![\"Elkes,](\"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Steve-Matusek-Vegas-2018-min.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
After leading Erica Enders to two consecutive NHRA Pro Stock championships, Elite Motorsports made the ill-advised switch from Chevrolet to Dodge affiliation – just as the category was swapping its carbureted engine induction for electronic fuel injection.<\/p>\n
It was a choice they quickly regretted, but they still stayed with their Dodge Dart racecars for a full, 2016 season. Quickly reverting to Chevrolet Camaro racecars a year later, Elite needed seasoning time to get their ducks in a row and regain the success they\u2019d enjoyed in their previous incarnation.<\/p>\n
With Pro Stock teammates Jeg Coughlin Jr (3 wins) and single race-winner Enders finishing the 2018 Mello Yello season in second and fourth places respectively, and with Enders gaining traction in NHRA\u2019s E3 Spark Plugs Pro Mod series as that season went along, Elite looks poised for success in 2019, especially now that Melling Performance has committed to Enders\u2019 Pro Stock campaign in 2019.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s not stopping team owner Richard Freeman from expanding his domain in the coming year, campaigning four Pro Stock entries and adding two more Pro Mod entries to Enders\u2019 Chevy Camaro effort for the entire season. Elite Motorsports welcomed Alex Laughlin (Chevy Camaro) and Steve Matusek (Ford Mustang), as announced at last week\u2019s PRI show in Indianapolis.<\/p>\n
One of the more intriguing aspects of Elite\u2019s expansion is its affiliation with Modern Racing, a venture formed by Justin Elkes, whose expertise in electronics and talent in tuning race cars is bound to help Elite\u2019s Pro Mod operation.<\/p>\n
Elkes started Modern Racing in 2016 after ascending the drag racing ladder with Wilson Manifolds, KB Racing, Al-Anabi Racing and Gray Motorsports.<\/p>\n \u201cMy expertise has always been electronics and data acquisition,\u201d he said. In addition to his new affiliation with Elite Motorsports, Elkes\u2019 and Modern Racing\u2019s clientele includes Pro Stock standout Chris McGaha, Al-Anabi Racing and Pat Musi Racing engines.<\/p>\n Elkes and his Modern Racing enterprise are charged with construction and assembly of the three turbocharged Pro Mod Elite Motorsports entries, the 5th generation Camaros for Enders and Laughlin, together with the 2013 Mustang assigned to Matusek. In addition, Elkes\u2019 Modern Racing enterprise will be responsible for operation of the team and for shop-based and on-site tuning of the cars and engines.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is extremely exciting,\u201d Elkes said. \u201cWe\u2019ve tried to work together for many years and it finally worked out,\u201d he said of aligning with Freeman and his Elite operation. \u201cThis really kind of fit with the business model we\u2019re pushing. We\u2019ll be preparing the cars over the winter and I think what we\u2019re going to do has a chance to be groundbreaking.<\/p>\n \u201cWe know we have drivers that can win races, and it\u2019s going to be exciting to help them achieve that and watch them grow in Pro Mod.\u201d Matusek has an extended career in the category, and his expertise as owner of Aeromotive should be instrumental in helping Enders and Laughlin up their games. \u201cWe\u2019re putting some great pieces together and we\u2019re looking forward to having Elite Motorsports on our client list.\u201d<\/p>\n In addition to its new foray with Elite in Pro Mod, Modern Racing is expanding its on- and off-track presence in Professional Drag Racers Association (PDRA) racing, providing tuning, consulting, wiring and fabrication services for several teams. Elkes recently acquired a new mobile support trailer for its PDRA activities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" After leading Erica Enders to two consecutive NHRA Pro Stock championships, Elite Motorsports made the ill-advised switch from Chevrolet to Dodge affiliation – just as the category was swapping its carbureted engine induction for electronic fuel injection.<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":65,"featured_media":57664,"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","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3465,3470,5029,3399],"tags":[5614,39,152,2,1704,3477,83,5736,5735,41,7,4801,1632,6483],"class_list":["post-57662","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-drag-racing","category-news","category-racing","category-nhra","tag-anne-proffit","tag-chevrolet","tag-dodge","tag-drag-racing","tag-elite-motorsports","tag-erica-enders","tag-jeg-coughlin","tag-justin-elkes","tag-modern-racing","tag-news","tag-nhra","tag-pro-stock","tag-racing","tag-richard-freeman"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Steve-Matusek-Vegas-2018-min.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p42YSK-f02","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57662","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=57662"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57662\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":57665,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57662\/revisions\/57665"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/57664"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57662"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57662"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57662"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Elkes,](\"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Justin-Elkes-courtesy-Modern-Racing-min.jpg\")