The best story coming out of the Pro Mod final at the second stop on the 2026 IHRA Outlaw Nitro Series tour at Virginia Motorsports Park wasn’t the win light. It was who was standing on both sides of it.
Tony Wilson, driving Ed Burnley’s Harts Charger-equipped “Iron Man” ‘69 Camaro, put together his best weekend of driving in the class to take home the Pro Mod Ironman trophy and $50,000. His tuner? Jason Harris. His final-round opponent? Also Jason Harris.
Wilson nailed a .012 reaction time in the final and ran 3.586 at 209.04 mph to seal it. Harris, who had been solid in the 3.50’s all weekend from the No. 3 qualifying spot in his “Party Time” ‘69 Camaro – a tribute to the late Harold Denton, the beloved Pro Stock legend who passed away in 2024 – had trouble on the starting line when his fuel pressure sensor went haywire and the RPMs wouldn’t come up. He went .133 on the tree and the car never had a chance to do what it had done all day, slowing to a 3.661 at 173.74.
But the way Harris handled it afterward said everything about the relationship between these two teams.
“I don’t know what happened to mine,” Harris said after walking up to Wilson in the winner’s circle. “It’s like when I hit it, it wouldn’t come up. The fuel pressure sensor was going crazy. But that’s okay. He deserved it. They worked hard. You should have seen their pits. Their pits were destroyed. Stuff everywhere. They had a lot of problems, but the better car won today. That’s the way it goes.”
Wilson, from Kannapolis, North Carolina, qualified eighth in the 21-car field with a 3.594 and proceeded to kill the tree all weekend long, posting reaction times of .008 and .012 in the later rounds while running consistent 3.58’s. He became the eighth consecutive first-time winner in IHRA Pro Mod and the 65th different winner in the history of the class.
“This is awesome,” Wilson said. “I can’t thank Ed Burnley enough. And Jason. Jason gave us a heck of a car. I can’t thank him enough.”
The arrangement is unique even by outlaw racing’s standards. Harris tunes Wilson’s Burnley-owned Camaro – both Harts Charger centrifugal supercharger cars backed by Pro Line Racing Engines – and then lines up against him in the finals on race day. Wilson was asked how much trust that takes.
“It’s a lot of trust in Jason,” Wilson said. “It’s a lot of trust in my dad and the guys we got working on the car. I don’t have to do a whole lot, really; just help them with maintenance during the rounds. But I really get to focus on driving this race car. And that was my deal with Ed. I didn’t want to tune. I wanted Jason for that because I wanted to be able to have the opportunity to just drive a race car.”
That deal is paying off. Wilson, a noted wheelman and veteran of PDRA Pro Nitrous competition, also won a Pro Nitrous Ironman last year, giving him two Ironman trophies in two different classes. Burnley, based out of Pasadena, Maryland, now has a winner’s trophy headed home.
“This is for Mr. Ed,” Wilson said.
As for Harris, who could have been bitter about losing a final round to the car he tuned? He wasn’t. He walked over, praised the effort, and said his piece.
“Party time is still going to be party time,” Harris said. “It’s all right. He deserved it.”
The IHRA Outlaw Nitro Series heads to Capital City Motorsports Park in Montgomery, Alabama, May 7-9 for the third event of the 2026 season.
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