Ty Tutterow, Marcus Butner and Ethan Steding highlighted the professional winners Saturday night at ProFab DragWars at GALOT Motorsports Park, the seventh stop on the Red Line Oil PDRA Drag Racing Series schedule. Tutterow took Pro Boost, Butner earned Pro Nitrous and Steding claimed Pro Street as championship battles tightened heading into the World Finals.
Tutterow, of Mocksville, North Carolina, collected his second consecutive victory and third in four races with his win over Melanie Salemi in the WS Construction Pro Boost final. Butner captured his third career Switzer Dynamics Pro Nitrous win by defeating points leader Tommy Franklin, while Steding moved into the Pro Street points lead with his third victory of the season.
In Pro Boost, Tutterow and Salemi staged a rematch of Thursday’s Bristol race completion. Salemi left first with a .009 reaction time but slowed with mechanical issues. Tutterow charged to low E.T. of the day, a 3.561-second run at 209.95 mph, to secure the win.
“Racing the Salemis is always tough and it’s always fun too because when you go screw blower racing, it’s really us against the Salemi group,” Tutterow said. “They make a lot of power too and we use a lot of similar components and it’s always just a pleasure to race them and go back and forth.”
The victory added to Tutterow’s narrow points lead over Salemi, which grew by one round with the DragWars win. He acknowledged that the title fight will likely come down to the final event in Virginia.
“We need to qualify,” Tutterow said, recalling past struggles at Virginia Motorsports Park. “Everybody knows Virginia is our Achilles heel. Hopefully we go to Virginia and qualify and get some rounds. If we’re fortunate enough to get another win or runner-up, it’d be awesome. That’s the goal.”
In Pro Nitrous, Butner scored a pivotal win at his home track, beating Franklin in the final with a 3.634 at 207.78 in his Cox-tuned Musi-powered “Heartbreaker” ’69 Camaro. Franklin trailed with a 3.666 at 203.71. The result trimmed Franklin’s points lead to just over two rounds.
“This means everything to us,” Butner said. “We go down this racetrack every month – probably every other week. We make a lot of laps here. They look after us. We try to look after them. Winning the championship was the goal from day one when we showed up here in the spring. All we want to do is win a championship and we’re in a decent spot. We’ll just have to see how it all plays out.”
Butner set the tone early with a 3.666 to open eliminations, then advanced past Tim Molnar and Dane Wood before meeting Franklin. Franklin, who had qualified No. 1, overcame problems in the first round and advanced through the semifinals before falling short in the final.
Pro Street delivered another significant shake-up in the points standings as reigning champion Steding powered to his third victory of the year. The Maryland driver defeated Ron Green in the final with a 3.925 at 194.74 in his P2 Contracting “College Fund” ’24 Camaro. Green slowed to a 3.938 at 179.35.
“I was as motivated as I’ve ever been,” Steding said. “I believe we were about 800 points behind [Blake Denton] going into Bristol, and I was fortunate enough to be able to line up with him first round and meet up with him again at this race. It helped me out a lot, and after this weekend, I think I’m in pretty good hands. We’re going to try and keep that number one on the car.”
Steding, a past Jr. Dragster champion, advanced through a challenging ladder, knocking out Chris Tuten, Denton and Richard Reagan before lining up with Green. With the win, he overtook Denton for the points lead with one race remaining.
Other professional victories at DragWars went to Alan Drinkwater in Extreme Pro Stock, Walter Lannigan in Pro 632 and Austin Vincent in Super Street. Sportsman winners included Dewayne Silance in Elite Top Sportsman, Steve Furr in Elite Top Dragster, Joe Roubicek in Top Sportsman 32 and Ken Batchelor in Top Dragster 48. In Jr. Dragster, Chloe Geryes won Pro Jr. Dragster while James Beattie III took Top Jr. Dragster.
The 2025 Red Line Oil PDRA Drag Racing Series concludes Oct. 2-5 with the Pro Line Racing Brian Olson Memorial World Finals at Virginia Motorsports Park. Championships in Pro Boost, Pro Nitrous and Pro Street remain in play, setting up a dramatic finish to the season.
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