{"id":100064,"date":"2025-03-04T13:19:36","date_gmt":"2025-03-04T21:19:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/?p=100064"},"modified":"2025-03-04T13:19:36","modified_gmt":"2025-03-04T21:19:36","slug":"nhra-announcer-joe-castello-brings-project-pontiac-to-the-track","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/nhra-announcer-joe-castello-brings-project-pontiac-to-the-track\/","title":{"rendered":"NHRA Announcer Joe Castello Brings Project Pontiac to the Track"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
Joe Castello\u2019s Project Pontiac is a tribute to his late dad Louis<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Joe Castello, who mans the announce booth at every NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series stop on the 20-race tour is more than a mouthpiece. He\u2019s both the host of WFO Radio and a racer who came to love straight-line racing through the passion of his father, Louis. The Floridian family lost Louis in August of 2024 and celebrated his life in early January during the 25th annual Darrell Gwynn Full Throttle \u201cShow of Shows\u201d in Pompano Beach, Florida.<\/p>\n

The loss of his dad didn\u2019t stop his son Joe from working on Project Pontiac, the rebuild of a Pontiac TransAm race car once campaigned by Louis Castello. Project Pontiac began in March of 2022 and, in fact, the loss of his dad likely throttled the restoration of this machine so that it could hit the track before Joe Castello\u2019s 2025 NHRA racing season began in earnest.<\/p>\n

The rebuild of this one-owner 1978 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am – a car that actually took Joe Castello to kindergarten – was no walk in the park; the engine block was cracked, well beyond repair and the prospect of investing in the rebuild was bleak. Joe Castello\u2019s objective, in addition to paying respect to his father and recalling the times he\u2019d watch Louis race the Pontiac, was to show others that it was possible to resurrect even the most disastrous project cars. And keep the 30-year-old paint intact!<\/p>\n

Joe Castello worked with a consortium of suppliers, both individuals and companies to make Project Pontiac a reality in Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series competition He showed the completed engine at the 2024 PRI Show in Indianapolis last December, at the FOGGIT booth. Support from FOGGIT\u2019s Gary Stinnett and Steve Williams, along with Fuel Factory, were major catalysts in the car\u2019s two-year rehabilitation and rebuild. Stinnett, Castello said, \u201cIs an amazing person to learn from. This experience,\u201d he stressed, \u201cwill help my announcing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"
Project Pontiac in the lanes at Orlando Speed World Dragstrip – photo courtesy Joe Castello<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The goal, after beginning the project in March of 2022, was to race Project Pontiac at the Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series season starting event at Orlando Speed World Dragway outside Orlando almost three years later. Following the close of NHRA\u2019s Mission Foods Drag Racing Series 2024 season, Castello put his head down and worked day and night to be suited up for action the final weekend of February. By the time race time rolled around, he was ready with his 10.90 indexed Pontiac, which has a minimum weight of 2,800 pounds. Castello\u2019s Trans Am weighs 3,300 pounds.<\/p>\n

To say he was successful isn\u2019t the gist of the matter. With everything in place, Joe Castello took his Super Street Project Pontiac to the first quarterfinals it had seen in ages, falling by only .002 seconds. \u201cThat weekend was a dream weekend,\u201d Castello stated after his first race in the Firebird. \u201cI know my dad was riding with me all weekend. The car performed perfectly right off the trailer. I was blown away and I could not have been happier. I can\u2019t wait to get to the Baby Gators,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

With around 55 cars at Gainesville Raceway the first weekend of March, Castello had work to do to make the field, which he did. Although he didn\u2019t make it out of the first round, again succumbing by .002-sec (inches at best), he said he had a great time and can\u2019t wait to take the Pontiac out again. But this week, it\u2019s back to his \u201cday job\u201d talking about the Mission Foods Drag Racing Series and helping fans enjoy the start of the NHRA season. Project Pontiac will have to take a back seat to Castello\u2019s primary job. He\u2019s thinking about racing at the Charlotte national event but most likely on Rockingham\u2019s dragstrip in October.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHonestly,\u201d Castello explained, \u201cI was worn out in Gainesville (at the Baby Gators). Just getting to the races was a tremendous effort.\u201d But that\u2019s what it takes in racing. Lots of effort, plenty of expense and the assistance of the finest parts purveyors.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"
The brightwork on this car is 30 years old! Photo courtesy Joe Castello<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The list of contributors to Project Pontiac is a Who\u2019s Who of industry experts:<\/p>\n

    \n
  • Edelbrock showcased their aluminum Pontiac heads<\/li>\n
  • Straub Technologies completed the machine work with the latest technology from Rottler Manufacturing<\/li>\n
  • Billy Goldbold, the camshaft guru, confirmed the selected grind of the Comp camshaft<\/li>\n
  • Keith Wilson and Wilson Manifolds worked magic on the intake manifold<\/li>\n
  • John Gaydosh – a real Pontiac expert – offered his tried-and-true CNC porting job<\/li>\n
  • Harry Heads, Sioux City, Iowa, added their hand porting expertise that increased flow an additional 26 CFM<\/li>\n
  • Keith Jones fit Project Pontiac with Total Seal rings<\/li>\n
  • Summit Racing Equipment provided parts necessary to get the car on-track<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    \u201cThe people who helped are too numerous to name, but a highlight moment was a call I received one morning while installing brakes on my daily car. John Callis was on the phone offering to assist with Morel Lifters,\u201d Castello recalled. \u201cI freaked out! John, who is a wonderful person, was the Pontiac Racing manager during the 1980s when I was a 12-year-old fan in the stands with my father. Now he\u2019s calling me to help with Project Pontiac!\u201d<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Project Pontiac, the rebuild of a Pontiac TransAm race car once campaigned by Louis Castello began in March of 2022 and will hit the track before Joe Castello\u2019s 2025 NHRA racing season began in earnest.<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":65,"featured_media":100067,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3470,5029],"tags":[9503,11598,9502,9441,9966,7,5175,11596,2087,11597],"class_list":["post-100064","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-racing","tag-amalie-motor-oil-gatornationals","tag-baby-gators","tag-gainesville-raceway","tag-lucas-oil-drag-racing-series","tag-mission-foods-drag-racing-series","tag-nhra","tag-orlando-speed-world-dragway","tag-pontiac-firebird-trans-am","tag-super-street","tag-wfo-podcast"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/Project-Pontiac-logo-min.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p42YSK-q1W","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100064","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/65"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=100064"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100064\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":100073,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100064\/revisions\/100073"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/100067"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=100064"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=100064"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=100064"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}