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D’Agnolo slams the door on competition

Monday, 28 November 2016

Nowhere does it say that a car has to be particularly nice-looking to be fast, but when you look at Pete D'Agnolo's sanitary 1967 Chevrolet Camaro, you can see the pride in ownership, and that pride has won the D'Agnolo Brothers a lot of trophies.

Plus one more: D'Angolo, of Rochester, New York, won the IHRA Summit Tournament of Champions in the Super Stock class at Memphis International Raceway. No great surprise: In the world of doorslammers, the D'Agnolo Brothers gloss-white Camaro is one of the legends in the Northeast.

It wasn't easy in Memphis, though: D'Agnolo laid down a lap of 9.701 seconds at 132.28mph, to runner-up Scott Stillings of Floyd's Knob, Indiana, who ran 8.606 seconds at 155.87mph. D'Agnolo had a holeshot – .023 to .043.

D'Agnolo remembers when it didn't turn out so well.

"We've had some bad luck here in the past, but it's started to turn around," he said. "Two years ago, we blew up in the final. That was a heartbreaker, so it's very gratifying to finally seal the deal."

When the win light came on, "it was an incredible feeling. I was screaming all the way through the shutdown area We were fortunate the car ran good all weekend, and we didn't have any problems."

D'Agnolo acknowledged that every competitor in the IHRA Summit Tournament of Champions earned their spot on the entry list.

"Everybody's here for a reason. They didn't just show up; you had to earn it all year. That big trophy will make the 16-hour trip home seem a lot shorter."

Article courtesy of Steven Cole Smith, Racer.com

Last modified on Thursday, 01 December 2016