PHOTOS: MIKE CARPENTER, NATE VAN WAGNEN

PRO EXTREME

After kicking off the 2017 season with a win over Jose Gonzales at Valdosta and runner-up finishes to Mike Recchia at GA- LOT 1 and Mattias Wulcan at Darlington, Tommy D’ Aprile is carrying a sizable points lead into the second half of the year. While the Mel Bush Motorsports’ 15 Corvette was a clear favorite in the cooler spring races, D’ Aprile is confident his Al Billes-led team can carry over the performance into the hot summer events.

“ Being from Florida, we can take the heat,” D’ Aprile laughed.“ I think we have an advantage there. We know how to run on a hot racetrack, so I think that’ ll help us, but again, competition is so tight. I look at it this way: we do the best we can at every race. If it’ s good enough to win, great. If it’ s not, then I’ ll be cheering on someone else.”

PRO NITROUS

The defending Pro Nitrous world champion is back in championship form this season. His Jerry Bickel-built“ Jungle Rat”’ 69 Camaro appeared in three consecutive final rounds in the first four races, including an event win at Darlington – easily the hottest race on the 2017 PDRA tour so far.

“ Going into the summer races, we’ re just trying to get a hold of the hot tracks,” said Franklin.“ We’ re strong; we have a good hot-weather tuneup. We’ ve had two finals and one win, and we’ re looking to continue that. With the crew that we’ ve got and Pat Musi power, we’ ll be good.”

PRO BOOST

Admittedly, the Darlington winner and her Strange Engineering-backed“ Purple Reign”’ 68 Firebird, tuned by husband Jon, struggled to readjust to the mild conditions at Maryland after conquering the heat and humidity at Darlington. Salemi, who runnered-up in quarter-mile competition at last summer’ s big-money Shakedown at the

Summit, is poised to get back to the winner’ s circle again as the PDRA tour heads to Indianapolis for the PDRA Midwest Indy Showdown, July 14-15.

“ We tested really well here( at Maryland) then we’ ve been too aggressive on the last couple qualifiers,” Salemi revealed.“ I think Jon is trying to make it go faster than it needs to go right now. We know that it can go faster than it went in testing. I think you’ ve really gotta push it to that point first to get to where you need to be. Now we can reel it in and hopefully go a few more rounds.”

EXTREME PRO STOCK

The first-ever PDRA Extreme Pro Stock world champion has quietly positioned himself and his Dean’ s Casing Service / Dewayne Higgins Trucking’ 15 Camaro to chase another title. The Oklahoma native leads the points after a runner-up finish at GALOT and low qualifier awards at Valdosta and Darlington.

“ We’ re known as a team that can get down when the tracks get greasy, and that’ s how you win championships,” Goforth offered.“ But we have to maintain that performance now that we’ ve found it. We have a good baseline setup for the heat. It’ s going to get cool at night, but the heat is going to stay in the track as we get into the summer months. Right now we just need to stay with our baseline and don’ t get outside of what we know we need to do.

PRO EXTREME MOTORCYCLE

Riding a Timblin-built Suzuki, Travis Davis has been on a tear in the class typically nearly dominated by his friend, Eric McKinney. The two riders have squared off on more than one occasion this season, with Davis taking the Darlington win over the three-time and defending world champion on a holeshot. Davis also defeated class standout Chuck Wilburn in the GALOT 1 final round. With a proven bike and a little magic, Davis believes he can continue stringing together round wins through the summer.

“ I feel like I have a handle on the hot-weather tune-up,” Davis said.“ I think I’ ll be all right in these summer months, especially if I can make some rounds( in the heat) and then it gets dark and the track cools off and tightens up.”

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