Weekends like this do not come around very often, but Sonny Leonard wasn’t complaining.

The renowned engine builder had a front-row seat as cars using his engine power plants were dominant during the American Drag Racing League’s double-race event at Houston Raceway Park in Baytown, Texas last Friday and Saturday.

Rickie Smith had back-to-back event wins in consecutive days in the Pro Nitrous class and John Montecalvo also had two wins in two days in Extreme Pro Stock. If that wasn’t enough, the Sonny Leonard-powered Johnny Pilcher machine was runner-up to Smith in the originally-scheduled event at Houston.

Weekends like this do not come around very often, but Sonny Leonard wasn’t complaining.

The renowned engine builder had a front-row seat as cars using his engine power plants were dominant during the American Drag Racing League’s double-race event at Houston Raceway Park in Baytown, Texas last Friday and Saturday.

Rickie Smith had back-to-back event wins in consecutive days in the Pro Nitrous class and John Montecalvo also had two wins in two days in Extreme Pro Stock. If that wasn’t enough, the Sonny Leonard-powered Johnny Pilcher machine was runner-up to Smith in the originally-scheduled event at Houston.

“It was unbelievable,” Leonard said. “I’ve been in business for 40 years and I never seen anything like that and I was thankful to be part of it. I was so happy. It was the best weekend I ever had.”

In Baytown, the ADRL’s inaugural Universal Technical Institute (UTI) Inaugural Texas Drags was the scheduled event and in addition, the season-opening Safety-Kleen Dragpalooza VI race also was ran.

The Dragpalooza VI race was originally slated for March 19-20 in Houston, but qualifying and racing was never completed because of poor weather conditions.

Smith also captured a No. 1 qualifying spot in Houston and Montecalvo also had a pole position in Extreme Pro Stock.

By the time races were completed late last Saturday night, Leonard did take a little bit of time to celebrate.

“I had me a good mixed drink before I left the track and we went to Chilis and we got there five minutes to 12 and we all had dinner at Chilis,” Leonard said.

Leonard says the amazing Houston weekend was an ideal advertisement for the engines he builds and positive reinforcement for all his employees at the Sonny’s Racing Engines shop in Lynchburg, Va.

“What those drivers did really means a lot, especially since they ran all weekend and didn’t hurt anything,” Leonard said. “That was extremely important for me that the guys raced and didn’t hurt anything. It also was good for morale for the people who work for me.”

The ADRL actually has another double-race weekend planned for its next event, the Hardee’s Gateway Drags Aug. 6-7 at Gateway International Raceway in St. Louis. At St. Louis, the ADRL also plans to complete its Topeka, Kan., race.

Leonard, however, isn’t making any bold predictions for St. Louis.

“I don’t know how can it could be any better than it was in Houston, and I do not know if I will ever see something like that again,” Leonard said. “The only way I could see it being any better is if I were playing golf and I had two holes in one on the same day. That would be the only thing better than what happened at Houston for me.”

The race in Topeka, Kan., was scheduled for July 2-3, and the first round of Pro Extreme Motorcycle, Extreme Pro Stock, Pro Nitrous, and Extreme 10.5 were completed before the race was postponed July 3 because of heavy rainfall. In Pro Extreme, no eliminations were run. Joshua Hernandez was the top qualifier at 3.690 seconds at 204.26 mph. Frankie Taylor was second at 3.701 seconds at 202.58 mph.

Outside of the ADRL, Leonard believes Pro Mod racing is getting an additional boost from the presence of the Get Screened America Drag Racing Series, which is making its NHRA debut this season.

Back on Nov. 1, the Pro Mod class officially joined the NHRA as part of the Get Screened America Pro Mod Drag Racing Series. The Pro Mod Series will compete at 10 NHRA Full Throttle Series events in 2010 as part of multi-year deal between the Pro Mod Series and the NHRA. The next NHRA Pro Mod race is Sept. 1-6 at the U.S. Nationals in Indianapolis.

The NHRA adding the Get Screened America Drag Racing Series was made possible by funding from Pro Care Rx and its current Get Screened America initiative.

The Pro Mod class isn’t new to the NHRA as it has been competing at NHRA events as an exhibition class since 2001.

Pat Musi, one of Leonard’s good friends, and owner of the Pat Musi Performance engine shop in Carteret, N.J., won the NHRA’s Pro Mod event last month in Norwalk, Ohio.

“Pat and I work together a lot and Pat is good on fuel injection,” Leonard said. “Actually, Rickie (Smith) over the weekend (at Houston) was running Pat Musi fuel injection on his car. That is an engine Pat and I were working together on and it came out really, really well. The fuel injection, I think is the way to go. We have been playing with it on-and-off for a few years, but Pat, he has been playing with a good little while and he has done really well. I sell Pat a lot of components and I was so glad when he won (at Norwalk) with his nitrous car, that was good for the sport. I was really happy for Pat because he works really hard, and it was good for us. Also, the thing that was unique about Rickie’s (ADRL) wins in Houston was that his car was NHRA legal weight of 2425. The other people in the ADRL, I’m sure there was nobody there that was running fast who was heavy like Rickie was. Most of the guys there were 75 to 100 pounds lighter than Rickie’s car. So for Rickie to run that quick and win those races was amazing.”

Leonard also believes the NHRA’s Get Screened America Pro Mod Drag Racing Series is serving a purpose.

“I think Pro Mod is good,” Leonard said. “The fans like Pro Mod because there are so many different types of cars and so many different types of engines.”