The ADRL was racing on the track and against the sky Sunday at Motor Mile Dragway in Radford, Virginia, as ominous storm

clouds appeared on the horizon just as the final rounds were about to be run at the 2nd annual Shelor Motor Mile Independence Drags.

Just minutes after the exhaust notes of Pro Extreme winner Travis Swearingen’s supercharged 1941 Willys faded into the rolling hills of southwest Virginia, the skies unleashed a violent storm that sent fans and teams packing. But they left satisfied, knowing Billy Glidden and Charlie Prophit also scored their first ADRL wins in Extreme 10.5 and Pro Extreme Motorcycle, respectively, while Billy Harper continued his dominance of the Pro Nitrous class with his third-straight ADRL national-event win.

The ADRL was racing on the track and against the sky Sunday at Motor Mile Dragway in Radford, Virginia, as ominous storm

clouds appeared on the horizon just as the final rounds were about to be run at the 2nd annual Shelor Motor Mile Independence Drags.

Just minutes after the exhaust notes of Pro Extreme winner Travis Swearingen’s supercharged 1941 Willys faded into the rolling hills of southwest Virginia, the skies unleashed a violent storm that sent fans and teams packing. But they left satisfied, knowing Billy Glidden and Charlie Prophit also scored their first ADRL wins in Extreme 10.5 and Pro Extreme Motorcycle, respectively, while Billy Harper continued his dominance of the Pro Nitrous class with his third-straight ADRL national-event win.

Swearingen, who also reached the final in Radford at the inaugural Independence Drags, put together a dominating performance after qualifying fourth at the picturesque eighth-mile track. He ran a pair of 3.84-seconds passes in defeating Bob Mandell Jr. and Wes Johnston in the early rounds. He then ran identical to the thousandths 3.81 passes at 198 mph in the semis and final to beat number-one qualifier Bubba Stanton and interrupt the momentum of Joshua Hernandez, winner of the three previous ADRL events.

“We really didn’t change much from our tune-up at Martin (Michigan) last month,” Swearingen said. “We kept everything pretty much the same all day and it kept getting better. Our car just seems to like this track.”

Number-one starter Harper also was a model of consistency on raceday, running a pair of 3.96-seconds laps in beating West Virginians Burton Auxier and Kenny Rucker before improving to 3.94 to edge his teammate, Dennis Radford, in the semis. In the final round, Harper ran 3.93 at 185.57 mph in his 2000 Viper to defeat Charles Carpenter in the ADRL debut of his ’55 Chevy.

“I’ve never worked with a team that pays such attention to detail,” Harper said. “You would not believe the amount of things they check and double-check between each round. They just give me a car that’s such a pleasure to drive, I can’t thank them enough.”

Consistency was the watchword of the day as Glidden put together a string of three 4.31-seconds passes after going 4.37 in a first-round bye run. Glidden drove his ’06 GTO to the Extreme 10.5 title with wins over Gary Gardella, Todd Moyer and Steve Kirk Jr., who had trouble with the nitrous system on his 1963 Corvette in the final round.

It was nearly an all-Prophit affair in the Pro Extreme Motorcycle final, but Matt Prophit, brother of the eventual race champion, gave away a sure win in the semis with a red-light start against Ron Procopio. The dreaded red bulb then caught up with Procopio in the final, as he left .011 of a second too soon, while Prophit streaked to the win in 4.35 seconds at 165.20 mph.

“The only thing that would’ve made it better would be if Matt could have made it to the final,” Prophit said. “Usually it’s me that would do something to mess that up, but this time I can razz him.”

The Flowmaster American Drag Racing League presented by the National Guard returns to action July 25-26, with its inaugural 1-800-Go-Guard.com U.S. Drags at Maryland International Raceway in Budd’s Creek, Maryland. The U.S. Drags also will feature the debut and first leg of the Sonny’s Extreme Pro Stock Challenge presented by Purvis Ford-Lincoln-Mercury.