After a short time away from the driver’s seat, Melanie Salemi will be back behind the wheel this weekend for the Firecracker Nationals in Virginia, the next stop on the PDRA 2018 tour.
Salemi and her team are planning on attending the Firecracker Nationals and then will re-evaluate what will happen from there. A lot of time and effort has gone into working on their NHRA program, so they are not going to be totally shelving it, but right now, getting the car back out there and going back to a familiar combination should help the team stay afloat.
“I’m really looking forward to competing in the Pro Boost class again,” Salemi said. “I have enjoyed the few NHRA races we attended, but like one of my fans recently reminded me, PDRA is my home. We wanted to be able to run both NHRA and a few of the PDRA races, but as things became a reality there just wasn’t enough funding to do that. With that being said, our businesses needed tending to and that’s what we have all been focusing on the last few weeks.”
Retuning to PDRA competition in the Moroso Pro Boost class is something that Melanie and her team are excited about.
“I’ve missed driving my car in ‘outlaw trim’,” explained Salemi. “The quarter mile will always be my favorite but driving the car with the 5 Speed Liberty, the Neal Chance lockup torque converter and Quickdrive has always been really fun. It’s like a whole different car between the 2 different set ups.”
Salemi and her team plan to utilize both Wednesday and Thursday test days prior to the race to sort out a few things before qualifying begins on Friday.
“We are looking forward to going back to VMP to see all of the improvements the Franklin family has made to the track and I know Melanie is definitely happy about getting back behind the wheel in PDRA trim to make some decent laps,” explained Melanie’s husband, Jon.
This story was originally published on June 25, 2018. 
