The South Georgia Motorsports Park eighth-mile played host to the record-breaking doorslammers of the Professional Drag Racers Association (PDRA) this weekend, with Florida’s Tommy D’Aprile scoring the PDRA Southern Extreme Nationals event win in Pro Extreme. Also earning pro class wins Saturday night were Jay Cox in Pro Nitrous, Jose Gonzales in Pro Boost, John Montecalvo in Extreme Pro Stock, and Eric McKinney in Pro Extreme Motorcycle. 

D’Aprile notched the first win on his 2017 scorecard when he drove the Mel Bush Motorsports 2015 Corvette to a decisive win over Jose Gonzales in the final round. 

“We had to tear the motor down and put it back together before the final,” D’Aprile said. “We didn’t even test fire it. The starter wouldn’t come off at first when we fired up for the final, then we had a bent throttle cable so we didn’t have full throttle in the final. The throttle was actually sticking, so I had to hold my foot back while I was staging. It just all worked out, that’s all I can say – God is good.”

Cox, winner of three of the nine PDRA races in 2016, kicked off the new season with possibly his most successful weekend performance yet. He used two elusive 3.6-second passes to win from the No. 1 spot in beating Lizzy Musi during the final round.

Gonzales, also racing in Pro Boost, made headlines this weekend for his record-shattering quarter-mile run in the El General/Q80 Racing beat John Strickland in the final round. 
 
The sportsman class winners at the PDRA’s 2017 season opener were Tom Vanbeek in Top Sportsman, Mario Boesch in Top Dragster, Sadie Wicks in Pro Junior Dragster, and Tripp McCarty in Top Junior Dragster. Georgia racer Ken Grant scored the Bracket Bash victory.