Harris, Snider, DiSomma,
Penland and McKinney Win PDRA
Finale in Virginia
PETERSBURG, VA (Oct. 15, 2014) –
Rising Pro Nitrous star Jason
Harris completed an almost perfect
campaign Oct. 13, by going to his
eighth final round in as many
events this year and winning his
sixth race to cap off a
championship-winning run in the
all-eighth-mile Professional Drag
Racers Association’s (PDRA’s)
inaugural season.
Also scoring pro class victories
in the rain-delayed PDRA
Championship Finals at Virginia
Motorsports Park (VMP), were
Brandon Snider in Pro Extreme,
Anthony DiSomma in Pro Boost,
Richard Penland in Extreme Pro
Stock and Eric McKinney in Pro
Extreme Motorcycle. Sportsman
class winners included John
Lassiter in Top Sportsman, Alan
O’Brien in Top Dragster, Isaac
Evans in Pro Jr. Dragster and
Caleb Russell in Top Jr. Dragster.
The Championship Finals, postponed
by rain to Monday from a scheduled
Saturday completion, was actually
the second PDRA event to be
settled at VMP over the weekend.
Final eliminations for the PDRA’s
Dragstock event at North
Carolina’s Rockingham Dragway,
also cut short by rain early in
September, were wrapped up on
Sunday (Oct. 12) within qualifying
for the Virginia race.
Harris qualified his ’68 Firebird
fifth and made it past Matt Suite,
Stan Allen and Tommy Franklin to
reach Chris Rini in the Switzer
Dynamics Pro Nitrous final round.
His win in the semis, however,
stood out as payback for Harris
after he lost the Rockingham final
the night before when Franklin
picked up his career-first Pro
Nitrous race title with a new
official PDRA record 3.737-seconds
pass. That the semi-final win came
courtesy of a holeshot that
allowed Harris’ 3.770 at
191.81-mph pass to beat a quicker
and faster 3.763 at 199.26 by
Franklin made it that much sweeter
for the Pittsboro, NC-based racer.
“I definitely owed Tommy one, but
I also knew I would have to be
sharp because he’d been so fast
here all weekend,” Harris said.
“Sometimes I get to bail out the
car, but the car has had to bail
me out a lot more often this year,
but yeah, it’s always nice to help
out my team and win at the tree.”
In the final Harris again left
first, then posted a 3.794 pass at
189.97 mph to outpace the 3.803 at
197.57 by Rini and his ’69 Camaro.
“I knew he (Rini) was right there
with me, but the old ‘Warbird’
pulled through again,” Harris
said. “We had everything thrown at
it for that round, too, because we
really wanted to finish this
season with a win. I can’t say
enough about my crew chief Robert
Hayes and all my guys about how
hard they all worked at this all
year. To make it to every single
final was pretty amazing and way
more than any of us would’ve hoped
for or even thought possible. This
is a pretty special year.”
Brandon Snider of Atmore, AL, also
enjoyed a good year, especially at
VMP where he won both visits by
the PDRA in July and October. For
the Championship Finals Snider
qualified on top of the 16-car NAS
Racing Pro Extreme field with a
3.551-seconds pass.
When race day finally arrived,
Snider’s ’63 Corvette painted a
picture of consistency, running a
trio of 3.59s in defeating Gene
Hector (no show), Mustafa Buhamaid
and Mike Recchia before going
3.586 at 211.26 in the final
against number-two starter Jason
Scruggs, who in his first final of
the year made his weakest run of
the day at 3.612 and 215.93 mph.
“I’ve changed the way I race this
year. Instead of worrying about
what my opponent might run and
always trying to beat that number
I’ve concentrated this year on
getting a good, fast combination
that I can repeat without tearing
a lot of stuff up. I knew Jason
could probably run another 3.56,
but I planned for a .58 and told
him he’d have to work for it on
the tree if he wanted to beat me,”
Snider explained.
“It turned out I had a .027 light
and he had a .70 or so (.073), but
it didn’t matter because he slowed
down a little. He was 3.61, so he
wasn’t that far back, but I never
did see him, probably because of
the start I got.”
Snider also vaulted past Scruggs
to finish second in points, but on
the strength of wins at
Rockingham, Valdosta, GA, and
Tulsa, OK, this year, Bubba
Stanton in the Henson Motorsports
’69 Camaro was named the inaugural
PDRA Pro Extreme world champion.
“I have to thank Roger Henson more
than anyone for making this
happen,” said Stanton, who won a
similar title in 2006 with another
sanctioning body. “It’s been a
long road back, but my whole crew
deserves credit for working hard
and getting things done.”
New Jersey’s Anthony DiSomma was
the only driver able to pull off
the double at VMP and head home
with both the Dragstock and
Championship Finals trophies.
After qualifying number one over
30 entries in Virginia for the
16-car Precision Turbo Pro Boost
field with a 3.855 at a new
official record 208.20 mph,
DiSomma won the Rockingham portion
of the weekend in a weird final
against Larry Higgenbotham.
