A family that races together stays together, And in the case of the Franklin family, a family that races together sometimes wins together. Saturday evening at Galot Motorsports Park, during the PDRA DragWarz event, the father and daughter duo of Tommy (Pro Nitrous) and Amber Franklin (Pro 632) delivered their second family double-up in as many seasons.
Also scoring wins were Scott Lang (Pro Boost) and Tony Gillig (Extreme Pro Stock).
Tommy Franklin scored his third consecutive win by taking out Jay Cox in the final round. It marks the first time Franklin has won three in a row, and the victory put him in the point lead.
“I do this because I do it with my family every day,” Franklin said. “We race together. To be able to put cars in the winner’s circle, final rounds, or just qualifying, it doesn’t matter, but we come here together, and we have just a heck of a crew that helps us. My daughter, she’s at a rules disadvantage right now, but, hey, she went out there, and she won that on her driving. I’m happy for her.”
Like Franklin, Lang was enjoying a streak of his own as he made two in a row by beating Jason Harris again in the final round.
“I came here at the first race of the year and did not qualify; just got in the car,” Lang said. “To come full circle and win, it’s huge. Huge. It’s hard to describe. I just want to thank God for the opportunity. Thanks to the PDRA for giving us a great racing facility. Over here, you’re racing the best Pro Mod racers in the country, hands down. You think you got a good Pro Mod car? Come over here because these guys ain’t no layups. You gotta be on your game each and every round to win these things.”
Longtime Extreme Pro Stock racer Gillig picked up his second PDRA DragWarz title, stopping Scott Benham in the final round.
“To come out and win it again here this year has been pretty cool,” said Gillig, who dedicated the win to longtime family friend Gary Johnson, who recently lost his cancer battle. “Like everybody else in the pits, we made mistakes. We made good runs. It was gut-wrenching because all of a sudden, we’ve got a full field. We’ve got a DNQ list. Everyone’s making great runs, everyone’s going fast, and coming into eliminations today, it was like a battle. The field was tight, there were 16 cars within seven hundredths, and every round was just a dogfight. It was pretty cool to have that level of competition back in this class.”
Other professional-level winners included Meshal Al-Saber (Pro Nitrous Motorcycle), Scott Kincaid (Pro Street), and Derek Mota (Super Street).
The sportsman winners were Chris Nyerges (Elite Top Sportsman), Michael White (Elite Top Dragster), Chad Traylor (Top Sportsman), and Troy Williams (Top Dragster). Donald Webb won in Bracket Bash, defeating Glenn Russell in the final round.
In the Jr. Dragster classes, Charlee O’Meara and TJ Harvey scored the 660 Man trophies in Jr. Dragster and Top Jr. Dragster, respectively. O’Meara won on the starting line when final-round opponent Alyssa Rabon went red by .003 seconds, while O’Meara posted a 7.927-second pass on the 7.90 index. The Top Jr. Dragster final round was also decided on the starting line, as Carter Jackson was .013 red, allowing Harvey to win while breaking out with a 9.043 on a 9.05 dial-in.