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SUNDAY NOTEBOOK - EVENT POSTPONED UNTIL VMP 

Flooded pits and unfavorable conditions have forced PDRA officials finish the event on Thursday and Friday in Dinwiddie, Va. 

 

SATURDAY NOTEBOOK - RAIN OUTWEIGHS SUNSHINE IN SATURDAY ACTION

NOT A GOOD DAY FOR RACING - PDRA race officials made a valiant try. Fighting weepers for the first two hours of the schedule, PDRA managed to get in qualifying sessions for all Sportsman divisions as well as the final session of Outlaw 632 before the weepers returned and inevitably rain. 

Race officials finally pulled the plug for the day at 8 PM, EST, postponing the first round of eliminations until 9 AM on Sunday.

JUST LIKE THE OLD DAYS - The PDRA's Pro Extreme division stands at three wins and 0 losses.

In the last three events, the eighth-mile doorslammer division's premiere division has match raced a Pro Nitrous doorslammer, an Alcohol Funny Car and now a Jet Dragster. The quickest and fastest full-bodied division remains the king of the eighth-mile jungle for now. 

Tommy D'Aprile made drag racing history on Friday evening by becoming the first Pro Extreme driver to beat a Jet dragster. 

The recent PDRA Dragstock winner, D'Aprile, ran a 3.59 elapsed time as his engine expires, yet still beat Sporty Bandimere to the finish line. 

"I think it was cool, and I think entertainment like that is what the fans need," D'Aprile said. "We’re an entertainment business, and we need to put on a show. That’s what our sport seems to miss sometimes. Racers want to race, I know, but no one remembers who ran fast and who won, but they remember the different things. We wanted something different that’s what I thought was cool about the whole deal."

D'Aprile knew he had to win the race, but not for bragging rights but because of the need to not fall behind a dragster thrusting fire from the rear. 
 
"I was telling Al, the crew chief, I know [the jet's] not going to shake the tires, so we need to go down the race track.," D'Aprile said. "But of course he went really aggressive and we were hauling until we dropped an intake seat." 

D'Aprile's engine expired 3.1 seconds into the run, resulting in a flash fire just shy of the finish line. 

"When we got to the end of the racetrack, I had the chutes out, we’re slowing down, and I could hear, it was like you were on the runway like this jet pulled up along-side you at the end," D'Aprile said. "He just stopped right next to me. It was this really eerie, cool feeling."

Racing against a jet car was something D'Aprile has wanted to do for a while behind the wheel of Pro Extreme vehicle. 

"I wanted to do this like three or four years ago," D'Aprile admitted. "I always had an itch like it’d be really cool, but nothing ever worked out. We were initially slated; we were going to run a nitro funny car as a match race for eighth-mile."

Bob Harris, PDRA's Vice President of Operations, says the oddball match races are just a matter of doing their part to make drag racing fun for everyone. 

“Drag racing originated on the need for one group to declare which one is superior over the other,” Harris said. “People remember those days. Even the young guys now, they’ve heard about the 60s and 70s and now the guys that race with us, a lot of them are old timers and they want to match race. It’s unbelievable. I think they’re just having fun for a change.”

GETTING A HEAD START - Lizzy Musi's Dodge Avenger was damaged while racing at Super Chevy Show event last month. For all intent and purposes, the second-generation doorslammer racer was not planning on racing this weekend's PDRA Sunshine Shootout at Bradenton Motorsports Park.

The combination of a new alliance and the need to prepare a car for the upcoming Qatar Racing Club season provided a reprieve. This weekend Lizzy is driving a 1969 Camaro most recently driven by Shannon Jenkins at the PDRA Memphis Drags. 

Pat Musi was named crew chief for the Al-Anabi Pro Nitrous team last month, and the car his team is racing will be driven by Muhammed Al-Naemi during the 2015 - 2016 Qatar Racing Club season. 

“Sheik Khalid called and asked about Bradenton," said Pat Musi, team owner. "He tells me they’re preparing the ‘69 car for Al-Naemi. Turns out him and Lizzy are basically the same size and he offers us that car. He told me, ‘That’s what we’re all about. When we’re together, we’re together. Whatever it takes, get her to Bradenton.”

The same engine and drivetrain from Brandao’s ‘King Kong 6’ 2015 Dodge Dart is in the car for this weekend.  

“This will work out good because now we can test the car a little before we have to ship it to our crew overseas,” Musi added.  “Being involved with a top shelf team like AAP, that’s what it’s all about. Everybody pulls together. That’s the same thing we’ll do when we’ll race over there. That’s what the Sheik wants and that’s how I race. It’s not about the money with him. As much as any of us, he’s a diehard racer."

