GAINING EXPERIENCE A HIGH PRIORITY FOR THIS PRO MOD ROOKIE

by Tracy Renck    Wed, 2018-08-15 15:21


 

Justin Jones, all of 19 years old, was taking on the heaving hitters in the World Series of Pro Mod race in his 1969 Camaro.

Jones lost in the first round to Steven Whiteley. Whiteley clocked a 6.005 second run to defeat Jones who slowed to 6.995 seconds.

Getting to this point in his career was a journey for Jones.

“I’ll tell you the short long story. My dad (Jeff Jones) and I about three years ago we got into alcohol Funny Car racing, and Randy Anderson was our first crew chief,” Jones said. “We were with him for a couple years. We did really well in alcohol Funny Car. Won a couple races. But a couple of years later we were having trouble going faster so we talked to Brandon (Pesz) about coming over and being our crew chief.

"He’s always been in Pro Mod racing, but he was willing to take on the challenge of the Funny Car. So, we did that for about a year. Tried to switch it over to an automatic. Then we got into the Pro Mod with Brandon and we just fell in love with it. So, my dad went and bought this car, the one that I drive. He was like “hey do you want to drive a Pro Mod?” And I said. ‘I’d love to.’ So I kind of jumped in head first. Never been in anything besides Camaros, street car kind of stuff.”

Now, Jones is a work in progress in the Pro Mod ranks.

“Man, I’ve never even lined up against a competitor on a track before until I got into my Pro Mod,” Jones said. “This is my first season full-time. The first time in the car was December 2017 so not even a year ago. We got into the Midwest Pro Mod Series with Keith Haney and we run that mostly. We were going to run NHRA legal Pro Mod at the end of the year this year, but we did better than expected in the Midwest. We’re in the top five in points so we’re going to try and finish out the season there and then maybe run a couple of NHRA races next year and eventually go full NHRA. Wes called us because he’s friends with Brandon and was like ‘hey I’d love to have you all in Denver for the World Series of Pro Mod.’ We took the challenge and switched everything over.”

Jones thoroughly enjoyed the experience of competing at Thunder Mountain.

“Oh, I loved it,” Jones said. “It’s unreal. Especially, switching from eighth-mile to quarter-mile. The extra 3 seconds on top, you’re sitting there ‘man this takes forever to get down through there.’ It’s funny. My first quarter-mile pass in my car this weekend, I told Brandon ‘hell, I had my hand up on the chute at 330’. It took forever to get down through there.’ But it’s has been a blessing. I was fortunate, and I had a blast out here.”

 
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