Drag Illustrated Issue 121, May 2017 | Page 108

TOP SPORTSMAN / TOP DRAGSTER The Top Sportsman final round was won on the starting line when Jacksonville, North Carolina’ s Dwayne Silance cut a perfect. 000 reaction time alongside John Benoit. Silance posted a 4.11 on his 4.10 dial-in, while Benoit broke out with a 4.086 on his 4.09 dial. Silance previously defeated Bruce Thrift, Cam Clark and Jordan Wood before the final.

NITRO IS COMING TO PRO EXTREME

The world’ s premier eighth-mile drag racing association has not forgotten its outlaw roots. Pro Mod was birthed by asphalt desperados, and while the class has evolved and expanded to its current sophisticated and perhaps even exclusive state, the PDRA has not lost its first love. In true outlaw fashion, the biggest and baddest of the PDRA will now be even bigger and badder.
Effective at the Mid America Showdown in Indianapolis, Indiana, July 13-15, nitromethane will be allowed in Pro Extreme.
“ This move is going to be great for the class, great for the racers, great for the fans,” stated PDRA’ s Bob Harris.“ This type of excitement is what the PDRA is all about. We are home to the quickest and fastest eighthmile doorslammers on the planet and we plan to keep it that way.”
Top Dragster winner Matt Cooke had to wait over a second to leave the starting line after No. 16 qualifier Noah Strickland took off, considering Cooke’ s 3.92 dial and Strickland’ s 5.06 dial. Young Strickland had the better reaction time, but he broke out with a 5.039 ahead of Cooke’ s 3.97. Cooke’ s previous opponents in eliminations were Russ Whitlock, Angie Travis and Jimmy Sackuvich.
The PDRA has implemented just two rules in using nitromethane. First, injected nitro is allowed at 98 percent with dual mags allowed and no restriction on one fuel pump. Weight requirements are the same as screw cars at 2350 lbs. Second, roots supercharged engines up to 14-71 are allowed no more than 40 percent nitro with one mag and no limit on fuel pump size. These are limited to 70 percent overdrive. All other rules for Pro Extreme can be found in on PDRA’ s competition page at PDRA660. com.

Q & A

BOB HARRIS

By Nate Van Wagnen

Known for years as the track owner and promoter of Piedmont Dragway’ s Big Dog series, Bob Harris signed on as the PDRA’ s race director when the organization formed in 2014. He’ s been at the helm of the series since then, handling the rules packages and leading day-to-day operations at the races. As the 2017 season entered the halfway point at the North-South Shootout at Maryland International Raceway in June, Harris sat down with Drag Illustrated to discuss the current state of the PDRA and what lies ahead for the series.

Pro Nitrous and Pro Boost are really strong right now. To what do you attribute the success of those classes?
I think they’ re healthy because there’ s nitrous cars all over the country. It’ s the same deal with Pro Boost. You have the newer generation liking turbos and then there’ s the guys who have had Roots cars forever and have been running at their local track or local heads-up series. Now they’ ve come onboard with the PDRA over the last three years thinking,“ Okay, this is fast racing. It’ s tough and very competitive, yet it’ s friendly and fun. We don’ t have to travel to twenty-some races a year.” I think that’ s why it’ s strong.
The PDRA started the year with strong car counts and fan attendance at the southern races. As you go into the summer months and a new market in Indianapolis, how do you keep up that momentum?
It may be tough. There’ s more to keeping that momentum than most people would think. First of all, it’ s hard to run a race all at night because nobody wants to stay out that late – not the racers or the fans. Then you have the kids out of school and families are planning vacations. Planning the summer races is something we’ ll have to look at again this winter. But then again, it was roasting hot at Darlington and the fans were still out there sitting in the stands, so those factors might not mean as much as we think.
We’ re at the halfway point in the season. How do you feel about the overall state of the PDRA right now?
That’ s one thing I really do feel good about. We started off at Rockingham in 2014 with 159 cars. These are real numbers. As the year went on, we picked up some cars and started seeing 160, 170; just under 200 for the first couple years. Last year, we crept up and averaged around the 200-car mark, then we had an astronomical 366 cars show up at Virginia for the World Finals. We started off this year at Valdosta with around 200, then we went to GALOT and had about 260. We ended up with around 254 at Darlington. I think the 200-car mark is a good average. And I see new faces all the time, so it’ s not just the same people coming to every race. That means people are hearing about what we’ re doing and they want to get involved. We’ re always getting positive feedback from racers and fans after their first race. As an organization, that’ s what we want.
PHOTOS: JOE MCHUGH
108 PDRA660. com