EXPECT THE UNEXPECTED - Drag racing has done well to prepare PDRA Pro Extreme racer Terry Legget to expect the unexpected. 

Leggett, a logger from Pinetown, NC, had his preparation put to the test earlier this year during a routine physical. He missed a few races but is now back and feeling better than ever. 

An examination revealed Leggett had melanoma on an eye and cancer in his thyroid. What was supposed to be only an eye examination led to the discovery of the thyroid issue. 

"Didn't even have a clue you could get cancer in your eye," Leggett admitted. "Not a clue. Never heard of it in my life. Didn’t know anything about it. And then the thyroid issue had no clue there was anything wrong there either."

Leggett's issue with his eye was rare; so rare, in fact, there are an estimated 2,500 cases in the United States. 

Legget underwent Lasik surgery a few years ago, but it became apparent to him the corrective surgery's assets were deteriorating. 

"The first thing he said is I have a torn retina, and he sent me right on that same day to a specialist in Raleigh, NC., for that," Leggett recalled. "I got there later that afternoon, and that doctor looked at it and said, "We’ve got a lot more trouble than that."

Leggett's doctor made a call to a friend who specializes in eye-based melanoma issues. He went through a battery of tests and scans, and one of those revealed questionable areas in his thyroid. 

The right side of Leggett's thyroid was enlarged because what doctors initially believed to be cancer, and the left side had a small nodule as well. The doctors suggested removing the area on the right side, and leaving the left side.

To know Leggett is to know he's no fan of medicine. The doctors presented the case there's a 70-percent chance he would have to take medicine for the rest of his life. 

There were complications in the surgery which were supposed to be an overnight stay, but Leggett ended up hospitalized for three weeks. In the end, the right side didn't turn out to be cancer, and the left side was a rare condition known as Medullary Thyroid Cancer.  

With the thyroid issue under control, the options for his eye were not as easy. 

"There were choices that the doctor gave me," Leggett explained. "One was to remove the eye and get a glass eye. The doctor felt I was a good candidate for what they call Plaque and it’s a piece of titanium metal that’s formed to the shape of the back of your eye which they take all kinds of pictures and imagery of your eye. And then the radiologist person determines how big your tumor is and then he puts what they call a sleeve, a piece of radioactive material that fits inside that piece of titanium and they take and surgically put it in the back of your eye."

Leggett kept the sleeve in his eye for five days and required a hospital stay for the length of the treatment. 

"It takes a good long while to see what it does," Leggett explained. "So right now they think the tumor is killed and now you have to deal with trying to get it dissolved because it’s on the inside of the eye. But all that seems to be going pretty good. I’ve still got good vision out of that eye."

Leggett has raced for a long time and has dealt with devastating crashes. Cancer is no stranger either. 

"Cancer touches us all," Leggett said. "Way too many of us are affected. Many things in this world we can’t figure out. Let’s hope somebody can figure out something to beat cancer." 

 

 

FRIDAY NOTEBOOK - MOTHER NATURE FINALLY SHINES ON BRADENTON'S SUNSHINE STATE SHOWDOWN

JEEPERS WEEPERS - When drag racing in Florida, it's best to accept two steady factors - rain and the sunshine. Sometimes the two elements don't always work in harmony when the drag races are in town.

Friday's PDRA action was delayed until late afternoon due to weepers, an action which occurs when a high water table and bright sunshine work in conjunction to force underground water up through cracks in the racing surface creating water puddles. 

The Bradenton, Florida area has been inundated by rain up until Thursday, followed by copious amounts of sunshine on Friday. 

"It’s been raining since last weekend, and we’ve been pumping water all day," explained Bob Harris, PDRA Vice President of Operations. "The sun has drawn the water out of the track all day long. We’re not going to send anybody down until we know it's safe, it’s not safe. Starting at 5 was the right thing to do."

The PDRA normally stages a Thursday test session with three qualifying sessions on Friday. 

"We want to really take care of our spectators, they’re here to see the shows so we won’t start it too early, we’ll start it right on time," Harris said.  

SCRUGGS LEADS THE SHOW - Jason Scruggs has mastered the art of the rollercoaster season. More than once, he's followed a national event victory with a first round loss. This weekend appears to be Scruggs' upward trajectory.

Scruggs, nicknamed the Mississippi Missile by his peers, drove his ScruggsFarm.com 1969 Camaro to a 3.526 elapsed time at 217.28 mph to grab the provisional No. 1 spot in the second of two sessions on Friday.
 
