The Oral History of the PDRA
to get full fields , it was pretty tough . But at the same time , the cars got so fast . I ’ m not going to say I wasn ’ t somewhat instrumental in that , but the cars got so fast , and I ’ m not going to say expensive because they ’ re all so expensive – I mean , it doesn ’ t cost that much more to run Pro Extreme than it does anything else – but the cars got so fast and I guess people thought it cost more , I don ’ t know .
Originally , I ’ m the one that started the Pro Boost class , and that class was growing and people were building cars for that when we might ’ ve been better not to have that and Pro Extreme might ’ ve made it . But all that ’ s hindsight 20 / 20 , and now Pro Boost is a great class and it is what it is . They have two great classes as far as Pro Modified cars go in PDRA .
At the end of 2018 , in the weeks following the PRI Show , Bob Harris announced his resignation as the series director . His son , Jason , just won his second Pro Nitrous world championship .
BH : I was to the point where I was getting older and I wanted to be with my grandkids and Jason . I didn ’ t want to watch him win by looking out the tower window . I wanted to be on the grounds .
THE NEW KID ON THE BLOCK
Enter Tyler Crossnoe . The young Tennessean worked with the PDRA team in 2018 handling track prep , and when he was presented with the opportunity to move to Virginia to take on full-time roles as the PDRA series director while also overseeing VMP , he jumped on it . He had track operator experience from working at Memphis International Raceway , as well as promoter experience through his yearly Outlaw Street Car Reunion races .
TYLER CROSSNOE : Tommy asked me to step in for an interim role until we could find somebody that fit the spot pretty well . The interim role is still going five years later . We ’ ve kind of made it our own and turned out to be a good deal – kind of a blessing in disguise for me . I say all the time it ’ s a lot of work to do both of them , but at the same time it ’ s also good to have both under the same banner .
Tyler CROSSNOE
TF : Tyler is a unique individual in the fact that he has a passion for the sport as well . His vision , his passion . He likes to work . He ’ s done great with it . One of Tyler ’ s biggest faults is Tyler himself – just trying to slow him down and try to keep him from burning himself out , beating himself up . The internet is a brutal thing at times . I ’ ll be honest , there ’ s a lot of times he ’ ll make a move and I question it on , “ Whew , was it too soon for that ?” But then it comes true for him . That could be an adjustment for weather or just anything that you move . He ’ s better at planning ahead , looking ahead , and saying , “ OK , we need to make this adjustment .” I tease him and say that he ’ s lucky at times that things fall in his favor , but in all reality he sees that and tries to get ahead of it and makes sure those things fall into place .
He ’ s a great ambassador of this sport that still has a lot of years to contribute and is well ahead of himself from an age perspective . That ’ s probably one of the biggest things that he hates is that everyone puts an age on him still . I keep warning him and telling him one day he ’ s going to wake up and be the old , experienced man and life is looked at as a different perspective because no more will he be the young kid .
But he ’ s great for this sport . He ’ s great for the PDRA . He does a lot of good things and always has the mindset of how to make it better . I ’ ll be honest , I try to give him as many tools as he can have , but for anybody to think that we ’ re a rich organization over here with unlimited funds to make it happen , that ’ s so far from the truth . Everything that we do , we have to do methodically and within a budget to try to take the money that we have and make it work .
Though the 2019 season had a few hiccups due to weather – including an outright cancellation due to a hurricane – Crossnoe quickly adjusted to his new role as series director . It took some time , but the racers also adjusted to Crossnoe ’ s new ideas and policies .
TC : First season was always a first season . The fear of the unknown going in . At that point , I was 27 years old . A lot of people look at that and go , “ Dang , that ’ s a 27-year-old kid . I ’ m in business for myself . Why do I need to listen to him ?” Once we got the respect factor on both sides – me respecting the racers and the racers respecting me – and having that trust in making the right decisions , putting them on a safe racetrack , putting the right staff into place , and safe and efficient events were run , it was
GALOT Motorsports Park has become a mainstay on the PDRA tour .
The PDRA team does whatever it takes to make an event successful .
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