There’s no question Vincent Nobile and his Mountain View Tire Pro Stock team was in dire need of a positive jolt.

Nobile, who sat out the final five races of 2017 the season – Reading, Pa., St. Louis, Dallas, Las Vegas and Pomona – when his team owner Nick Mitsos decided to pull the plug, received a shot in the arm at the 2018 season-opening Winternationals Feb. 9-11, in Pomona, Calif.

Nobile qualified No. 1 and beat Alan Prusiensky before falling to Deric Kramer in the second round. Brian “Lump” Self is Nobile’s crew chief.

“It felt like we were back to normal,” said John Nobile, Vincent’s father. “Over the winter Elite (Motorsports) worked on the engines a little bit and we bought a brand-new Jerry Haas car that we debuted there at Pomona. I think when we made that No. 1 qualifying pass (6.529 seconds), that was only the seventh pass on the car. This was a big boost for our team and big boost for the owner, Nick. Everybody is pumped up and we’re hoping to do good again (at Phoenix).”

Nobile acknowledged he saw a sneak preview of what his team’s Camaro was capable of when Vincent tested in it at Wild Horse Motorsports Park in Phoenix just prior to the Winternationals.

“When we went testing, the car seemed really good,” John said. “There were enough other cars there to feel good about ourselves. When we got to Pomona, it just worked out.”

Vincent Nobile joined Richard Freeman’s Elite Motorsports team in 2016, finishing fifth in the points, highlighted by a win at Reading, Pa. Last season, Vincent placed 10th in the point standings. His best performance was a runner-up effort at Englishtown, N.J.
Although Vincent returns to the site of where he had a strong test session – Wild Horse Motorsports Park in Phoenix Feb. 23-25 for the Arizona Nationals – John isn’t making any guarantees.

“Of course, you go testing and that’s one thing, then you get back to the same exact race track and it could be completely different,” John said. “We are going to just take it one step at a time and get there and see what we can do. We’re just hoping we can do the best we can. We are not overly concerned about being No. 1 (qualifier), we ‘re more concerned about winning races. The class has tightened up. I think what has happened is the guys are figuring out fuel injection more and more as we go. Of course, I think the Summit team had a little bit of head start in the very beginning with their backgrounds, but I just think everybody is working harder.”

All last season, the Pro Stock class was beleaguered about improving the low car counts in the class. At the Winternationals, there was a full field of 16 Pro Stock car competing which didn’t go unnoticed by John Nobile.
The Arizona Nationals have 17 Pro Stock cars entered to compete.

“We (Pro Stock) are the ones to beat on, it is just the way it has been for ever and ever,” he said. “I think getting this many cars on the West Coast seems promising. I don’t know what is going to happen throughout the year, but I would really love to see full fields. We don’t want to see the class go away, we want to see it thrive, and we’re hoping everybody keeps going.”