Drag Illustrated Issue 125, September 2017 | Page 91
PRO EXTREME
Pineville, North Carolina-based logger Terry Leg-
gett added a race win to his illustrious GALOT
Motorsports Park history. Leggett, who was the
low qualifier at the GALOT spring race, drove
his screw-blown Leggett Logging & Trucking ’71
Mustang to a 3.548-second pass at 217.53 mph in
the final round. His opponent, Mattias Wulcan,
left before the tree activated.
“For some reason, we just really run good here,”
Leggett said. “We just love the place. It’s a heckuva
facility, the people are great, and we have a really
strong following here. This is my home race, so
we have lots of friends and family here. All of
that just plays into making it a great weekend.”
Racing out of the second spot, Leggett posted
a 3.555 at 218.80 over Jose Gonzales in the first
round, then a 3.570 at 217.95 over points leader
and spring race winner Mike Recchia. Wulcan
was the No. 1 qualifier and drove his “Black Bird”
’69 Camaro to round wins of 3.572 at 213.03 over
fellow Swede Stefan Holmberg and 3.56 at 211.33
over Australian Pro Mod star John Zappia before
facing Leggett in the final.
PRO BOOST
Jeremy Ray has raced with the PDRA since the
series’ inception in 2014, and it took the best
performance of his series career to earn his first
PDRA Pro Boost event win. He ran his first
3.6-second pass, a 3.699, to qualify No. 4. After
using a 3.762 to get around Jr. Ward in the first
round, all of Ray’s eliminations runs were in the
3.6-second range.
“In the last five races we’ve run, this car has been
very consistent,” said Ray, who reached the finals
at those five races in a combination of PDRA and
Carolina Xtreme Pro Mod competition. “The air
was good tonight. I was able to go .68, .69, .68.
We went in the sixties four times this weekend. I
picked up the speed a bit, too. Just kept digging.
I’ve been running PDRA since the beginning.
This is my third car, and it’s one darn good car.”
Meeting Ray in the final round was Darlington
winner Melanie Salemi, who qualified sixth and
defeated James Linton Jr. and Pro Boost rookies
Ty Tutterow and Brandon Snider to earn her spot
in the final. Salemi left the starting line first in
her “Purple Reign” ’68 Firebird, but Ray chased
her down in his “Carolina Kingpin” ’63 Corvette,
running 3.683 at 202.27 over Salemi’s 3.905 at
192.63.
EXTREME PRO STOCK
Past PDRA Extreme Pro Stock world champion
Cary Goforth secured his second series title when
he beat Jeff Dobbins in the final round. Both driv-
ers ran identical 4.055s in the semifinals, but the
final round would be decided on the starting line,
as Dobbins left the line .007 too soon. Goforth
was ready for a race, though, as he recorded low
et of eliminations, a 4.051 at 177.95.
“It felt good to get the win because you know
if you win the race, you’ll probably seal the deal,”
Goforth said. “I’m happy. I’m tickled to death. I
don’t jump up and down and go wild, but I’m
awfully proud of this one. This is our eighth cham-
pionship and second with the PDRA.