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PDRA ‘Nitrous Wars’ Escalate as Series Heads to St. Louis
PITTSBORO, NC (May 22, 2015) – The Professional Drag Racers Association (PDRA)
brings its unique brand of doorslammer competition to Gateway Motorsports Park
near St. Louis May 28-30, where its hotly contested “Nitrous Wars” will be front
and center for the inaugural PDRA Mid-America Open. In addition to growing
driver rivalries, no fewer than six engine builders are represented in the
Switzer Dynamics Pro Nitrous class, which features engines as large as 960 cubic
inches throwing flames above the roofs of the cars as they speed down the eighth
mile in 3.7 seconds at well over 200 miles per hour.
“Pro Nitrous has emerged this year as probably our most competitive class, with
races often decided by just a few thousandths of a second,” PDRA Race Director
Bob Harris explained. “It also has a great mix of drivers and teams with
beautifully prepared cars. It’s like a 200-mile-an-hour car show.”
Early this month, past class champion Mike Castellana picked up his first PDRA
win, beating season-opening winner and current points leader Tommy Franklin in
the Pro Nitrous final round. Sandwiched between those two events at Dallas, TX,
and Shreveport, LA, current two-time NHRA Pro Mod champ “Tricky Rickie” Smith
scored the Pro Nitrous title at Rockingham, NC, while defending PDRA class
champion Jason Harris, who won six times after reaching all eight finals
contested last year, is still looking for his first race win in 2015.
Significantly, Castellana won with Sonny’s Race Engines technology beneath the
hood of his ’69 Camaro, while the similar rides of Franklin and Smith both carry
Pat Musi-built powerplants. Meanwhile, young guns “Stevie Fast” Jackson and Jay
Cox, the number-one qualifier at both Rockingham and Shreveport, are getting it
done with Reher-Morrison and Charlie Buck engines, respectively. Of course
Musi’s daughter, Lizzy, the 2014 PDRA pro rookie of the year, uses her dad’s
engines in the 2015 Dodge Dart she pilots in the class, but after the year’s
first race Harris made the switch from Musi to Sonny’s horsepower, so clearly
there’s plenty at stake for each team and their engine builder of choice.
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Headlined by the Pro Nitrous and NAS Racing Pro Extreme classes, the PDRA
Mid-America Open also will feature Precision Turbo Pro Boost, along with Drag
965 Pro Extreme Motorcycle, MagnaFuel Top Sportsman, Dart Top Dragster and two
Huddleston Performance Jr. Dragster classes.
Pro Extreme superstar Jason Scruggs from Mississippi also scored his first PDRA
win in Shreveport, vaulting him into the top five in points, but it’s Dubai’s
Mustafa Buhumaid, who won the first race and finished runner-up at the second
event, that’s leading the 3.5-second, 220-mph class. He’s followed by Rockingham
winner and North Carolina native Todd Tutterow, Alabama’s Brandon Snider and
Buhumaid’s teammate Bader Ahli. Also expected to challenge for the St. Louis
race title are last year’s champion Bubba Stanton and Tommy D’Aprile, who will
be making his first start of the year in a brand-new ’15 Corvette race car built
by Missouri’s own Larry Jeffers.
Pro Boost features a unique blend of supercharged and turbocharged entries
running head to head at up to 210 mph on the PDRA eighth mile. Currently led in
the points by Texas winner Kevin Fiscus in a twin-turbocharged 2012 Mustang,
teammates Kevin Rivenbark and John Strickland are close behind in a supercharged
’67 Mustang and blown ’69 Camaro, respectively. After failing to qualify at the
season opener, then losing in the first round at Rockingham, Delaware racer
Gerry Capano had a career weekend at Shreveport, as he steered his supercharged
’63 Corvette to the win from the top qualifying position.
Up on two wheels, after qualifying first and going on to win all three events
completed so far, Pro Extreme Motorcycle champion Eric McKinney is already well
on his way to successfully defending his 2014 title. Likewise, Dallas winner and
defending Top Sportsman champ Dan Ferguson is the current points leader, while
Derrick Sholar, who finished runner-up to Mike Greene at Shreveport, is leading
in Top Dragster, and Preston Tanner and Mia Schultz are presently on top in the
two Jr. Dragster classes.
“With so many chassis shops and race teams based in the Midwest, St. Louis is
one of the main centers for drag racing in the country, so we’re very excited
about visiting,” Harris said. “This will be the first time for PDRA at Gateway,
but many of our competitors have raced there before and are ready to put on a
tremendous show. We’ll also have jet cars running on Friday and Saturday and a
lot of other extras planned for our fans to enjoy.”
The inaugural PDRA Mid-America Open will begin with all-day testing open to the
public on Thursday (May 28), with three rounds of qualifying beginning at 10:30
a.m. on Friday. One more qualifying session will start at 11 a.m. on Saturday,
followed by a 3:30 p.m. pre-race ceremony and elimination rounds at 4 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 inaugural PDRA
Mid-America Open also are available at many retailers and commercial outlets in
the Greater St. Louis area, or reduced-rate coupons can be printed from the PDRA
web site at www.pdra660.com/2015/mid-america-open/coupon/. Spectator parking
is free at all PDRA events.
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 10 national events. For more information on the PDRA,
visit www.PDRA660.com.
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