NHRA - National Hot Rod Association

Heartland Park Topeka hosted the Menards Heartland Nationals presented by Minties this past weekend for the Aeromotive team. It was an exciting weekend for numerous reasons.  Heartland Park Topeka is the home track for Aeromotive, which sponsors the scoreboard in the left lane, where last year Matt Hagan set the Funny Car national speed record at 335 mph. This year, Pro Mods competed at this race for the first time and Hagan again made the track the fates thin history with his 338-mph run. 

Aeromotive hosted people in its tower suite all weekend and the suite was full on both Saturday and Sunday. Also, having Pro Mod there for the first time was exciting for Aeromotive in another sense as its CEO, Steve Matusek, raced the Aeromotive Pro Mod Camaro all the way to the semi’s. 

We had to fight weather Friday, but the rain broke long enough for Pro Mod to get a qualifier in. Many of the guys didn’t get down the track Friday night, and with one qualifier scrubbed because of the rain, the teams only had one more chance early Saturday afternoon to make it right. 

Round one was later Saturday afternoon, with the rest of the race finishing up Sunday. The final round was a repeat of Atlanta with Mike Castellana racing against “Stevie Fast” Jackson. Unlike Atlanta, Jackson was able to wheel around Castellana for the win. 

Overall, it was a successful weekend, and the class as a whole is looking forward to what the rest of the season will bring!