When rumors began to surface that Awesome Motorsports was in the process of changing engine builders - leaving Fulton Competition to join forces with Reher-Morrison - it sent shockwaves through the Pro Modified community. It was a move labeled by many as pure sacrilege.

The fact that Reher-Morrison planned to undertake a high-profile nitrous Pro Mod program sent similar ripples of disbelief through the Pro Stock ranks, with many at first surprised to learn that the popular Texas-based company was going to build anything other than traditional 500-inch Pro Stock motors and fast sportsman bracket engines.

The chatter was quickly silenced when Shannon Jenkins, driving Awesome Motorsports team owner Mike Castellana’s 2007 Mustang, reeled off a an elapsed time of 6.080 seconds at 231 miles per hour during testing at South Carolina’s Darlington International Dragway.

The move from Fulton to Reher-Morrison was nothing personal; it was just something Castellana says they needed to try before making crucial decisions regarding the team.

“Making the move is something we had talked about,” Castellana said. “We wanted to see if we could pick up a bit of horsepower by going in that direction. It wasn’t a matter of being unhappy; it was just that we wanted to go a different direction to continue our progression.”

Awesome Motorsports travels off the beaten path

The fact that Reher-Morrison planned to undertake a high-profile nitrous Pro Mod program sent similar ripples of disbelief through the Pro Stock ranks, with many at first surprised to learn that the popular Texas-based company was going to build anything other than traditional 500-inch Pro Stock motors and fast sportsman bracket engines.

The chatter was quickly silenced when Shannon Jenkins, driving Awesome Motorsports team owner Mike Castellana’s 2007 Mustang, reeled off a an elapsed time of 6.080 seconds at 231 miles per hour during testing at South Carolina’s Darlington International Dragway.

The move from Fulton to Reher-Morrison was nothing personal; it was just something Castellana says they needed to try before making crucial decisions regarding the team.

“Making the move is something we had talked about,” Castellana said. “We wanted to see if we could pick up a bit of horsepower by going in that direction. It wasn’t a matter of being unhappy; it was just that we wanted to go a different direction to continue our progression.”

That fateful test day at Darlington answered a lot of questions for not only Castellana and Jenkins, but also for engine builder David Reher. It also let them know that the doomsday predictions for the nitrous combination might not be everything the detractors had said. They now see a light at the end of the tunnel rather than Armageddon for their beloved nitrous-injected motors.

“We have seen a lot of promise already with the five-inch bore motor,” Castellana said. “The runs at Darlington produced the quickest runs we’d ever made. That was in my car, which is eight pounds heavier than last year. We went faster in a heavier car; that ought to say something.”

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The Awesome team discovered their engine had plenty of gusto and when coupled with some chassis advice from fellow racer Mike Bell, they were able to zero in on the “perfect” run. The Jerry Haas-built Mustang responded favorably.

No one is talking performance secrets, although Castellana offered one interesting tidbit. The new engines are making more horsepower than the team has ever experienced, and that’s without the nitrous being hooked up.

“We’ve made more horsepower with the naturally-aspirated engines,” Castellana said. “We are a big plus before we even put the nitrous on the engines. We are working with the motors and finding ways to add more nitrous to the motors.

“There’s a misconception in drag racing that adding more nitrous will solve every problem. You have to prepare the engine to better handle it.

“Shannon and our team, along with Dave Reher and the guys at his shop, have worked hard to get us to this point. We are still about two months off from getting our new 5.2-inch bore space engines. We expect an even greater performance leap once we get those motors.”

The fact that Reher-Morrison are excelling with the large-inch engines should come as no surprise to those that have followed IHRA doorslammer racing. A little over two decades ago, Reher-Morrison held a firm grip on the mountain motor Pro Stock division with three consecutive championships courtesy of the late Lee Shepherd and his successor Bruce Allen.

The gang at Reher-Morrison got a late jump on preparing the 5.2 engines because, as Castellana puts it, of indecision by the IHRA’s rules makers late in 2006. The current IHRA rules now allow for up to a 5.3-inch bore space.

“That’s another IHRA thing,” Castellana said. “We would have had these motors already but the IHRA said last year there’s no way they would allow the 5.2-inch motors. That pushed us to concentrate on the 5-inch motors. Then the rules came out and all the research and development we’d been doing is something that we can still use towards the larger engine program.

“Then in the middle of that, they gave us 5.3-inch bore space. They just keep changing as they go.”

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Reher has jumped into the project in a big way, and that has impressed Jenkins. He’s been at the first two IHRA events thus far and hasn’t been afraid to get his hands dirty.

“David Reher is a hands-on guy,” Jenkins said. “He’s a racer at heart and he’s been doing this for a long time. He has to get in the mix and I don’t mind at all. We work well together.”

“We just need more laps on our cars. The cars…the motors…it’s all new. Unfortunately, with getting the cars painted and getting everything else ready, there wasn’t a lot of time available to test.

“Our motto at Awesome Motorsports is that we don’t quit. It’s what we love to do and it’s what we are going to do. Those who don’t get aggressive will be left behind.”

Castellana waves off the skeptics who suggest the nitrous fraternity has long used the rulebook as their research and development over the last five years.

“We were just doing whatever we could to keep up,” Castellana said. “It’s not like we were just sitting back. We were constantly pushing. We just felt like going in a different direction afforded us the opportunity to get to where we wanted to be a lot quicker.

“There were a lot of other teams out there working hard like we are. We are just going in a different direction to make improvements on our program.”

There are still some unanswered questions for Castellana, and they largely center on what the team will do in 2008 and beyond. He is firm they will race, but as to where – that’s a question that remains up in the air.

The decision to limit the class to pre-1970 body styles may have taken away at least one semblance of an advantage the Awesome team had working in their favor. Just asking what kind of body style the team will campaign inspired Castellana to divulge the uncertainty of their future with the IHRA.

“To be honest, I am going to make a decision after about two more races as to what I am going to do for next season,” Castellana said. “It’s not a complaint and I am not complaining about rules. If I feel we can’t even be competitive with a nitrous car, then I am not going to waste my time building an older body car.

“We’ll just race the ADRL, Quick Eight races and do whatever we can. I might even run some Outlaw Street stuff. If we don’t feel we are going to be competitive, why waste the time and the money?

“Again, it’s not a complaint. When they make the rules, I will have to make a decision. That is just what it is.”

Make no bones about it; Castellana believes that he can live without the bright lights of the big stage.

“I believe so,” Castellana said. “You can see the window is down anyway. I don’t know what is happening with them [IHRA]. The car counts just keep dropping and dropping. For Rockingham to only have 21 cars, that’s unheard of. Maybe that’s what they are looking for. In that case it’s good for them. If that’s not what they are looking for, then it is bad.

“We just want to race and have a chance.”