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“ It ’ s the ability to go out there and basically haul ass and look over at 500 feet , and say , ‘ Oh crap , I need to hit the brakes ,’” Perkinson says . “ It ’ s a challenge . Buddy [ Perkinson , cousin and past Elite Top Sportsman champion who recently moved up to Pro Nitrous ] and I have talked about it a lot . In Pro Nitrous , it ’ s two different mental things : did I make all the right decisions to make this thing as fast as you can be and go A to B ? Then it ’ s the challenge of , I ’ ve got to let go of the button on the starting line . |
together have created an intense level of competition .
“ I think most Top Sportsman racers know that if you go run a PDRA race , there ’ s just a high concentration of bad dudes in both regular Top Sportsman – especially regular Top Sportsman – and Elite Top Sportsman ,” says Ferguson , who won back-to-back races in Elite driving Dean Young ’ s nitrous-fed ’ 68 Camaro last season . “ If a guy is competitive , he wants to win something where he knew he beat the best . You want to be a big fish in a big pond . The fastest of the fast Top Sportsman cars are here . Having to qualify to make the field makes it challenging and fun . An all-run race doesn ’ t really pull me towards it . Running fast and bracket racing adds a whole other layer of difficulty .”
Finally , one of the aspects of Top Sportsman and the PDRA in general that keeps drivers like Ferguson and Perkinson coming back is the camaraderie and the family atmosphere that exists in the series . The Top Sportsman group is especially tight-knit .
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“ I don ’ t think there ’ s a single person – and this goes for the Elite side and the back-half side – that you can ’ t walk over to their trailer and be like , ‘ Hey man , I need that ,’ and unless it ’ s bolted to their race car and they ’ re still in , you ’ re not going to get it ,” Perkinson says . “ It ’ s hard to beat an environment that makes everybody involved feel welcome .”
“ I didn ’ t know anybody when I first started racing with PDRA ,” adds Ferguson , who is now campaigning a Dodge Viper previously campaigned
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by former Pro Nitrous racer Billy Harper . “ I was like the new kid on the block . Now , when I go to the racetrack , that ’ s where my friends are . That ’ s where I fit in . I have a lot of friends there , so that keeps me coming back .”
Many of the factors explained here can also be found in the PDRA ’ s Laris Motorsports Insurance Top Dragster divisions , Elite Top Dragster presented by Greenbrier Excavating & Paving and Top Dragster presented by Younce RV , but that ’ s a whole other story . DI
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Well , in Top Sportsman , there ’ s three challenges . Ultimately , you need to be as fast as you could be because they take the top 16 cars . You ’ ve got the driving aspect of it on the starting line , and then did we make the right decisions to go A to B ?” |
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The competition level is another attractant . Longtime competitors like Glenn Butcher , Bruce Thrift , Tim Lawrence , and Cheyenne Stanley have been honing their craft since before the PDRA began . Quartermile NHRA Top Sportsman racers like Ronnie Proctor have leaned into the PDRA eighth-mile format , and West Coast drivers like Bryan LaFlam and Joe Roubicek have moved their operations to the East Coast to focus on PDRA competition . All of these groups coming |
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