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Terry Leggett
Challenges the Young Blood
One of the originals of Pro Mod has still got it
PITTSBORO, N.C. (August 31, 2015): “The first car I ever had was
one just like it- a ‘71 Mustang, red and black. It looked
identical, other than it wasn’t fast,” he laughed. “I always
thought they made really good race cars, and judging by how good
this one has done, I’d say that was right.”
Terry Leggett’s gorgeous 1971 Pro Extreme Mustang has certainly
proven to be just as impressive on the track as off. Leggett went
all the way to the final round of the recent PDRA Memphis Drags
where he lost an extremely close, side-by-side race against points
leader Jason Scruggs.
“I just like to be different,” Leggett added in his recognizable
southern drawl. “I like to have something different from the rest
of the crowd, and it’s definitely that. Ain’t anybody got one.
“The car is just really, really good. The car is one of the
biggest reasons we’ve done well this year. Several people asked me
the last race or two where we picked up or what we found. Really
we’ve been fast ever since we’ve had this car. A lot of our losses
can be contributed to my fault. If I could have done a little bit
better job of driving I think we could have been a lot more rounds
than we’ve been. Our worst qualifying position all year was sixth.
We’ve run in the fifties every race this year. It’s really been
good. We just haven’t made a lot of rounds until Memphis.”
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Leggett had been running 50s all
weekend at Memphis, qualifying on top
of the field with a 3.546. After
defeating Neal Wantye, Brandon Pesz
and Wesley Jones, it was apparent the
‘71 Mustang was the car to beat, but
no one expected what Jason Scruggs was
about to do. His stout 3.573 elapsed
time in the final round was paired
with an incredible .004 reaction time.
Leggett posted the quickest lap of the
weekend with a 3.542 and had a
respectable .040 reaction time.
Unfortunately for Leggett, this still
put Scruggs crossing the stripe first
with five thousandths margin of
victory.
Although disappointed with the final
round outcome, Leggett still held that
“it was a very, very good weekend. We
had a really good time, which is more
important than anything, but doing
good makes you have more fun. It goes
hand in hand, I guess. The car did
really well. We’ve got good equipment
and crew. Terry does an astounding job
tuning the car. Even more than being a
really awesome tuner, he and his
fiancee, Kim, are just great people
and I love to be around them. Todd
Magee is a young gentleman that’s
helped me now, I don’t even know how
many years, a long time. Jeff Smith
has helped me race off and on for 30
years. We’ve got some good people with
us. Family members, too. My wife goes.
She loves to cook. I think she would
rather stay home and cook, but when
she goes with us she cooks and does
her thing, and we all appreciate that.
“Flying A has helped us now for a good
many years. Charlie Buck’s doing my
motors now. I wish I had a bunch of
sponsors to list off t, but I ain’t
got ‘em. The biggest help I’ve got is
the good crew people that help us
every weekend.”
Leggett has been a fixture in Pro Mod
racing since the early days when it
was spawning from Top Sportsman. He’s
one of the few original forces behind
the class that’s still competing and
challenging the young blood of the
sport.
“I never really expected Pro Mod to be
where it’s at now,” he confessed.
“It’s just like everything else,
though. You buy a car off the showroom
floor and they’re a whole lot faster
than the old muscle cars were in their
day. Everything evolves into getting
faster, quicker and more efficient.
“My parents were very much against the
drag racing deal. As soon as I got out
of high school, and got married, I
just started messing with cars. It
wasn’t many years after that I got my
first bracket car. The old ‘56 model
Thunderbird was really what you might
call the first ‘real’ race car I ever
had, a tube chassis type. It’s cool
looking back and finding pictures of
that old car now. It was fast at the
time. We ran against Tommy Mauney, Ed
Hoover, Scotty Cannon. A lot of times
we’d run two and three races a
weekend. One Friday night, one
Saturday and one Sunday, if we were
lucky.”
Long gone are Leggett’s days of
running three races in one weekend.
These days he has a hard time pulling
away from work enough to follow the 10
race PDRA schedule. While his logging
business has been the fuel behind his
operation, it’s also been his reason
for pulling away from time to time.
“Seems like it’s a little harder than
it used to be, work wise. I need to be
on the job more than ever seems like.
So chasing races all over the country
gets to be pretty hard. Time away from
work can be a big issue. I’ve taken
two and three years off at a time if
business wasn’t really good or I just
felt like I needed a break, but I
always come back to it.
I ran Pro Stock for a few years and
really enjoyed that,” continued the
North Carolina native. “I always
thought that was what I would really
like to do, but I quit for a few years
and when I came back I decided to come
back to where I started.”
Going back to his roots has proven to
be a good move for Leggett, as his
performance at the Memphis Drags
attests. Besides, he still has some
unfinished business to take care of.
“We’re really, really going to try to
focus on a win or two. We’ve still got
three chances to get a win this
season. Me personally, I’ve never won
one of these type races, a big race.
I’ve done it a lot of years and never
had a big win. It sure looks like it
would be possible, so we’re going to
try to make it happen.”
ABOUT THE PDRA
Based in Pittsboro, North Carolina,
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 Extreme, Pro Nitrous, Pro Boost,
and Pro Extreme Motorcycle along with
Top Sportsman, Top Dragster, Pro Jr.
Dragster, and Top Jr. Dragster. The
2015 PDRA schedule consists of ten
national events. For more on the
world’s premier eighth mile drag
racing organization visit
www.pdra660.com.
Follow the PDRA:
Facebook,
Twitter,
Instagram,
YouTube.
Photo: Gary Rowe / PDRA660.com /
RaceWorks.com
PRESS CONTACT: Lisa Collier
Professional Drag Racers Association
lisa@pdra660.com |
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