“We were really happy with that," Scruggs said. "The track was awesome tonight. A couple of the big guys didn’t get down the track; Brandon (Snider) was a little behind the eight-ball trying to get qualified, and Frankie (Taylor) didn’t get down. They probably would’ve run right there with me if they went down the track."
 
Snider stepped up to a 3.602 at 211.16 to qualify fourth. Tommy D’Aprile and Texan Frankie “Madman” Taylor qualified second and third with their 3.591 ets from the first qualifying session. D’Aprile’s Mel Bush Motorsports Corvette was just a tick faster than Taylor, giving the Port Charlotte driver the better qualifying position.
 
Scruggs, who currently trails Snider in the championship points standings, returned to a tried-and-true combination in an effort to successfully defend his 2015 world championship. After this weekend, he will only have the PDRA World Finals at Virginia Motorsports Park, Oct. 20-22, to defend the crown.
 
“We basically went back to everything old-school this weekend. We’ve tried some experimental motor stuff this year and just got behind the eight-ball. We knew we had to come out this weekend and run good. The first leg of it is done, but now we have to come back tomorrow and try to go some rounds and win the race.
 
“We only have six rounds of racing left this season, and I need to win three more rounds than Brandon to take over the lead. That’s pretty tough to do as good as he runs. We just came here with the goal of winning this race, then it’s just going to fall how it falls at Virginia. If we don’t win this race, it’s about over for us as far as the championship goes. It’s a do-or-die race for us. Brandon has run good all year, so if he wins he deserves it, but we’re going to fight until it’s over with.”

HAVE FIRESUIT, WILL TRAVEL - If you're looking for a fast doorslammer driver, then Travis Harvey knows where you can find one. 

Harvey, a front-running driver in the PDRA's Pro Nitrous division, will be without a ride at the end of the season. He's not about to let any grass grow under his feet while on the sidelines. 

Harvey confirmed team owner Vaughn Miles would be putting the team up for sale after the final PDRA race of the season in Dinwiddie, Va. 

"We've been together for six years," Harvey said. "He’s just busy, and he’s got other opportunities he wanted to concentrate on. So I’ll definitely be looking for anything from bracket racing to Pro Nitrous, anything. I’ve got a license to drive anything except for Top Fuel."

"I don’t know if we’ll run a few more races this year but I think everything is for sale if I can’t find any funding to fund a team for next year."

Harvey is riding a wave of success this season having won the Pro Nitrous title at the PDRA Spring Nationals in Rockingham, and the 2014 PDRA Top Dragster series championship. He's been a winner as well in Big Dog competition, a Pro Modified-style series in the Carolinas, as well as events in the Extreme Outlaw Pro Modified Association. 

The success comes as no surprise as those who know him and his pathway to the cockpit. He made his first runs down the drag strip at 14 years old after hounding his dad to drive the family's 1967 Camaro down the strip during a grudge racing night event at his local track. He ran a 7.7-second eighth-mile pass at a little over 100 miles per hour. The end result was his father never raced the car again, and Harvey quit the school's Junior Varsity football to drive a race car. 

"I’m a racer, and it’s very heartbreaking because this is what I love to do," Harvey said. "This is what I’m very good at, and when somebody tells you that you can’t do it, it’s kind of depressing, but I’m very thankful to Myles for supporting me all the years he did. I couldn’t do it without him. I’m just glad I had the opportunity to do it when I could."

HE DOES WHAT HE DOES - Weepers just weep. Tommy Franklin just flies. 

Friday, they both did their thing.

Weepers on the Bradenton Motorsports Park racing surface limited qualifying to two sessions, and Franklin made the most of his second pass en route to a 3.708, 202.70 provisional No. 1. The pacesetting run was just an extension of his first lap, bettering his 3.762 out of the hauler.
 
“I wasn’t expecting that good of a run – I was thinking maybe a 3.72 or 3.73. The air improved and the track was super-tight," said Franklin. "We didn’t get after it too hard, but man, it surprised me a little bit. I had to do a double-take at the scoreboard."
 
Franklin, a two-time winner this season,  expects to continue his consistent 3.7-second performances as he enters Saturday’s final qualifying session and final eliminations afterwards.
 
“I definitely think that run will stay low after the third session in the heat of the day," Frankin said. "Maybe we can get back after it tomorrow night. We’re just trying to hold on to the number one spot, then just do our thing and race one round at a time."
 
