THE BEGINNING
After the Performance Racing Industry ( PRI ) Show in early December 2013 , a group of racers and car owners gathered in Memphis to discuss the possibility of starting a new eighth-mile drag racing series . Along with the Scruggs father-son duo and the Franklins , the original partners included car owner Roger Henson and Gene Hector , who also competed in Pro Extreme .
Bob HARRIS
TOMMY FRANKLIN : Jason Scruggs was most instrumental . We felt like going into the season after PRI that there was not going to be a racing series for all of us to race at . We wanted to preserve that . I was a nitrous guy , where they were all blower guys . At that point , we had a Pro Extreme class and a Pro Nitrous class . That gave the ability for me to have a voice looking from a different perspective from them .
From my perspective , I wanted to preserve racing . We were enjoying the heads-up eighth-mile doorslammer racing . We had other small series we were running . We were running the EOPM at that point . We were doing some local stuff , but we enjoyed it at the level that it was being done traveling around . It was really just to preserve what was already started and didn ’ t want to see that go away because there was some great racing to be had .
BOB HARRIS : Jason Scruggs called me , and of course , we knew each other just from racing . About two or three years prior to that , I had sold Piedmont Dragway . Jason said , “ Do you want to get involved with a new organization ?” I said , “ Jason , I don ’ t have the money to do what y ’ all gotta do .” He said , “ No , I just want you to be in charge of it and maybe you can get somebody to help you .” Well , I asked Rick Moore because at that time he was doing my tech for my Big Dog stuff at Piedmont . That ’ s how that got started .
Jason [ Scruggs ] and Tommy [ Franklin ] and I had become good friends because we ran in the prior organization and we knew them from that and EOPM , which ran around here local . I said , “ Well , Tommy Franklin would be a good one because he ’ s a good family man , and I think he has the financial means to probably do what you want to do .” At that time , we had no idea it was going to cost that much to do it .
So , he called Tommy and they wanted me to fly to Memphis the next two
or three days and have a meeting . I got sick the day we were supposed to fly to Memphis and I passed out at Charlotte airport . I had a virus and I was dehydrated . So , Rick went on and talked with them and came back . I hired Bobbi Corey as a secretary . I think [ Moore ] stayed around until the first or second race and I think he had too much on his plate .
JASON SCRUGGS : The ADRL in its height was a pretty big deal for the Pro Mod community . A lot of cars were built , a lot of purpose-built cars , a lot of cars in general , and everybody got accustomed to a great place to race . The ADRL technically started in 2005 and it went through 2013 . It had different ownerships and different people running it . Everybody can make arguments on whatever it was back in the day , but the point being it was fading away and it had its issues . We felt like we as racers want somewhere to race and we needed to step up and give everybody a place to race because there was so many cars that depended on good tracks and a good place to race that supported ADRL through the years .
I felt like we needed people that would make an investment financially to make sure that it stayed sound in the early growing years . I put myself and Roger Henson , who is still on my team now , together . Gene Hector got involved because he was talking about buying the ADRL at one time . I knew that he was interested in helping have a place to race and he was building a car at the time . Us three started and we started to involve Harris . He was instrumental in wanting to be a part of it . Bob Harris put a lot of sweat and tears into it . Bob and Jason Harris were kind of partners with Tommy in racing . That ’ s how Tommy came to the table . Us four had a meeting and all got together , and that ’ s how PDRA started .
We all had different ideas – whether we were going to sell tickets or give tickets away , where we were going to go , but we all worked good together . We just tried to get it off its feet . None of us wanted to make a dime out of it . If we had a great sponsor down the road and it became successful , we would give all the money back to the organization and try to be a better place , better purses , whatever , so be it . Truthfully , looking back on it , none of us really knew exactly how much money it all cost . None of us had ever been involved in a racing organization or a racetrack at the time other than Bob .
The inaugural PDRA season began in April of 2014 at Rockingham
GALOT Motorsports Park , formerly Dunn-Benson Dragstrip . Todd Tutterow won the first Pro Boost title in 2014 .
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