ROUND-BY-ROUND RESULTS

THURS. GALLERY (posted) FRI. GALLERY (posted) SAT. GALLERY (posted) SUN. GALLERY (posted) LIVE VIDEO

 

FINAL NOTEBOOK - WINNERS CROWNED AS EVENT RUNS ONE DAY LATER

NO TIME LIKE THE FIRST TIME - For the first time since the PDRA’s inaugural season in 2014, Florida’s Tommy D’Aprile scored the win in Pro Extreme, the PDRA’s quickest and fastest category. 
“Big relief, I can tell you that,” D’Aprile said of breaking through for the win. “What was really exciting for me is that the guys who work on the team right now never had a win in any category. It was a first for them, so it was really special to be able to see that.”

Racing out of the third spot, D’Aprile used a .001 reaction time and 3.64 at 211.39 to defeat Mike Recchia’s 3.67 at 210.44 in the first round. He and opponent John Stanley struggled with the hot conditions in Sunday’s second round when D’Aprile’s 3.75 at 194.16 beat the 3.78 at 191.41 out of Stanley’s Cadillac CTS. 

“In that left lane, I can tell you I probably came within less than a foot from hitting that wall when I was running John Stanley. I actually had to lift and pull the ‘chutes. Luckily I stayed in front of John. He was on a good run but ran into problems of his own. To me, that was the scariest and most exciting and crazy round,” D’Aprile recalled.

The Mel Bush Motorsports team was preparing their screw-blown 2015 Corvette for a final-round race against number one qualifier Brandon Snider when Snider’s crew chief informed them that the Q80 Racing Camaro would be unable to return for the final. D’Aprile staged, took the green light and idled to a 12-second elapsed time. 

“As the saying goes, you really want to race for it, but with the day that we had I would take it any way we could get it. The truth is Brandon is a really close friend of mine and I know that we’re going to be able to race each other again. We’ve had some really good battles in the past.” 

Always humble in victory or defeat, D’Aprile praised his team for their efforts in the hot conditions. 

“I’m grateful for (team owners) Mel and Johanne Bush and the guys who work with us. We have Al Billes tuning for us now. We’ve won several races together and I think this is the start of something really good. We’re really gelling as a team right now and I’m really excited to see what’s going to happen.” 

ALL ABOUT THE FRANKLIN - The North-South Shootout trophy in Pro Nitrous had a short journey to its new home in Tommy Franklin’s trophy case in nearby Fredericksburg, Virginia. The local hero, who recalled a crash at this track eight years ago to the date, was eager to perform well for the home crowd. 

As one of the quickest cars throughout qualifying and eliminations, Franklin and his Musi-powered 1969 Camaro made racing look easy. In reality, he was fighting the same conditions as the rest of the field. 
“Just racing the racetrack was the biggest concern with the high track temperatures. I had a hard road to go through. I had Tommy Mauney, then Ron Muenks, then Stevie Jackson, and Travis Harvey in the final. I definitely had the bad side of the ladder,” Franklin claimed. 

Franklin used a 3.834 and 3.793 to dispatch Mauney and Muenks, then ran a 4.127 against Jackson’s 4.78, making up for Franklin’s loss to “Stevie Fast” in the Pro Nitrous Shootout final round on Friday night. Finally, a 3.814 at 202.21 was enough to beat Harvey for the second time of the weekend. 

“I beat Travis in the first round of the shootout, then Stevie beat me in the final round of the shootout. There was a little bit of redemption there for me to be able to beat Stevie in the semifinals,” Franklin said, thanking his crew and the Good Lord for the opportunity to race. 

SURPRISE, SURPRISE - The seemingly unstoppable GALOT Motorsports team continued to dominate Pro Boost. After GALOT driver Kevin Rivenbark won the first three races of the season, the tides have turned in John Strickland’s favor. The veteran tractor puller won his second consecutive event on Sunday, beating fellow southerner Tylor Miller in the final round. 

“I didn’t think that I’d even achieve a win at all this year,” admitted Strickland. “I knew the team was capable of achieving a win. I just didn’t think as a driver that I would be capable of doing that because it’s still pretty early in my racing career. The first time out, I struggled with reaction times and I said, ‘Well, I probably won’t win one this year but if I work hard at it this year I’d like to get one next year.’ It all just clicked and started coming together. I have a lot more confidence now than I did have – and two wins definitely helped that,” Strickland laughed. 

