Melanie Salemi understands the enormity of racing on the big stage of the NHRA Pro Modified Series.  

Last season, Salemi was given a chance to race at the NHRA Midwest Nationals outside of St. Louis and made the most of the opportunity to compete before a crowd she could hear above the thunder of her supercharged, alcohol-burning engine. 

The experience was one she'll always remember, but not the defining one of her career. For Salemi, she loves all of drag racing and refuses to get caught up in the moment.

Now, Salemi will experience the full tour in 2018. 

"It’s just racing to me, doesn’t matter where I’m racing," Salemi admitted. "Obviously the stage is a little bigger over at NHRA, and that’s what we’re looking for; exposure for our sponsors, our team, and our businesses of course. 

"To me, it’s just racing. I like the quarter mile a lot, not that I dislike the eighth-mile, but I grew up racing quarter-mile and being behind the wheel of this car on the quarter mile is pretty awesome." 

Salemi didn't envision her current status years back as a drag racing fan when she grew up admiring the Canadian Pro Modified scene, very much a masculine arena. 

"I don’t even think many females even raced at our local track in Grand Bend," Salemi explained. "There were a few, but I was one of those few females that continued on after Junior Dragsters."

Salemi raced a supercharged dragster in the Top Dragster ranks and was regularly one of the faster ones at any given event. She had the sensation of speed under control, but at the urging of her husband John Salemi, brother-in-law Jim and former Pro Modified racer Mike Stawicki decided to give Pro Modified a try. 

It didn't take the versatile Salemi long to realize the glaring difference between the open cockpit of a dragster to the confines at a 230-mile per hour doorslammer. 

"It’s pretty crazy, especially with being in the Dragster, being in the open and then getting in a car with closed doors and a roof over you and the engine in front of you," Salemi explained. "There’s nothing that compares to that. It’s pretty intense, especially when you’re on the two-step and getting ready to let go of the training brake and blast down the track. 

"It’s a pretty crazy feeling, but you get used to it. It took me a little while to adapt to the doors closing in and all that kind of stuff. But now it’s my favorite place to be." 

Salemi doesn't mince words when she describes her initial runs in a Pro Modified as intimidating. 

"But I had some really great teachers," Salemi quickly added. "You know, Mike Stawicki, he’d been behind the wheel of a Pro Mod car forever, and it was one of his great ideas to put me behind the wheel of this car. They taught me a lot beforehand, and I asked a lot of questions. I had been fast in the Dragster, so the speed wasn’t an issue. 

"But then there was driving by the seat of your pants and different things that you’re going to feel; they taught me everything and whatever they told me was exactly what it was like. Be ready for anything. It was a big learning curve, but I did it slowly and eventually got my license. I mean the day that I went to get my license, we made I think 14 runs that day. So by the end of the day, I was pretty tired."

Salemi will attest no matter how much training a new driver can get; there's always a surprise from time to time; a trait which carried on to the most seasoned competitor/.  

"Every incident is different," Salemi said. "I rely on these guys to give me the best race car they can every single time, so hopefully the car going up on two wheels or something like that doesn’t happen. I also ask them a ton of questions, and obviously Mike Stawicki’s been in situations like that before, and I continually talk to him and prepare myself for something like that to happen, and hopefully, if it ever does, I’ll be as ready as I can be."

If and when it happens, Salemi understands there may come a time when she has to manhandle the car, or in her case womanhandle. 

"The car’s always going to be ahead of you, it’s going to make you react to what it’s doing," Salemi said. "So you have to be pretty on your game to even start to think about manhandling it."

Manhandling is just the nature of the beast.  

"That’s part of the fun of driving one of these cars. You never know what’s going to happen," Salemi explained. "You have to be able to react to any situation that you’re given." 

And this year, Salemi will be given the situation of becoming a regular on the NHRA Pro Modified Series. 

"Being able to look up in the stands and like see all these fans, even have them at the back of the trailer looking for autographs, and stuff like that, it is a really neat experience, and I’m really looking forward to building my fan base," Salemi said.  "Hopefully I can continue that every time that we’re at the race track, because that is really cool. I really enjoy interacting with the fans, especially the kids and the other females that are there at the race track, I think it’s really cool. That’s what I’m looking forward to, as much as driving the race car at the NHRA events."