JUPITER, Fla. -- Shannon Jenkins, king of the nitrous-powered Pro Modified drag racers, has a gleaming-new Al-Anabi-branded, Rick Jones-built '69 Camaro.

Nothing could be more heart-warming for the three-time IHRA Pro Mod champion known as the "Iceman," except to christen his new car in the winners circle at this weekend's Shakedown at Palm Beach.

Jenkins headlines a list of the sport's top doorslammer-car drivers as the Northeast classic "Shakedown at E-Town" at Englishtown, N.J., debuts a spinoff drag-racing spectacular at Palm Beach International Raceway (PBIR) Friday and Saturday, March 4 and 5.

Pro Modified cars are known as ultra-fast, often ill-tempered machines that travel less than four second in the eighth-mile at more than 200 mph. Their catchy car names and colorful paint schemes, along with their unpredictability, long have made Pro Modified a crowd-favorite class.

Jenkins' familiar Camaro is en route home to Tuscaloosa, Ala., from a successful stint in Qatar with the Arabian Drag Racing League in February. He won Round 6 of that series in Doha, home of team owner Sheik Khalid Al Thani. Then Jenkins won a Chicago-style shootout before ending his stint there as Pro Nitrous class runner-up.

So he's recognized on two continents as a nitrous legend, and he said he expects this new ride to perform well in its initial runs at PBIR this week.

"This car's going to be good," Jenkins said. "But it's all about the team, whoever has the best prepared car."

For Jenkins, much is riding on The Shakedown at Palm Beach. He's awaiting the March 25-26 start of the American Drag Racing League season at Baytown, Texas, and said he hopes The Shakedown will show him the consistency in this new Camaro that will propel him to the Battle of the Belts title.

He's ready to line it up against the likes of Brad Personett and Eric Dillard from the supercharged segment of Pro Mod racing.

Personett, of Elkhart, Ind., will be appearing in his first race for Roger Burgess' Duluth, Ga.-based R2B2 Racing after joining the team in December. He'll drive the twin-turbocharged '68 Camaro in which he won the prestigious U.S. Nationals in record-setting style last September.

He, too, is preparing for next week's start to the NHRA-affiliated Get Screened America Pro Mod Drag Racing Series, at nearby Gainesville Raceway. He won twice last year and finished third in the standings.

More importantly, Personett wants to get it right this time. Remembering his rude awakening in his first Shakedown at E-Town last October, he said, "I hurt stuff on race day. It was just carnage. I hurt everything I had. I don't want to go through that again. I didn’t crash. I ran into some engine failure. Some parts and pieces broke. It was just one of those weekend where nothing was going right."

He's definitely more optimistic this week, knowing The Shakedown at Palm Beach will "put you in race mode so you're not [relying on] all these laps from last Halloween.

"We'll kind of see what the weather brings us. We want to get a game plan together and get it tuned up right there the week before Gainesville. That's our main concern," Personett said. "we're making some changes, and we want to hit the ground running come Gainesville."

"It'll be a pretty good show," he said, with a nod to promoter and fellow racer David Hance of New York Motorsports. "I want to compliment David. He works so hard on these things with all these vendors. John Meaney of Big Stuff steps up for him and Harry (Hruska) of Precision Turbo. Those people help me out, too. All these people come together for Dave. He's such a gentleman, a good person, always looking out for the racers. That makes it nice."

Dillard is an all-around outlaw drag-racing expert, from owning and operating Proline Race Engines as business manager, machinist, and customer-service rep at the racetrack. He found time to win the 2010 ORSCA (Outlaw Racing Street Car Association) Limited Street class championship.

Dillard has slid into the new Jim Geese-built twin-turbo Corvette that team owner Burgess took to PBIR for its first runs in early February. It yielded 5.95- and 5.92-second elapsed times at about 254 mph in its maiden runs.

Dillard's crew chief will be Pro Line's Steve Petty, renowned for his work with Outlaw 10.5-class sensation Tim Lynch, who has dominated the Shakedown at E-Town with record-setting performances. Lynch's Petty-tuned 'Vette warmed up for The Shakedown at Palm Beach with runs at South Georgia Motorsports Park last week. The tandem produced E.T.s of  4.20, 4.20, 4.18, and 4.15 at 187mph -- which tied their fastest run ever at last year's Shakedown.

Entering The Shakedown, as well, will be Rickie Jones, a Pro Stock standout in the NHRA. The Galesburg, Ill., native will make his first start in the keenly competitive Pro Nitrous class. He'll go on to race in the ADRL this year after competing at two events in the Extreme Pro Stock class in 2010.

Action starts Friday with three qualifying sessions, at 1, 4, and 7 p.m. Saturday's schedule will start with a final qualifying session at noon and final eliminations set to begin at 3 p.m. Subsequent rounds are scheduled for 5 and 7 p.m., with final rounds at 8 p.m.

Tickets are available at the gate, which opens at 8 a.m. both Friday and Saturday.

Palm Beach International Raceway is located at 17133 Beeline Highway / Jupiter, FL 33477.

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