Danny Perry is second with a 3.763 at 199.91 while point leader Jay Cox was unable to get down the track in the first session but powered to a 3.771 at 199.11 to take the third spot in Q2. Steve “Stevie Fast” Jackson’s 1969 Camaro was the picture of consistency, running 3.775 and 3.771 to qualify fourth.

GO AHEAD AND SING IT HANK - Hank Williams Jr. sang of a family tradition in music and partying. The song plays in drag racing too, as far as drag racing's Kirk Family is concerned. 

Last month, Lenore, West Virginia-based PDRA Pro Stock driver Doug Kirk and his son Justin shared the winner's circle at the PDRA Dragstock event in Benson, NC. Just as proud, was Carl Kirk, patriarch of the history rich drag racing family. 

Carl once raced a Gasser and Comp eliminator car for the famous Rod Shop Dodge team. Doug was a multi-time IHRA Pro Stock champion with numerous eighth-mile mountain motor Pro Stock victories. Justin competes in the PDRA's Top Dragster division. 

“That was a big deal,” Doug said of their double-up victory, their first-ever for the family. “It’s a big accomplishment. There’s people that race all their life and never win a national event. For a father and son both to win it the same night was very special. It was big alone for Justin to get his first ever national event win, much less for us both to win.”

“You can’t explain it. Can’t put a price on it,” added Justin. “Out of all the wins I’ve got, this is the best one, other than my grandpa not being there. He’s had some health issues. He tore the rocking chair all to pieces, I’m sure, trying to get through the iPad, but he got to see it on the Live Feed.” 

Doug's introduction to professional drag racing was a whirlwind of success. He received a call the night before the 1987 IHRA U.S. Open National in Rockingham, NC, to drive Roy Hill's Pro Stock car at the event when Hill was unable to attend the final two events of the season. Doug not only drove the car to the win in his first outing but also qualified No. 1 and won the next event in Bristol three weeks later. 

The Dragstock victory put Justin in a position his father is no stranger to, first place in the point standings.

“He’s not only a good driver, he’s become a good crew chief,” Doug said. “He’s got to where he does probably 80% of all the calls on the Pro Stock car. He’s going to be a true racer. He understands the more you’re involved, the further you’ll go. He wants to know what makes everything tick.”

And for the Kirks, it's like grandfather like father, like father like son, and sounds a lot like a family tradition. 

GALOT STILL HAS A LOT - There's little wonder why the class is named after the team.

Three-time PDRA event winner John Strickland and his GALOT Motorsports team continued to impress in Pro Boost. While his Todd Tutterow and Jeff Bohr-tuned Camaro was only ranked 12th after the first session, it shot back up to its familiar spot at the top of the qualifying order with a 3.777 at 195.56 on the second run.
 
“We had high expectations for the first session, then Kevin (Rivenbark, teammate) and I both didn’t get down the track. His car immediately got up on the tire and mine started driving toward the wall. Todd made some chassis adjustments and told me it would go down the track no problem. He wouldn’t tell me what it was going to run, but I had a feeling that he would be going for it on that second run. When it pulled the front end up at the gear change at half-track, I knew I was on a good pass,” Strickland commented.
 
The situation quickly changed when it came time for Strickland to decelerate his supercharged GALOT Motorsports entry. One of his parachutes was sucked under the car and got caught on the rear brake assembly, resulting in the loss of brake pressure and substantial damage to the car’s carbon fiber body.
 
“I’ve experienced tire shake and the car going towards the wall, but I’ve never had problems with the parachutes or the brakes in my short drag racing career,” said Strickland, who recently claimed a tractor pulling national championship. “To have both problems at the same time was a handful. I felt the one parachute come out, then I heard a big explosion. When I hit the brake pedal it went right to the floor. I didn’t know what to think. It was happening too fast to be scared. I think there was just enough front brake pressure along with that one ‘chute to get me stopped before I went off the end of the track. The first person I thanked was the Lord. It could’ve been ugly.”
 
New York’s Marc Caruso follows Strickland on the qualifying order with a 3.801 at 194.42. Tylor Miller is next closest with a 3.817 at 197.54, followed by Rivenbark’s 3.857 at 169.81 in fourth.

IRONIC RETURN - Chris Rini had to see the movie, if only out of curiosity.

Rini, a Pro Nitrous racer in the Professional Drag Racers Association, went to see Sully, a film based on US Air Flight 1549 and its pilot Captain Chesley Burnett “Sully” Sullenberger.

Rini didn't let the fact he knew how the movie ended spoil the experience because he lived it. He was one of the 155 passengers who survived the January 2009 Miracle on the Hudson, described in the movie as a controlled water landing on the Hudson River.  

