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If Pro Nitrous icon Jim Halsey didn’t know what a Pyrrhic victory was before scoring his sixth No. 1 qualifier of the season at the PDRA DragWars, he will now.
A Pyrrhic victory is a victory that is so costly that it’s tantamount to defeat, or that doesn’t feel like a true achievement.
The four-time PDRA champion raced to his No. 1 qualifying spot and then crashed in the final qualifying session when mechanical failure sent his Camaro into the opposite lane, narrowly missing Tommy Franklin before impacting the left retaining wall and rolling over. The four-time world champion got out of the car under his own power and was uninjured. The PDRA rulebook doesn’t allow replacement vehicles after qualifying has been completed, so Halsey won’t be able to take his first-round bye run.
Joining Halsey atop the leaderboard were Jason Harris (Pro Boost) and Jeremy huffman (Extreme Pro Stock).
The Galot Motorsports Park event marks the seventh of eight races on the Red Line Oil PDRA Championship series and for Halsey, he came into the event with two wins and two runner-ups to his credit in the last five events. He secured his latest accolade with a 3.645 at 208.68 in the opening qualifying session Friday morning to take the provisional No. 1 spot.
Franklin, the three-time and defending world champion, made his best run of the day in the final session next to Halsey, posting a 3.649 at 206.26 in his Musi-powered “Jungle Rat” ’69 Camaro to qualify No. 2. Fredy Scriba, who is third in points behind Franklin, qualified third in his Musi-powered “Sorcerer” ’69 Camaro with a 3.653 at 206.95.
Harris drove his way to a 3.598 at 207.91 in the final session to earn his first No. 1 qualifier award of the season and set the pace for the quickest Pro Boost field in PDRA history. He’ll take on multi-time winner Melanie Salemi, who qualified No. 16 with a 3.676.
“Brandon Stroud [tuner] and I talk about every run, we get everything ironed out best we can, we look at every single detail of the race car, my crew does their job, and the car does its job,” said Harris, who thanked team partners like Pro Line Racing, Southern Diamond Company, Alliance Racewear, and Hoosier Race Tires. “I’ve got one of these unicorn cars that kind of just responds every time you give it something. We knew we could run the .60 flat [in Q2]. I really thought it would probably repeat the .60 flat. The .598 is an awesome run out here in this kind of air. It’s the first No. 1 for me this year, so it feels good.”
In Extreme Pro Stock, locked in his second No. 1 qualifier award of the season. His 4.076 at 175.71 came in the final qualifying session.
“We’ve been so close so many times,” Huffman said. “We’ve been blessed so far and thank the good Lord for where we’re at. I feel like one day he’s going to bless us with a win whenever it’s in His time, and maybe tomorrow will be our day, right? We’re going to give it our best shot like we always do and we’ll hope the cards fall the way they may and we finally get us one. We’re definitely ready, and we’re gonna give it everything we’ve got.”
Other PDRA professional low qualifiers included Amber Franklin Denton (Pro 632), Scott Kincaid (Pro Street) and Dan Whetstine in (Super Street).
In the PDRA’s sportsman categories, the No. 1 qualifiers are Tim Molnar (Elite Top Sportsman), Frank Falter IV (Elite Top Dragster), Jeff Pittman (Top Sportsman) and Lauren Freer (Laris Motorsports Insurance Top Dragster).
The always-competitive Jr. Dragster classes continue to show off with 7.900-second passes in Coolshirt Systems Pro Jr. Dragster presented by Philadelphia Racing Products and quick reaction times in Classic Graphix Top Jr. Dragster presented by Philadelphia Racing Products. After two of three qualifying sessions, the provisional low qualifiers are Tristen Brown in Pro Jr. Dragster with a 7.900 and Allen Buczkowski in Top Jr. Dragster with a .013 reaction time.
Saturday’s competition will begin at 9 a.m. starting with Jr. Dragster final qualifying, The Bracket Bash time trials, and the first round of sportsman eliminations. Pre-race ceremonies and pro eliminations are set for noon.
