Special Section
TOMMY D’ APRILE’ S NAME HAS GRACED THE QUALIFYING ORDER AT VARIOUS PRO MOD EVENTS ACROSS THE COUNTRY FOR YEARS, INCLUDING, UP UNTIL LAST YEAR, IN THE PDRA’ S BRYANT INDUSTRIAL PRO EXTREME PRESENTED BY PRO LINE. THIS YEAR, THOUGH, D’ APRILE’ S NAME HAS APPEARED RIGHT AT THE TOP OF EVERY QUALIFYING ORDER IN MOROSO PRO BOOST, THE LIKABLE FLORIDIAN’ S NEW HOME AT THE PDRA RACES. AS THE DRIVER OF AL BILLES’ ROOTS-BLOWN’ 69 CAMARO, D’ APRILE HAS QUALIFIED AT THE FIRST THREE RACES OF THE SEASON – GALOT IN BENSON, NORTH CAROLINA; MARYLAND AND MARTIN, MICHIGAN – AND WON THE NORTH-SOUTH SHOOTOUT AT MARYLAND. HE HAS ONE OF THE QUICKEST, MOST CONSISTENT CARS IN THE CLASS AS THE SERIES HEADS INTO THE HOT SUMMER RACES.
“ It impresses me to see what this car can run,” D’ Aprile says.“ On average, the car is capable of being four numbers quicker than the whole field. That’ s really cool. I hope and pray we can keep that up.”
While driving home from the PDRA Summer Drags at U. S. 131 Motorsports Park in Martin, Michigan, where D’ Aprile went out in the semifinals due to a red light, the former Pro Extreme star talked to DRAG ILLUSTRATED about his partnership with Billes and the fruitful season the duo has already enjoyed after just three races into the eightrace PDRA season.
When your former Pro Extreme team owner, Mel Bush, decided to step away from racing last year, did you have a backup plan? Or was this plan with Al Billes already in place?
It wasn’ t really a backup plan. My plan was to finish the season with Mel, then we were going to eventually go on to do our own thing after fulfilling our commitment to Mel. When he quit, we were OK but we weren’ t quite ready to go with Al’ s car. By the end of the season, we got the car together and started at Bradenton at the Snowbirds. Right out of the gate, the car was very quick and we didn’ t even have a real good combination at the time. We had an issue with the torque converter, yet it was still quick. Al and the guys made some changes, figured it out, and we went back to Bradenton for the U. S. Street Nationals in January. We qualified No. 1 and won the race. Every race since then,
“ THE BIGGEST THING FOR ME IS THE RELA- TIONSHIPS I HAVE WITH EVERYONE AT THE PDRA RACES”
we’ ve qualified No. 1 with this car and won two out of the four. Parts breakage at GALOT and a little mistake on my part at Martin cost us those other two races. In my eyes, we definitely have the car to beat.
You’ ve had a strong car at various points in your career, but the car you’ re driving now is on the verge of dominance. How do you approach a race knowing you’ ll likely qualify No. 1 and still be in the race late on Saturday?
It’ s a double-edged sword because we should be qualifying very well and going a lot of rounds. In an inadvertent way, it always puts a little pressure on me because it’ s like, man, don’ t screw up, because you have the car to beat. Before, if you didn’ t have the car, you’ d go out there and do the best you could and maybe the guy in the other lane would screw up. I think the biggest thing is just staying humble with the success and riding the wave while it’ s here. The team that we have, the knowledge on this team, it’ s hard to find and it’ s hard to even buy. To be put in this position with this team is really cool. I’ m enjoying it.
You and Al have both had success in various other series and classes. What was it about PDRA Pro Boost that made you two decide to run the class this season?
First of all, it’ s a family organization. I’ m a chaplain for God Speed Ministry, which is part of the PDRA as well, so we go to all of the races. I
2 STREET RACE
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