Strickland’s 1968 Camaro, owned by Earl and Peggy Wells, made it down the tricky MDIR strip on all four qualifying attempts. A 3.815 at 196.44 during Friday’s night session solidified Strickland’s position as the number one qualifier. 

“That Friday night round was just a round to see what you could do. It didn’t really help any as far as raceday being on Sunday because it was so hot. All of our racing conditions were similar to what we saw during qualifying on Friday. It helped to have those qualifying passes in the heat to help set up for eliminations,” Strickland noted. 

Strickland and Miller were the only two drivers to dip into the 3.8s during Sunday’s continuation of eliminations, so a tight final round was anticipated when Strickland defeated Melanie Salemi and Miller beat GALOT driver Todd Tutterow in the semifinals. 

“I knew that I had a car that was capable of winning. I knew that Tylor also had a competitive car, which I was glad to see they came back and ran so well. I knew he was real good on the tree. I felt real confident in the car and the team. I just knew that I would have to go out there and do as good as I had been doing or better to make it work out, and it did,” Strickland said of the 3.89-to-3.99 final round decision. 

THE SPORTSMAN REPORT - Top Sportsman finalists Glenn Butcher and Tim Lawrence proved that having the fastest car doesn’t matter much when eliminations roll around. Lawrence, the thirteenth qualifier, left the starting line first in the final round, but broke out with a 4.153 on a 4.18 dial-in. Butcher, who qualified his 1969 Camaro in the sixteenth spot, ran a 4.178 on his 4.16 dial-in to score the event win. 
A pair of near-perfect reaction times started off the Top Dragster final round as Travis Laster and Lauren Freer faced off. Laster left the line second by one thousandth of a second, but ran closer to his 4.00 dial with a 4.024. Freer ran 4.112 on a 4.06 dial in her runner-up effort. 
Pro Junior Dragster winner Cory Gulitti used a starting line advantage to win over Jarrod Kissinger, both drivers running 7.91 on a 7.90 dial-in. Points leader Mia Schultz broke out on her 8.90 dial-in in the Top Junior Dragster final, but opponent Brayden Davis’ red light gave her the automatic win. 

NEXT UP - The PDRA will return to action August 11-13, with the 3rd annual PDRA Memphis Drags at Memphis International Raceway in Millington, Tennessee. 

 

 

 

SATURDAY QUALIFYING - FIELDS SET AS RAN DEALYS EVENT BY A DAY

Heavy rain moved in on Saturday evening postponing final eliminations until 9 AM, EST. on Sunday

 

FINAL QUALIYFING RESULTS

 

 

FRIDAY QUALIFYING - SNIDER, MUSI, STRICKLAND LEAD MARYLAND PDRA QUALIFYING

 

A long, hot day of qualifying at the Professional Drag Racers Association (PDR \A) North-South Shootout ended Friday with Brandon Snider leading NAS Racing Pro Extreme, Lizzy Musi topping Switzer Dynamics Pro Nitrous presented by MoTec, John Strickland in GALOT Motorsports Park Pro Boost, and Travis Davis in Drag 965 Pro Extreme Motorcycle.

The Mickey Thompson Tires Outlaw 10.5 National Championship Series racers are also racing at the Maryland International Raceway event, with Maryland’s own Mike Decker Jr. leading the field after three qualifying sessions. New Yorker John Montecalvo is the provisional number one qualifier in PDRA Extreme Pro Stock.

In the sportsman classes, John Benoit tops a long list of qualifiers in Ronnie Davis Top Sportsman presented by MagnaFuel. Top Fuel crew member Matt Sackman is the number one qualifier in Lucas Oil Top Dragster heading into Saturday’s final qualifying session. Blake Denton and Mia Schultz lead Talbert Pro Junior Dragster and MegaCorp Top Junior Dragster, respectively.

 

FRIDAY NOTEBOOK - FRIDAY WAS HOTTER THAN HOT

SNIDER TOPS PX - For the third time this season, Atmore, Alabama’s Brandon Snider led the pack in Pro Extreme after Friday’s three sessions, though Snider only made two attempts at the track. The Q80 Racing driver laid down an impressive 3.63-second blast at 212.16 to qualifying number one in the hot second session, then improved to a 3.52 at 216.83 during the night session.

“I needed to run in the heat today for eliminations tomorrow,” said Snider. “We just don’t have enough parts to run every session, so we space them out as we need them. I knew what it run last night (in testing), a 3.57, and it was similar conditions. The water grains were a little higher. I stepped it up from last night. I knew about what we could run, but it’s a lot of guessing. Fortunately, it worked out for us.”

