Pro Mod racer, Fredy Scriba, raised eyebrows at Maryland International Raceway during the season-opening Northeast Outlaw Pro Mod series event on April 13, when he thundered down the quarter-mile to the tune of 5.676-seconds at 250mph, which stands as the quickest pass in history for a nitrous-assisted doorslammer.
Scriba admits that his new 1969 Camaro built by Jerry Bickel Race Cars probably has more left in it, but he’s reluctant to say just how much.
“The conditions at MDIR were certainly ideal, but it’s likely to slow down as summer approaches and it starts getting hot,” says Scriba, who began driving Pro Mods in 2000 during his senior year of high school. He only took delivery of his latest Camaro in late summer of 2018, and has put very few runs on the car, which features a 959 c.i. engine from Pat Musi, and is anchored by a manually-shifted Liberty 5 speed transmission with Ram clutch. The car weighs 2,450 pounds in its race-ready trim within the Northeast Outlaw series.
While the team was pumped at the recent performance, Scriba downplayed the accomplishment by pointing out that few organizations allow an engine of this magnitude to be run on the quarter-mile.
“This is basically a PDRA-type engine that we’re using, so that’s probably a contributing factor to why we ran a 5.67, because there’s only a handful of people who have an engine like this that race on the quarter-mile,” explains Scriba, who is a two-time points champion of the Northeast Outlaw Pro Mod series. By contrast, NHRA continues to implement a 903 c.i. limit for nitrous oxide-assisted vehicles within that sanction’s Pro Modified division.
Scriba’s impressive numbers from the season-opener landed him in the No. 3 slot on the qualifying sheet behind Steve King’s 5.62 at 259mph, followed by Dave Norris, who stopped the clocks at 5.66 at 251mph. Both King and Norris utilize screw blowers as their power-adder of choice. The Northeast-based Pro Mod series has long championed diversity within their rule books, allowing no less than five different combinations including nitrous, roots blower, screw blower, turbo and ProCharger, all competing within the same field of cars. Scriba intends on running the entire Northeast Outlaw series, as well as select PDRA events that are close to home.
“We take racing seriously, but it’s still a hobby to us. We try to stick to around 12-14 events per season at the most, since we’ve got kids and have family stuff to do,” he adds. “I want to thank my crew: Stephen Schultz, Steve Schultz, Doug Groff and my dad, Fred Scriba.”
Hobbyists or not, this team always shows up with a fast hot rod and Scriba’s season-opening performance got noticed in a big way.
This story was originally published on April 23, 2019. 
