the last chances before the temperatures started to rise for the summer so we decided to go for it,” he told. “The fact that this was done at 2410 pounds is just unreal, and, as always, I am very impressed with the power combination that Pat has put together. This just speaks volumes on the caliber of cars that compete regularly at the PDRA… fastest Pro Mods in the world.”
Lizzy hopes to carry this momentum into the remainder of the PDRA season, where she currently sits fifth in championship points standings.
“Everything is molding together,” stated Lizzy, who also serves as President of Musi Enterprises. “My dad has been working his butt off, always progressing his engine program. He’s constantly trying to make it better. We’ve made progress with our chassis setup and getting the power to the ground. We’ve got a good working car.
“Pro Nitrous is not an easy class. I know for a fact I’ve got to be on it. People think it’s just mash-the-pedal, but it ain’t. It’s a mental game. You’ve got to be ‘on’ for every aspect. That takes seat time.
“Unlike many other drivers in the class, I had never really had an extensive amount of seat time. We focused on PDRA and didn’t do much extra racing. Being overseas definitely helped me. I had over 60 runs, and every run I’m learning something new. I’ve never felt so comfortable in a car. I’m more aware of things. Anything that can get thrown at me, I’m ready for. That’s what I feel like. Just bring it.”
This story was originally published on May 16, 2017. 