The ironic part of the whole scenario for Rini is he'd been drag racing for nearly a decade, and experienced his first airplane crash before wrecking a race car. Adding to the already ironic scenario, Rini walked away from the plane crash without as much as a scratch while his first racing incident left him hospitalized. 

The last 30 days have stoked the memories of both incidents, first with the movie and now his first race at Bradenton Motorsports Park this weekend since crashing his car there earlier this season. 

"It doesn't bother me to think about either experience really," Rini said. "The racing accident, I really don't have any memory of the what happened. I don't have any reservations about racing there because I have categorized this as just another race. 

"After the airplane deal, I didn't go back in the air for about another three weeks. I used to use the airplane flight to catch up on my sleep, and now I am getting back to doing that." 

Rini's racing accident left him nursing seven broken ribs and a sore knee. The impact with the retaining wall knocked him unconscious. 

Never has being in the wrong place at the wrong time been more evident than in Rini's case. He wasn't initially supposed to be on Flight 1549 but the concern for weather later in the evening inspired him to change his ticket to an earlier departure. The racing accident happened at a race he wasn't even scheduled to race, but a lack of testing inspired him to race Bradenton instead of the PDRA season opener in Tulsa, Ok.  

Before Rini left New York, driving the team hauler to Bradenton, Fla., he decided to check out the movie. He enjoyed Sully, although he's played the experience over in his mind hundreds, if not thousands of times.

“I was five or six rows behind the engine when it exploded,” Rini recalled. “It didn’t just stop running … it went kaboom as it exploded and shook the whole airplane. It flamed up, and I was sitting in the middle seat. The guy on the window told me not to panic because the fire had gone out.”

Rini, who describes himself as a frequent flier, says he can still remember the body language of the flight attendants vividly. 

“I saw just a little panic in the crew people, but they were quiet,” Rini said. “Inside, the plane got a little loud, and they [flight crew] told us to calm down and to tighten our belts as tight as possible. Then they told us the deal to put your head between your legs … the kiss your ass goodbye deal.”

Rini dismissed their actions as standard protocol and not much cause for concern.

“I really thought they were just overreacting,” Rini said. “I’ve been on so many planes, and you rarely listen to that safety information.”

When the plane's cabin filled with smoke, the situation got very real for Rini. 

“I started to get concerned at that point,” Rini admitted. “We were dropping lower and lower in altitude. We were lower than some of the buildings and the George Washington Bridge looked so close that you could reach out and touch it.”

Being a race car driver, Rini could appreciate the job Sullenberger did.

“Sully had his hands full, and he did a phenomenal job,” Rini said. “But when he said for us to prepare for impact in a monotone, I said to myself, 'No way.”

The tail of the plane, Rini explained, struck the water first, and the plane initially bounced before the nose dug in.

“I thought we were going to flip end over end,” Rini said. “I figured we were going to turn sideways, and then we might flip too. The pilot did an excellent job.”

Water covered Rini's shoes before he could undo his seat belt.

“There was no screaming or anything, and it stayed quiet until the plane started taking on water, which was almost instantly, and then that’s when the chaos started,” he said. “People were screaming to get out while others were climbing over the seats.”

Rini was seated in row 21B of the 32-row Airbus 320, and the rear took on the most water the quickest.

“We couldn’t get the back emergency doors open,” Rini said. “We had a pile of people trying to get out the back, and those by the door started screaming for us to go the other way.

“I thought to myself that I had survived the crash and now I was going to drown. The landing was ugly, but the getting out was worse.”

Rini followed a group out of the plane and onto the wing but realized this portion of the plane was, also submerging at a rapid rate. Adding to the dismal situation, in the haste of evacuation, he’d forgotten to grab a life vest.

“There were already thirty people on the left side where I was and it was ten inches underwater at that point,” Rini said. “I began wondering why I wanted to stand there when I was going to eventually end up treading water. The water was below freezing.

“Everyone had calmed down at that point. That’s when the reality of the cold set it. It was really freaking cold. I had already gotten wet sliding off the plane to get onto the raft. I was wet up to my hips.”

All in all, Rini gave the experience and the movie a hearty thumbs up. 

"It was pretty good, had some Hollywood in there, mixed in with factual stuff," Rini said. "It is what it is; the movie rekindled some memories. I hadn't really thought about it a whole lot since it happened."

"I wanted to see the movie, even though I knew it would rekindle some memories. I guess that day and moment will always be a part of my life." 

 

 

FRIDAY QUALIFYING

 

 

SESSION ONE