2009:Former Comp ace Deceglie eager for second Pro Stock season

by John Jodauga, National DRAGSTER

Although he was a dominant force in Comp for several seasons with his 6.4-second, 214-mph A/Altered Corvette, Vinnie Deceglie had no illusions about a trouble-free transition when he and team owner Nick Mitsos decided to move up to the Pro Stock ranks for the 2008 season with a Hemi-powered Dodge.

"We knew what we were getting into," said Deceglie. "A lot of my friends questioned what we were doing because we were leaving the comfort zone of Comp [where Deceglie had won three national events in five final-round appearances and had finished as high as fifth in the national standings] to knock heads against the likes of Jeg Coughlin, Greg Anderson, Dave Connolly, Warren and Kurt Johnson, Jason Line, and other established stars. But we kept goals realistic for the first season by running a limited schedule of 15 races and knew that this was primarily going to be a learning season for us."

As expected, Deceglie struggled early, and he failed to qualify for his first six races through Bristol. But after switching to engines built by Roy Johnson of the J&J Racing team and obtaining tune-up advice from ace crew chief Mark Ingersoll, Deceglie’s team qualified for seven of the remaining nine events of the year, including the last five in a row. His best qualifying effort was a No. 8 performance in Pomona, and he certainly proved that he has what it takes to keep pace with Pro Stock’s elite with his season bests of 6.642 in Sonoma and 207.02 mph in Englishtown.

Though Deceglie is still looking for his first Pro Stock round-win, he is pleased with his maiden season and excited about 2009.

"It was a big change from qualifying real high in the field and going lots of rounds in Comp to struggling to make the show in Pro Stock. But because of the higher caliber of competition, just qualifying is a major accomplishment, and we began to do that on a regular basis in the second half of the year. The key to our strong finish is what we learned from the Johnson team. If we only had access to their engine and nothing else, we might not have done as well. But they pretty much gave us access to their combination, and Mark really helped us learn how to tune the engine, clutch, suspension, and everything else. When we signed up with them, we got the total racing package," he said.

Deceglie added that the basic tasks of maintaining and racing his Pro Stocker were not that much different than in Comp. "As far as servicing the engine, clutch, and everything else between rounds, it was pretty much the same. We did have to work a bit harder at the beginning to keep up with the Pro qualifying schedule, but we got a lot better at that as the year went along."

The biggest difference, as he expected, was adjusting from the countdown Tree in Sportsman racing to the one-flash Pro Tree. "I had raced in Sportsman classes for eight years," said Deceglie, "and you just had to wait and wait for the last bulb to come on. Now, in Pro Stock, you have to get your foot off the clutch pedal at the first hint of a flash of light. That took some getting used to."

With 15 NHRA national events under his belt, Deceglie was already anticipating the 2009 campaign with great enthusiasm, and the excitement level was raised considerably with the announcement that veteran Pro Stock crew chief Jeff Perley, who worked with Kurt Johnson and KB Racing, has been signed as the co-crew chief with Ingersoll. Said Deceglie, "I’ve worked with Jeff before. He helped us a lot with our Corvette, and I’ve always had great respect for him. He’s a very good friend of ours, and I know that he’ll bring a lot to the table."

Deceglie will be taking delivery of a new Dodge from RJ Race Cars, which builds the chassis for the car that Allen drives as well as the team’s third member, Johnny Gray, who will run the entire 24-race 2009 schedule with a J&J Racing Hemi. "Having all three of our team cars coming from one chassis builder will sure make it a lot easier for Mark and Jeff to accumulate and analyze the data," said Deceglie. "All of the information will be shared by each team, and that should really accelerate our learning curve."

Once again, Deceglie is planning to run 15 races this year, but the door has been left open for more. "If we get off to a good start," he said, "we plan to add more races to the schedule. We’ll still just try to take it one race at a time and attempt to race within what we know are our capabilities. But with the way we finished last year, we can’t wait to start racing again in 2009."