Going into eliminations on Saturday afternoon, Snider will be every bit as aggressive despite having less data than most of his competition. After losing on a holeshot to Frankie Taylor in the final round at the last PDRA race in Michigan, Snider is seeking redemption.

“I hope we can go rounds tomorrow. We need a win. We’re right behind Jason (Scruggs) in points, a couple hundred points behind. Last race, I kinda stuck myself in the side being late on the tree against Frankie. We feel like we should’ve had that win. We’re out for blood. Not that we can catch up those 200 points, because Jason is going to be tough the next four races, but we’re just waiting on him to slip up just a little bit. If we can get around him, we’re shooting for this points championship. We have a lot of people behind us, and they want to see us do it.”

Scruggs is close behind with his 3.555 run at a screaming 218.02. Tommy D’Aprile and Turkey al-Zafari are the next closest at third and fourth with a 3.634 and 3.636. Terry Leggett and his unique 1971 Mustang round out the Pro Extreme top five with a 3.644.

LIZZY LEADS THEM INTO SATURDAY - Pro Nitrous also saw a repeat number one qualifier as Lizzy Musi drove her Frank Brandao-owned Dodge Dart to a 3.758 at 204.48. With a powerplant from her father, Pat, and online tuning assistance from defending Pro Nitrous world champion Rickie Smith, Musi overcame traction issues to power the Drag 965/Lucas Oil machine to the top. “I was on the edge – is it gonna go or not? All we had been doing is shake, shake, shake, so it really felt good and I was relieved after that run,” said the 25-year-old president of Musi Racing Engines.

Following Musi on the Pro Nitrous qualifying order are Tommy Franklin (3.769) and “Stevie Fast” Jackson (3.791), who qualified two and three while also winning the first round of the Pro Nitrous Wars Shootout. Franklin beat Travis “Carolina Kid” Harvey and Jackson defeated rival Jay Cox before Jackson used a huge holeshot to take the $5,000 win over Franklin in a 3.759-to-3.756 decision.

AS A MATTER OF FACT, THEY DO OWN THE CLASS - The powerhouse GALOT Motorsports team placed one of their drivers in the top spot in GALOT Motorsports Park Pro Boost for the fifth time in as many races this season. This time, John Strickland claimed the honors with his 3.815 at 196.44.

“I knew it was a good pass because the car pulled all the way through,” claimed Strickland, who also competes on the national tractor pulling scene for GALOT owners Earl and Peggy Wells. “The first two runs in the heat the car was kinda lazy. It would take off hard then lay over. That last pass, I knew it was going to be a good run. I didn’t have any idea it would be number one qualifier. At half-track it pulled the front end up again, and that’s the first time it’s done that all day.”

Strickland has reason to comfortably believe his run will stay number one through the final qualifying session on Saturday morning, but he realizes the competition is close. Tylor Miller ran just a few thousandths of a second slower at 3.819 seconds. Strickland’s tuner and teammate, Todd Tutterow, is third with a 3.839 in his return to Pro Boost.

“It’s definitely doable,” Strickland said of potentially being bumped from the top. “The Pee Dee Fleet guys, they went in the eighties in the heat today, so it’s doable. All the stars need to align to make that happen. It should definitely hold up to be a top three run.”

THE FAST BRACKETS - It was looking like former Pro Stock racer Buddy Perkinson would end Friday as the number one qualifier in Top Sportsman, but John Benoit drove his 1968 Camaro around him to dip into the three-second zone with a 3.993. Engine builder Billy Albert came second closest to grabbing the top spot with his 3.995, followed by Perkinson’s 4.015.

In the PDRA’s quickest and fastest dragster class, the top spot went to Matt Sackman, who works as the clutch assistant and tire specialist on Antron Brown’s Top Fuel dragster. Sackman led the qualifying order for all three qualifying sessions but stepped up to a 3.919 at 187.55 in the final session. North Carolinians Mat Cooke and David Brown are second and third with a pair of 3.96s.

SATURDAY ACTION - The all-eighth-mile PDRA North-South Shootout at Maryland International Dragway will resume with one final qualifying session for all classes at 10:30 a.m. on Saturday. Pre-race ceremonies are scheduled to begin at 3:30 p.m., followed by first round of eliminations.

 

 

SESSION THREE

 

SESSION TWO

 

FIRST SESSION