{"id":97476,"date":"2024-12-10T18:18:35","date_gmt":"2024-12-10T18:18:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/drag-racing\/uncategorized\/tuner-jeff-pierce-reflects-on-kye-kelleys-snowbirds-pro-mod-win\/"},"modified":"2024-12-10T18:18:35","modified_gmt":"2024-12-10T18:18:35","slug":"tuner-jeff-pierce-reflects-on-kye-kelleys-snowbirds-pro-mod-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/drag-racing\/uncategorized\/tuner-jeff-pierce-reflects-on-kye-kelleys-snowbirds-pro-mod-win\/","title":{"rendered":"Tuner Jeff Pierce Reflects on Kye Kelley\u2019s Snowbirds Pro Mod Win"},"content":{"rendered":"

Multi-talented tuner and crew chief Jeff Pierce has led numerous drivers to headline-grabbing race wins and world championships over the years, but his efforts with Street Outlaws: No Prep Kings star Kye Kelley at this past weekend\u2019s Snowbird Outlaw Nationals presented by Motion Raceworks propelled him to a new level in the public eye.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Pierce, who was heavily involved in the construction of Kelley\u2019s screw-blown, steel-roof-and-quarters \u201985 Camaro, tuned Kelley to the $50,000 Pro Mod win at the Snowbirds to kick off the three-race Drag Illustrated Winter Series presented by J&A Service at Bradenton Motorsports Park. Kelley qualified No. 13 out of 64 cars that attempted to qualify for the quickest 32-car field in Pro Modified history. He then used quick reaction times and a string of low 3.60-second passes to earn the win. Kelley fired off a 3.594-second pass at 207.78 MPH to defeat past U.S. Street Nationals winner Ken Quartuccio and his 3.688 at 194.66 in the final round.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Kelley\u2019s performance sent shockwaves through the drag racing community, as he accomplished it in a car unlike almost all of the other entries. It\u2019s most definitely a purpose-built race car, not a \u201cstreet car\u201d like some have called it, but the Wizard Race Cars-built third-gen Camaro does have a shorter wheelbase, along with a steel roof and quarter panels, which comes with a 35-pound weight break in the DI Winter Series.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a 104-inch wheelbase,\u201d Pierce noted. \u201cTypical Pro Mods are 112 to 115. It\u2019s the rules for NPK. You gotta have that, you gotta have a steel body. That is an \u201985 Camaro body that rolled off the production line. I salvaged the body for that car myself.\u201d<\/p>\n

When the DI Winter Series was first announced, Kelley started trying to put together a deal to drive for a Pro Mod car owner during the three-race series, which also includes the U.S. Street Nationals presented by M&M Transmission in late January and the Drag Illustrated World Series of Pro Mod in early March. When those deals didn\u2019t come through, Pierce convinced Kelley to bring his NPK car.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cHe had a couple deals that all flaked out and I told him, \u2018Let\u2019s just bring your car, man. It\u2019s a good car,\u2019\u201d Pierce, a 2016 DI 30 Under 30 honoree, said. \u201cI knew we could do well. I didn\u2019t know if we could do quite that good. I said, \u2018Just bring it, man. Maybe we\u2019ll turn some heads.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

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They indeed turned some heads. Kelley was the first car on the track for pre-race testing starting on Monday. Though the scoreboards were off in testing, everyone watching in-person and online could tell he was making quick passes. Kelley\u2019s YouTube videos confirmed that he was running in the mid-to-low 3.60s. Qualifying provided further confirmation, with Kelley recording a 3.621 at 207.21 in the final session on Saturday night. It put him No. 2 at the time, but ended up No. 13 by the time all 64 cars made their attempts. That performance carried over into race day, which culminated with the winning 3.594 in the final round.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe learned more about that car this week, and Kye put everything into this,\u201d Pierce said. \u201cHe came Sunday and he started testing on Monday. We made I can\u2019t even remember how many test runs. Ten freaking test runs. He wanted to do the best he could at this race. Just freaking incredible.\u201d<\/p>\n

The always-humble Pierce continued to praise Kelley, as well as the young Kye Kelley Racing team, for the incredible success they had racing against some of the best Pro Mod drivers, tuners, and teams in the world.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve told everybody he is in my top five list of people I would put in any car I could ever tune,\u201d Pierce said. \u201cHe is one hell of a driver. He had two holeshot wins today. He handles a car better than 99.9% of people. He\u2019s incredible.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cHis guys did a great job,\u201d Pierce continued. \u201cThey\u2019re both young kids, \u2018Sunshine\u2019 and \u2018Puddin\u2019\u2019, but they did an awesome job today. Everything was perfect. Literally probably the best day they\u2019ve had at the racetrack as far as making sure everything\u2019s 100%. Just incredible.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Kelley returned the compliments, noting the impact Pierce has had on his program over the last couple seasons.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just phenomenal. I decided to go screw blower \u2013 we were big nitrous guys \u2013 and Jeff and Jon Salemi, they both told me what I needed to buy, ordered all my stuff for me, told me how to set it all up,\u201d Kelley said. \u201cJeff came over, we went to a test session, he jetted it up like it needed to be jetted up, showed me the ropes, and he just took it from there. We won a championship in NPK the first year Jeff was there, and we\u2019re still doing the same thing. Jeff\u2019s here, and we\u2019re winning.\u201d<\/p>\n

To learn more about the DI Winter Series, visit\u00a0www.TheWinterSeries.com<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This story was originally published on December 10, 2024. \"Drag<\/p>\n

The post Tuner Jeff Pierce Reflects on Kye Kelley\u2019s Snowbirds Pro Mod Win<\/a> first appeared on Drag Illustrated<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Multi-talented tuner and crew chief Jeff Pierce has led numerous drivers to headline-grabbing race wins and world championships over the years, but his efforts with Street Outlaws: No Prep Kings star Kye Kelley at this past weekend\u2019s Snowbird Outlaw Nationals presented by Motion Raceworks propelled him to a new level in the public eye.\u00a0 Pierce, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-97476","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97476","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=97476"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97476\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97476"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97476"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97476"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}