Richmond Race Will Determine 2015 PDRA World Champions

PITTSBORO, NC (Oct. 22, 2015) – Drag racers from all across the United States, Canada, and even the Middle East are heading to Virginia Motorsports Park this weekend (Oct. 22-24), as the Professional Drag Racers Association (PDRA) holds its season-ending Brian Olson Memorial World Finals presented by Mel Bush Motorsports.

“Brian was our main P.A. announcer and did a lot of the trackside reporting for our live, online feed from the races. He was a very important member of the original PDRA team, but sadly we lost him a couple of months ago and everyone here misses him greatly,” PDRA Race Director Bob Harris explains. “We wanted to keep his memory alive for everyone and thought naming this race for him would be something he really would’ve appreciated and gotten a kick out of.”

PDRA world champions in four professional classes and five sportsman divisions will be crowned in the last of nine races for the all-eighth-mile organization’s second season, including the wild, flame-throwing Switzer Dynamics Pro Nitrous class, in which Virginia’s own Tommy Franklin will attempt to unseat reigning back-to-back NHRA Pro Mod champ and three-time PDRA winner this year Rickie Smith from the top spot.

“Rickie is a great driver and has a very competitive car. To be able to race against him and be in this position, alone, is a feat in itself,” points out Franklin, who won the 2015 PDRA season opener at Dallas, TX, and finished runner-up in points to Jason Harris last season. Also expected to contend for the Pro Nitrous win in Virginia, though not within striking distance of Smith’s points lead, are South Carolina’s “Stevie Fast” Jackson, Harris, who is still looking for his first race title in 2015, and Pat Stoken from Montana, who made the quickest pass in Pro Nitrous history (3.69 seconds) earlier this year at Martin, MI.
 
After scoring wins in five of the most recent six PDRA events, NAS Racing Pro Extreme star Jason Scruggs has all but sewn up his first season-long championship since 2008, but remains focused on just qualifying his 220-mph ’69 Camaro and clinching the title with a first-round victory.

“It’s never over ‘til it’s over; that’s the way I look at it,” says Scruggs, from Saltillo, MS. “Yeah, we want to win the championship, but at the end of the day, we go into each race wanting to win the race, too. We just want to run fast and maybe even set a record ourselves. That would really put an exclamation point on a great year.”

Scruggs’ closest points rival is Badir Ahli of the Dubai-based NAS Racing team, with veteran Todd Tutterow from North Carolina sandwiched between him and NAS teammate Mustafa Buhumaid, followed by Terry Leggett and Brandon Snider. Currently 11th and driving a new 2015 Corvette for race sponsor Mel Bush is Florida driver Tommy D’Aprile, who is more than capable of winning or at least gaining a top-10 berth in the standings.

The Precision Turbo Pro Boost class features the closest pro class points chase as last year’s runner-up, Kevin Rivenbark and his supercharged 2015 Corvette from North Carolina, has less than one round’s advantage over Florida’s Kevin Fiscus, who won at Dallas in March with his twin-turbocharged 2012 Mustang.

“It seems like every time one of us struggles, the other one does as well. No one takes advantage of the situation and gains rounds. It’s been close all year,” Fiscus says. “This is the first time we’re going into the final race of a series with a chance to win the championship and we’re excited. The whole team is committed to doing what it takes to win it.”

Looking to make it back-to-back Pro Boost wins will be class rookie Melanie Salemi, who scored her first PDRA trophy with her supercharged ’68 Firebird early last month at Rockingham, NC, while Fiscus’ teammate, Jim Bell from Western Canada, will look for his first PDRA win behind the wheel of his twin-turbo’d ’69 Camaro.

Although the Drag 965 Pro Extreme Motorcycle championship has already been decided in Eric McKinney’s favor for the second-straight season, he and rival Chris Garner-Jones, who each have three wins this season, will certainly be among the favorites to win at Richmond. Also a threat to win will be McKinney’s teammate and crew chief Ashley Owens, Terry Schweigert from Canada’s west coast and Chuck Wilburn, who earned his career-first PDRA win at Rockingham last month.

In the MagnaFuel Top Sportsman class, Georgia golf cart dealer and points leader Ronnie Davis will try to hold off the challenge of defending class champ Dan Ferguson, while Tennessee’s Justin Melton will seek to close out the Dart Top Dragster championship over Derrick Sholar in the number-two spot. It’s also a two-man battle for Toefco Pro Open Outlaw supremacy, as Jody Stroud and Phil Esz, each with two wins this year, will settle up in Richmond.

In the PDRA’s Jr. Dragster classes for kids aged 8-17, two-time winner Preston Tanner of Rennsalaer, IN, has already clinched the Huddleston Performance Pro Jr. Dragster championship, while the Huddleston Top Jr. Dragster season title remains very much in play between points leader Alexis Tanner and Mia Schultz of Woodbridge, VA. Additionally, the PDRA World Finals will feature the second appearance this year of the Mickey Thompson Outlaw 10.5 class.

The 2nd annual Brian Olson Memorial World Finals presented by Mel Bush Motorsports will begin with all-day testing open to the public on Thursday (Oct. 22), with three rounds of qualifying beginning at 10:30 a.m. on Friday. One more qualifying session will begin at 11 a.m. on Saturday, followed by elimination rounds starting at 3:30 p.m. for all classes.

Admission on Thursday is $10, with Friday and Saturday $30 each, but children 12 and under are admitted free each day. Discount coupons for the PDRA World Finals also are available at many retailers and commercial outlets in the Richmond area, or reduced-rate coupons can be printed from the PDRA web site at www.​pdra660.​com/2015/world-finals/coupon/.​ Spectator parking is free.


ABOUT THE PDRA
With offices in Pittsboro, North Carolina, and Saltillo, Mississippi, the Professional Drag Racers Association is the top sanctioning body in the United States for the sport of eighth-mile drag racing. The PDRA’s professional categories include Pro Open Outlaw, Pro Extreme Motorcycle, Pro Boost, Pro Nitrous and Pro Extreme, the quickest doorslammer class in drag racing. The 2015 PDRA schedule consists of nine national events. For more information on the PDRA, visit www.PDRA660.com.