as a driver . I knew he ran a . 55 and his car was just bad to the bone all day . I ’ ve struggled to get my car going down the racetrack and running good since I wrecked it last April . Today , it was just stuck on that . 59-60 number . We tried to make it go faster in the final ; I don ’ t know why it didn ’ t . But we got the win and that ’ s what matters .”
PRO NITROUS No . 1 qualifier Jay Cox came to Maryland to prove a point , and his barrage of 3.6-second passes from qualifying through eliminations certainly made a statement . While it wasn ’ t his quickest pass of the evening , Cox ’ s 3.681 at 200.86 was enough to defeat defending Pro Nitrous world champion Tommy Franklin ’ s 3.691 at 202.42 in the final round .
“ Tommy is a good racer and I figured he ’ d run a . 67 or . 68 , so I wanted to match him and let the race go to whoever had the better light ,” Cox said . “ We made a change to make it go straight and we actually backed it down . I wanted the ( et ) record for ( engine builder ) Charlie Buck , but we did what we had to do to win and get the points .”
Cox started eliminations with a 3.698 at 200.17 on a bye run . His 3.677 at 201.55 over Jim Laurita in the second round was one-thousandth of a second off the Pro Nitrous et record . Cox slowed to a 3.716 at 180.48 on another bye run in the semifinals before ramping up his RJ Race Cars-built Clements Mechanical ’ 69 Camaro for the final round against the Pat Musi-powered “ Jungle Rat ” ’ 69 Camaro of Franklin .
“ I haven ’ t always done so well at this track , so I wanted to come out here and dominate . We ’ ve been low of every single round except the semifinals , but I went 3.71 lifting at 330-feet . I went out there on E3 and that thing was on a . 66 run , it just went left . I couldn ’ t get it to go straight and I didn ’ t want to give it away . That means a lot to me to go low .”
PRO BOOST When it came to Pro Boost competition , it wasn ’ t possible to find two cars paired closer in performance than No . 1 qualifier Tylor Miller and No . 2 qualifier Ty Tutterow . The two young Pro Boost stars met up in the final round for what was sure to be an epic battle . The win went to Miller at the starting line , though , as Tutterow left just a tick too soon . Miller recorded a career-best 3.70 at 197.91 , while Tutterow ’ s 3.702 at 200.41 was negated by the red light .
“ It was definitely a wild night for us ,” Miller said . “ This was the result of a lot of long nights
working until 3 a . m ., maintenancing everything so it was perfect for the race . My first light today was terrible . I just kept going shallow because I went red at Darlington and didn ’ t want to do that again . I just kept nailing the tree harder and harder , chewing it down 10 numbers at a time . I assumed Ty would be on top of it , so I wanted to cut at least a . 020 light and that ’ s what I did .”
Miller , 27 , and Tutterow , 22 , were nearly even through eliminations . When Miller ran 3.775 on a first-round bye run , Tutterow ran 3.779 over Jeremy Ray . Miller ’ s Pee Dee Fleet ’ 69 Chevelle posted a 3.726 over Ric Fleck second round ; Tutterow ’ s GALOT Motorsports ’ 69 Camaro went 3.724 over Casey Stemper . The pressure-packed final round was set up when Tutterow improved to a 3.717 over José Gonzales and Miller ran 3.72 over Brandon Snider in the semifinals .
EXTREME PRO STOCK Past PDRA Extreme Pro Stock champion Cary Goforth earned his first event win of the season when he defeated No . 1 qualifier Trevor Eman in a remarkably close final round . Eman in his Aruba . com ’ 11 Mustang left the starting line first , but Goforth ’ s Dean ’ s Casing Service / Dewayne Higgins Trucking ’ 15 Camaro charged ahead to win by just five inches , 4.053 at 177.95 to Eman ’ s 4.06 at 177.84 .
“ We had a lot of fast racers here this weekend ,” Goforth said . “ Especially in the semifinals , you got down to probably the four quickest cars here based on qualifying . I knew when we went into the finals to run Trevor that we had our work cut out for us . I knew we had to be good on all stages . We probably weren ’ t as good as we should ’ ve been . I pulled a couple gears early and that cost us a little bit . That ’ s just being a greedy racer . We ’ re happy with the win , don ’ t get me wrong ; we just could ’ ve been better .”
Goforth qualified in the two spot and ran 4.287 to beat John DeFlorian first round , then improved to a 4.033 on a bye run and a 4.028 over John Montecalvo in the semifinals . The Holdenville ,
Okla . -based driver leaves Maryland with the Extreme Pro Stock points lead .
PRO EXTREME MOTORCYCLE Pro Extreme Motorcycle finalists Travis Davis and Eric McKinney made PDRA history when they recorded the first side-by-side 3-second pass in the two-wheel category . Davis was ahead from start to finish in the 3.987-to-3.995 final round , both at 176 mph .
“ McKinney and I are real good friends ,” said Davis , who won his third consecutive race . “ We ’ ve been talking about how nice it would be to run 3s side-by-side . It ’ s hard enough to run that number , but getting two bikes to do it side-by-side is something else . Luckily I was on the winning end of it this time .”
Davis slowed from his third-place qualifying effort in his 4.143 first-round win over Rob Garcia , then improved to a 4.046 to defeat Burke Forster . The Douglas , GA-resident dipped into the 3-second range with a 3.994 over No . 2 qualifier Chris Garner-Jones in the semifinals . Davis ’ 3.987 at 176.26 in the final round was just one-thousandth of a second away from the official et record .
“ When it was hot today we struggled some , but the numbers came back when the cool Maryland air set in ,” Davis said . “ We just have to find a good tune-up for the hot weather now . I ’ m just glad to get the win . Thanks to my wife Brandy and my son Brayden , Walt Timblin , and Perry ’ s Performance .”
TOP SPORTSMAN / TOP DRAGSTER The Top Sportsman Elite 16 final round came down to two of the quickest cars on the property . Virginians Randy Perkinson and Billy Albert squared off , with Perkinson leaving the starting line first and posting a 3.924 on a 3.92 dial-in in his Buck-powered ’ 16 Camaro . Albert , who built the motor in his Stan Nance-owned ’ 17 Camaro ,
ran a 4.099 on a 4.09 dial-in for the runner-up finish . Before reaching the final round , Perkin-
PDRA660 . com 97