With both cars poised to launch,
both left the line prior to the
starting tree being activated. As
announced by PDRA interviewer
Brian Olson over the live online
feed from the track, with no times
or speeds recorded or posted to
the track’s scoreboards the two
drivers agreed to a rerun the next
morning. However, upon official
review later that evening by PDRA
officials, it was determined
Higgenbotham’s ’57 Chevy left
first, thus disqualifying him
first and automatically awarding
the race title to DiSomma—no rerun
required.
In Monday’s eliminations, DiSomma
beat David Monday, Tommy D’Aprile
(no show) and Kevin Rivenbark
before facing off against newly
crowned class champion Todd
Tutterow in the final round.
DiSomma’s win in the semis
actually decided the PDRA Pro
Boost championship as the closest
challenger for the title to points
leader Tutterow was his teammate,
Rivenbark.
DiSomma left with a .057 light in
the final and needed almost every
bit of the .014 holeshot it gave
him as his twin-turbocharged ’67
Mustang ran 3.824 at 207.46 mph to
beat the quicker 3.819 at 195.36
by Tutterow in his roots-blown ’69
Camaro by just nine-thousandths of
a second.
A pair of first-time winners split
the Aruba.com Extreme Pro Stock
titles in Virginia as Cale Aronson
prevailed on Sunday in the
Rockingham final over Richard
Penland, who also made it to the
Virginia final the next day to
score his own career-first class
win. Penland also qualified his
2010 Mustang in the number-one
slot over the eight-car field with
a 4.084-seconds pass at 178.21
mph.
When racing began, Penland
dispatched Doug Kirk and John
Pluchino from competition before
facing off against number-two
qualifier Brian Gahm in the final
round.
Penland left first in the final,
then posted his quickest and
fastest run of eliminations at
4.087 and 177.86 mph, while Gahm
slowed mid-track and coasted to a
4.989-seconds pass at just 117.64
mph.
Cary Goforth clinched the PDRA
Extreme Pro Stock class
championship in the opening round
of qualifying on Friday (Oct. 10),
before the rain started. Goforth,
who was the number-one qualifier
in Rockingham, needed only to make
one pass for the Virginia event to
wrap up the championship.
His off-the-pace 4.274 at 159.06
pass held up for the sixth-place
position, but almost immediately
after posting it he jetted off to
the IHRA finale in Memphis, where
the Holdensville, OK-based driver
merely had to complete one
qualifying pass that same night to
also secure the 2014
mountain-motor Pro Stock
championship in that series.
“It’s crazy but sometimes it takes
crazy to get the job done,”
Goforth said just before stepping
aboard a waiting private jet with
the engines running at nearby
Dinwiddie County Airport.
“I know you’re not going to get a
chance at winning two
championships in one year very
often, but in one day? That’s
crazy! But crazy is what my dad
(Dean Goforth, team owner and also
an Extreme Pro Stock competitor),
does best. This was all his idea
and he set it all up and I am so
thankful to him and my crew chief
Jeff Dobbins and all of my team
for all the hard work they put
into this. I love them all.”
With three wins already heading
into the weekend at VMP, Eric
McKinney nearly had the PDRA Pro
Extreme Motorcycle championship
sewn up, with only teammate Ashley
Owens having a slim mathematical
chance to catch up. When both
riders uncharacteristically fell
in the second round of the delayed
Rockingham event, however,
McKinney knew the season title was
secured.
Douglas, GA’s Travis Davis, who
eliminated McKinney, went on to
win his second race of the year,
beating veteran Paul Gast in the
Rockingham final.
With one more race to go, though,
McKinney had an opportunity for
redemption. He qualified his 2012
Hayabusa first for the
Championship Finals with a
4.065-seconds pass at 176.42 mph,
which turned out to be important
as second-place starter Ron
Procopio and third place Casey
Stemper posted identical elapsed
times so the top three were set by
speed.
McKinney, from Hamersville, OH,
made short work of David Rudd in
the opening round of racing before
earning a little payback with a
close win over Davis in round two.
He then made a solo pass in the
semis when Gast was a no show to
set up a race against first-time
finalist Chris Garner.
Garner left with a great .016
reaction time that gave him a huge
.090 lead off the start, but
slowed to a 4.915 pass at just
98.23 mph while McKinney made a
solid 4.078 at 176.63-mph run to
his fourth win of the season.
“It’s a great way to end the year
and I have to thank my dad
(Scott), my Uncle Steve and Ashley
(Owens) for getting us all here,”
McKinney said. “We go out there
alone as riders, but this is a
team sport, there’s no doubt about
that.”
The PDRA will crown its 2014
champions Dec. 13, at the
inaugural PDRA Banquet and Awards
Show at the JW Marriott hotel in
downtown Indianapolis, held in
conjunction with the annual
Performance Racing Industry (PRI)
trade show.
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 mountain-motor Extreme Pro
Stock, Pro Extreme Motorcycle, Pro
Boost, Pro Nitrous, and Pro
Extreme, the quickest doorslammer
class in drag racing. The 2014
PDRA schedule consists of eight
national events. For more
information on the PDRA, visit
www.PDRA660.com. |
