PHOTO : NATE VAN WAGNEN

With wins early in the season , New Yorker John Pluchino and North Carolinian Richard Penland set themselves apart as championship contenders . They each continued a strong push , with Penland going to two additional finals to take the points lead over Pluchino , who had scored a runner-up finish himself . By the time the season approached the last event of the year , Pluchino and Penland had pulled away from former champions Brian Gahm , Doug Kirk and John Montecalvo .

“ The year started off really well ,” Pluchino said , describing his season . “ We were able to scrape some money together and buy the Mustang from Scott Hintz . This was the first season with it and we really didn ’ t know how the car was going to perform . The car really ran good . Any adjustments we made really showed up . We qualified number one at three races . We won Michigan . We were runner-up a couple of times .”

With the great season , Pluchino was sitting second in points with an outside shot at the championship leading up to the PDRA World Finals . “ Going into this last race in Virginia we were 203 points behind Richard Penland ,” Pluchino continued . “ The only way we could win the championship was to qualify number one and go two rounds further than Richard . We were skeptical . That would be a pretty tough thing to do . Friday night when we qualified number one , I said to my son , ‘ We ’ ve actually got a shot at this .’ But we still had to go two rounds past Richard . We won the first round and Richard won the first round . Second round we had to run Richard and we beat him . That meant we had to get to the final to win the championship .”

Fortunately for Pluchino , his number one qualifying spot earned him a bye run in the semi-finals . Once he staged he was officially the 2016 Extreme Pro Stock world champion .

“ God willing somehow or other we did it ,” Pluchino said humbly . “ It was a pretty awesome feat for us . We got lucky this year , real lucky . Just to race against guys like John Montecalvo , Brian Gahm , Doug Kirk - they ’ re all champions . And to race against them and win a championship is pretty exciting for us .

While winning a world championship is a major

accomplishment for anyone , for a low-budget team like Pluchino ’ s , a victory at that level is perhaps a little sweeter . Although Pluchino was able to purchase a new-to-him car this season , he still relied on his trusty old Jon Kaase Racing Engine , which , at 15 years old , is ancient in the Pro Stock world .

“ We ’ re definitely the underdogs . My engine is one of the oldest out there . We take good care of it . Jon Kaase updates it for me all the time . It doesn ’ t make as much power as the top guys out there . We have to make that much better runs than they do . For us to run as good as they do we have to kill it every run . And we try and do just that . We have to work that much harder to compete with these guys . And we do . We work real hard .

“ This is a very small budget team . I say that because we don ’ t even have a budget . Nobody gets paid . We all do it because we love it . My whole crew consists of my son Johnny - he works harder than anybody out there ; a good friend of mine , Bill , who owns a repair shop on Long Island and he takes off from his business to come racing with us ; then I have a good friend named Brud who ’ s been racing with me for over 20 years now . He ’ s another diehard racer . This championship was a team win . I could have never done this without my son and my guys . Everybody on the team made this happen . It was a great win for us all .

“ I want to thank Jon Kaase and all the guys over at Kaase Engines . Somehow or other , they find ways to make this old engine run with all the new style stuff . They do a great job for me . I want to thank Jerry Haas Race Cars , Pat from

RAM Clutches , Adam from Precision Racing Suspensions . Also want to throw out a thank you to a couple of local guys here . Nicky and Chris Montana own Montana Race Cars , a local chassis shop . They ’ re always there for me anytime I need any help . Dominique and Anthony from Florida are two of my biggest supporters and they ’ re always there for me .”

Pluchino will wear the brazen number one next season as Pro Stock will make a return to the PDRA series as a regular class running the full schedule . With support growing for the class throughout this return season , Pluchino says he expects a good car count next season . The 2016 season produced incredible side-by-side racing and 2017 promises more of the same . One of the best stories from this year actually came after the championship was clinched .

“ We ’ re all good friends and always there to help each other ,” Pluchino began again . “ After we won the championship , I had to run Enoch Love ’ s car in the final . Before we got there , he was packing up to go home . He had broken his transmission . I told him , ‘ You can ’ t go home . This is the first race you ’ ve been back .’ I went to my trailer and gave them all the parts they needed to fix the transmission . Then they ended up beating me in the finals . I think that was pretty funny . And you wanna ’ know something ? I would do it all over again .”

Winning a championship ranks pretty high in the logbook , but , like many racers , for Pluchino , the racer bond is what keeps him coming back .

- LISA COLLIER DI