After Mother Nature brought the PDRA Thunder Valley Throwdown to a standstill with a three-hour rain delay Saturday afternoon, the racers at Bristol Dragway answered with thunder of their own.
Defending Red Line Oil PDRA Pro Nitrous champion Marcus Butner completed a weekend sweep, driving from the No. 1 qualifying position to the winner’s circle with a final-round victory over multi-time champion Tommy Franklin. Joining Butner as professional winners were Ned Dunphy in Pro Boost and Richard Reagan in Pro Street.
When racing resumed, there was no easing back into competition. The delay only intensified, pushing racers harder, and few got pushed harder than those in Pro Nitrous.
The source for the Pro Nitrous push was defending class champion Butner, who was rediscovering his championship groove.
“In the semifinals, we got up on the wheelie bars really hard. It ended up in high gear and it wasn’t supposed to be, and it just struck the motor down, hurt it a little bit,” said Butner. “We ended up swinging the motor back in it that we had in it all weekend. My team’s worked so hard; they work hard all the time. We do a lot of testing, and they’re always willing to put in extra stuff and double check things. They’ll stay up late at night working on it. They got my back 100%, so it’s very rewarding to be able to give it back to them.”
“It’s just God’s blessings, I think,” Butner said. “We was pretty far out (in points). We’ve had a bunch of bad luck. We’ve had a fast car pretty much all year other than Maryland. We put in the work to come here to try and accomplish this. We’ll see what happens.”
Franklin defeated Jimmy Cowan in the opening round, earning himself a b ye in the quarterfinals. He then outran Chesapeake, Virginia’s Dane Wood in the semifinals, running 3.646 to Wood’s 3.708 to set up his final round matchup with Butner.
Butner never surrendered the momentum he established during qualifying. After earning a first-round bye, he marched through Amber Denton and Tim Paap before facing Franklin for the Pro Nitrous title.
Franklin reached the final by defeating Jimmy Cowan, taking a bye run and eliminating Dane Wood.
If one class turned into a starting-line gunfight, it was Pro Boost. Thousandths of a second determined nearly every round, making reaction time just as important as horsepower.
Dunphy was nearly flawless on the Christmas Tree, and in one round he was. He opened eliminations with a win over Raymond Matos, and then reeled off a perfect .000 reaction time against Paul Gargus, followed with a .015 light in the next round and advanced when Fletcher Cox fouled. Dunphy’s slowest reaction time of eliminations was just .035.
Runner-up Lyle Barnett was every bit as sharp. The defending champion posted two .00 reaction times during eliminations, opening with a .007 reaction to eliminate Randy Weatherford. For those who might argue Barnett was reacting off Weatherford’s foul, the veteran outlaw racer nailed defending series champion Ty Tutterow in the second with a .001.
In the semis, Jason Harris was quicker off the line, but Barnett ran him down.
Barnett’s .020 reaction time in the championship round wasn’t enough.
Dunphy left first and never relinquished the advantage, using a 3.632-second pass at 207.08 mph to defeat Barnett’s quicker 3.627 at 208.42 mph in a holeshot victory.
“That final pass there, I couldn’t believe when I saw the win light come on, because I could hear Lyle screaming along next to me, and I’m thinking, ‘It’s so close,’” said Dunphy. “I’m betting Lyle’s mad at his light because he’s so, so good at the light all the time. We had a really good weekend on our light too, though. We were hovering around that double O mark the whole entire time with one trip zip, so just the stars aligned this weekend. I’m super happy with it.”
Pro Street produced another race decided early. Richard Reagan converted his No. 2 qualifying effort into a race-day victory. Reagan carried a .005 starting-line advantage past the tree and made it count, defeating Tim Essick with a 3.951 at 193.25 mph over Essick’s 3.986 at 191.00.
“I just kept picking away at it, trying to make it leave harder and make it run as hard through the middle as we could, and just try to do a little more each round. I think it’s a great class. The competition has just gotten…it’s just anybody’s race, you know? You just gotta do your job. I don’t know, maybe we can win the next two. Just have do the best we can.”
Reagan opened with a solo victory after beginning eliminations with a bye when Tommy Youmans was unable to make the call. He added victories over Jerry Morgano and Mikey Sasina to score his final round berth.
Essick, the No. 8 qualifier, earned his place in the final with victories over Joel Wensley Jr., No. 1 qualifier Andy Mac and Scott Kincaid, putting together one of the toughest paths through the field.
Ryan Altman needed just over a week to get comfortable in Patrick Barnhill’s Greenbrier Excavating & Paving Camaro. By Saturday night at Bristol Dragway, he had driven it to a Pro 632 victory.
The grudge and radial racing veteran knocked off two-time winner J.C. Beattie Jr. in a side-by-side final, using a 4.185-second pass at 168.49 mph to edge Beattie’s 4.191 at 172.25 mph. Altman qualified third, then defeated Jason Ventura and teammate Jeff Pittman before collecting the biggest victory of his young PDRA career.
“My first time sitting in the car was last week on Wednesday,” Altman said. “I got put in with some good people in a good car, so that set me up nice. All weekend I tried to do my job.”
While celebrating the win, Altman admitted he’s already planning changes before the next race, including adjusting the brake pedal to better fit his driving style.
Austin Vincent continued his championship push in Super Street, earning his second victory of the season while taking over the points lead. Vincent qualified No. 1 and defeated Troy Hill in the final after Hill was forced to shut off early, giving Vincent a 4.583-second winning pass.
“It’s definitely a big move for us,” Vincent said. “Now we’re 98 points ahead. This should definitely make for an interesting rest of the season.”
Vincent’s title hopes also received a boost when reigning series champion Connor McGee bowed out in the second round after a massive wheelstand forced him to pedal his Mustang.
In the PDRA Sportsman Spectacular, Nick Meloni charged from the No. 11 qualifying position to win Elite Top Sportsman and the $7,500 top prize. Jody Stroud claimed Elite Top Dragster after Josh Duggins red-lighted in the final.
Joe Roubicek captured Top Sportsman 48, while Matt Sackman continued his Bristol success with the Top Dragster 48 victory. C.J. Jenkins won Pro Jr. Dragster, Wyatt Piercy claimed Top Jr. Dragster and Brayden McCown added the Bracket Bash title.
The Red Line Oil PDRA Drag Racing Series returns Aug. 27-29 for Drag Wars at Galot Motorsports Park in Benson, North Carolina.
