Faced with abysmal participation so far this season, the Professional Drag Racing Association (PDRA) recently announced that Pro Extreme (PX)—the ultimate eighth-mile doorslammer class for screw-blown and turbocharged entries—will no longer be contested at its national events.

Among those affected by the decision is the winningest PX driver in history, Jason Scruggs, who entered just one Pro Extreme race this year. Driving Roger Henson’s screw-blown ’69 Camaro, the “Mississippi Missile” qualified number one in a three-car field for the PDRA season opener at GALOT Motorsports Park, where he fell in the second and final round to Terry Leggett.

“You know, Pro Extreme had a lot of good years and at one time I think it was probably the most exciting class in drag racing. So, you know it's sad to see it go, but that being said I could kinda’ see the writing on the wall really for the last year or so,” Scruggs said.

“People will always say, ‘Well, the class is too expensive,’ but truthfully, in my opinion, I don't think it was any more expensive than any other class. I would spend just as much money on Pro Boost and Pro Nitrous is probably just as much or more. Speed? Yes, Pro Extreme is faster, but I just don't believe it's any more expensive. It’s just that over time the guys that were trying to do it, a lot of them were budget racers and a lot of it's that.”

Regardless, shortly after the PDRA’s June 14 announcement, Scruggs revealed plans to equip his current screw-blown Hemi engines with roots-type superchargers in order for the team to enter PDRA’s Pro Boost class in preparation for a planned NHRA Pro Mod debut.

“We're actually gonna’ go NHRA legal, but we're gonna’ first run a little bit in Pro Boost to try and get a handle on it ‘cause we have a big learning curve ahead of us,” Scruggs said. “So the plan right now is to be at PDRA in Virginia, but that's coming up in two weeks and I have a whole lot of work to get done between now and then. 

“As of today, I don't have a motor together or nothing. We're still trying to get everything together. But, if everything goes good, we plan to go to Virginia and enter in Pro-Boost and just try to do some testing basically.”

Scruggs said his father, Mitchell, and Rickie Jones of RJ Race Cars also will be helping with the new program. “We’re all partners in it, Rickie is gonna’ help us and for now it’s Roger's car and some of my motors. You know, a little bit of everything. From there I don't know yet exactly what we are going to be in.”

If all goes well, Scruggs hinted that his career-first NHRA race could come as early as this season.

“We're gonna’ try to run next year maybe half of the races—hopefully—but you know, we might possibly go to one at the end of this year, it all depends on how everything goes, we're not pushing ourselves,” he said. “We want to test the car and get it up to speed. We have a lot of learning to do; everybody else is five years ahead of us.” 

Scruggs also emphasized he’ll be running PDRA Pro Boost without a lock-up converter and at an NHRA-legal 2,600 pounds.

“We know that with that combination we can't keep up with the guys in Pro-Boost, but we're gonna’ go out there and hopefully get a 3.80 or something like that,” he said. “We can run a lighter weight at PDRA (2,450 lbs) and be more competitive, but we basically have to try and get the car to run with the weight in it because that changes everything around a little bit.”

A back-to-back ADRL Pro Extreme world champion (2007-’08), Scruggs also suggested his days of chasing series titles are likely over, regardless of where he goes racing. 

“Right now we just wanna’ go have some fun,” he said. “If we can run half of the NHRA races next year and we're not real busy maybe a couple of Pro Boost races, too. That would be the goal. Just to go out there and try to win and have some fun.”