Mon, 14 Sep 2009, 10:16 PM Patille and Barker Go 1-2 at Epping

Courtesy of Jon Salemi

EPPING, N.H. -- Frank Patille and Jim Barker brought the 1-2 punch at the IHRA Amalie Oil North American Nationals at Epping, New Hampshire Sept 10-13. After a rain delay event, which washed out competition on both Friday and Saturday, the teams went right into eliminations Sunday morning. Both Barker and Patille run the Northeast Pro Mod Association, which ran in conjunction with the IHRA event this year.

With both teams going into Sunday without any qualifying attempts at the track it really was a crapshoot on the tune up side of things. Ironically Jon Salemi was tuning both cars under the DMPE banner for the weekend. He stated, "It's really great to be working with two quality teams. They both have DMPE Superchargers and Fuel Systems. The quality of their racing operations is top notch. I did my best to read the racetrack with each car and gave it my best shot. Fortunately they both went down in the first round to establish a baseline for each team."

Twelve cars showed with the NEOPM group so they ran on a sixteen car ladder. Both Barker and Patille were fortunate to get bye runs during eliminations. Barker's being in the second round and Patille's in the semis for a free trip to the finals. Patille said, "We just kept racing smart all day. Jon kept us grounded and just picked away at the tune up. I did my job on the tree when I needed to and we kept getting a bit better each round". Patille managed to grab low E.T. of each round and Barker ran top speed of the meet in the final. Barker exclaimed, "Today was just a good day. I haven't been in the car in 2 months. It took me a bit to get back at it but after the first shot I was comfortable and ready as ever. With the limited number of attempts we had this weekend I'm very pleased with our success".

The final was a great race as Barker gated Patille on the starting line with an .013 light to Patille's game .056 but Patille made up the ground by 330 and ran 6.17 @ 228 mph to Barker's 6.30 @ 232 mph. Salemi said, "This was a win/win situation for me no matter what the outcome. I'm just pleased to be a part of each team and support our product in fine fashion".

Both teams will compete at the "Shakedown at E Town" in mid October to close their seasons.

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