Bruno Massel, Comp Eliminator standout and NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series commentator for Fox Sports, has been added to the lineup of championship-caliber NHRA Pro Stock drivers under the Elite Motorsports stable. With the support of racing veteran Mark Stockseth, Massel will field a Chevrolet Camaro in six events during the 2020 race season, beginningwith the NHRA Heartland Nationals in Topeka, KS.
“We’re extremely excited to have Bruno on board for 2020,” Stockseth explained. “I feel like part of our responsibility as team owners and sponsors is to be almost like a baseball scout to identify someone that needs an opportunity to race in a professional category. Bruno has been a guy that’s been on my radar for the past year. I finally called him at his shop, and he was just ecstatic about it. It made me feel really good about reaching out to him.”
Bruno Massel (James Sisk photo)
Massel built his reputation as a standout in the NHRA sportsman ranks, capturing NHRA Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series Comp Eliminator national championships in 2009 and 2012, along with five West Central Division Comp Eliminator championships in 2008, 2009, 2010, 2012, and 2013. Massel will still compete at multiple events in his 1,400-plus horsepower turbocharged 4-cylinder Chevy Cobalt, in addition to the six races in Pro Stock competition.
“I’m really excited. It’s an opportunity I’ve wanted for a long time,” Massel said. “I got a call from Mark about a week and a half ago and he asked me if I wanted to drive for him this season. It was like Christmas came a month late. He’s associated himself with champions from Matt Smith to Erica Enders to Jeg Coughlin and the whole Elite Motorsports team.”
“It’s extremely humbling that he would ask me to drive for him,” Massel continued. “It still hasn’t quite set in just yet. I’m actually in a car with a team that not only won the championship, but finished second in the championship, and won Indy. I have all the resources and the best people behind me from Mark and the entire Elite Motorsports team, and now it’s time for me to go out and have some fun and drive a race car.”
Massel will be behind the wheel of the Stockseth, Mobil 1, AutoGeek Car Care Products, and Mobile Environmental Solutions Elite Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro at the Menards NHRA Heartland Nationals in Topeka, KS; Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals in Norwalk, OH; NHRA Sonoma Nationals in Sonoma, CA; NHRA New England Nationals in Epping, NH; NHRA Carolina Nationals in Charlotte, NC; and AAA Texas NHRA Fall Nationals in Ennis, TX.