By Mary Lendzion

 

Back in January of this year, David Fallon Jr. set some goals for himself.

 

Among them was to be as competitive as possible while chasing a championship in the incredibly challenging NMCA ARP Nitrous Pro Street category.

 

By the time he left his home in Michigan for the NMCA Muscle Car Mayhem presented by Holbrook Racing Engines in March at Bradenton Motorsports Park in Florida, he was more than ready, and so was his Camaro powered by a 632 cubic-inch engine put together by Pat Musi with a CN billet block, Dart 11X heads and custom Pat Musi aluminum intake, enhanced by two stages of nitrous by SpeedTech and backed by a Turbo 400 by M&M Transmission.

 

There, in the Sunshine State, Fallon Jr. won with a fierce 4.37. He followed that up with a 4.32 to win the second event of the season, the Scoggin Dickey Parts Center NMRA/NMCA All-Star Nationals presented by MAHLE Motorsport in April at Rockingham Dragway in North Carolina.

 

Unfortunately, he detoured at the NMRA/NMCA Super Bowl of Street-Legal Drag Racing presented by Fuelab at World Wide Technology Raceway in Illinois, when he pulled the chutes at the end of a pass, found out that his car had no brakes and went into the sand trap. Thankfully, he was not injured, though he and his crew had their hands full when they got his car back to the pit area, as they had to remove sand from the belly pan and headers, and straighten the hood, but he later proceeded to put down a 4.28 to set the pace in qualifying. While Fallon Jr. exited eliminations in the first round due to a nitrous bottle concern, he shook it off and prepared for the Arrington Performance NMRA/NMCA Power Festival presented by TorqStorm Superchargers in July at U.S. 131 Motorsports Park in Michigan, where he won the first round of eliminations before the rain forced the postponement of the event.

 

When Fallon Jr. pulled through the gates for the NMCA All-American Nationals in late August at Summit Motorsports Park in Ohio, he knew he was going to be pulling double duty, as he would be going into the second round of eliminations for the make-up Michigan race as well as focusing on qualifying and eliminations for the Ohio race.

 

He exited in the second round of eliminations for the make-up Michigan race when his car stumbled off the starting line and shook the tires, but later ripped off a 4.29 to set the pace in qualifying for the Ohio race. From there, he was unstoppable on his way to a 4.30, 4.35, a pair of 4.33s and the win over Vince Khoury in the final round of eliminations.

 

Making all of that even more impressive was the fact that Fallon Jr. and VP Racing Lubricants Xtreme Pro Mod racer Jackie Slone were taking turns using Fallon Jr.’s EFI Technology R8 ECU, as Slone’s was not working.

 

“We were swapping the ECU between cars between rounds, which was a little insane when they were calling our categories to the lanes and we were still swapping the box,” said Fallon Jr., who owns Pro Hose Connections with Slone. “My tuner, Justin Carey, did a great job quickly downloading our tune after each swap.”

 

Just a few days later, Fallon Jr. headed to the Heads-Up Series race at Milan Dragway in Michigan, where he earned the win in Outlaw 632 with a 5.46 against fellow NMCA ARP Nitrous Pro Street racer Nicole Liberty-Cach, who was forced to get out of the throttle.

 

“We had a very similar tune-up for both races, though we ended up pulling some power out for the race at Milan Dragway as the weather and track conditions were different, especially when we started to get dew in the evening,” said Fallon Jr. “In the final round of eliminations against Nicole, she spun her tires, and I had a throttle linkage come uncoupled, which made my gas pedal drop to the floor, which left me without power. It wasn’t a pretty final round for either of us.”

 

Fallon Jr. is now in leading points in NMCA ARP Nitrous Pro Street and Milan Dragway’s Outlaw 632.

 

“It felt really good to be able to earn a win two weekends in a row, especially since we usually have a month between races,” said Fallon Jr., whose car rolls on Hoosier slicks. “I would like to offer very special thanks to Ryleigh Fallon, Jackie Slone, Justin Carey, Keith Scharp, Alex Boughan and Austin Wilson, as well as Sloneboys Racing, Pat Musi Racing Engines, M&M Transmission, Mullins Auto Supply and Services, Pro Hose Connections, Hoosier Racing Tire, VP Racing Fuels and ZWN Performance. I couldn’t have done this without all of them.”