Southern Racers Vie for Top Dragster Title

PITTSBORO, N.C. (October 2, 2015): In the quickest and fastest sportsman category in drag racing, two racers with roots deep in southern, eighth-mile bracket racing are going toe-to-toe to be crowned the next PDRA Top Dragster World Champion.

While Gleason Tennessee’s Justin Melton has a three round lead over North Carolina native, Derrik Sholar, both racers believe this Championship is far from over.

Local racers picked off early season wins, but PDRA series followers began adding up points as the year went on. Melton won the North-South Shootout at Maryland International Raceway in July, taking over the points lead. Sholar answered back at the very next event, winning the Memphis Drags. Now only 212 points separate the two as the World Finals approaches.

“I feel good,” Melton said of sitting in first place with one race to go. “Needless to say, you can’t take anything for granted. We were doing really good last race and I had a little part malfunction that cost me the round that would have just about sealed the deal. So that’s all it takes is one little $20 part to mess up everything. Anything can happen. We have a great group of racers out here and you can’t take any of them for granted. These cars are flying. Nobody has any edge on anyone else. It’s a tight game, I’ll be honest.”

Melton was sidelined, in between cars, when Danny Payne offered him a ride for the season. It turned out to be a good move on Payne’s part. “He ran with the PDRA last year and finished second in the world,” Melton said of Payne. “He missed it by five points. He had knee surgery and when he saw the struggles of his injury were going to put him out for a while, he asked me to drive the car. It’s our car and Dad builds the engines for it. I was tickled to get to jump in the seat and do this one with him. We’ve had a ball with it this year.”

Melton is a farm-turned-chassis builder who, along with his dad and brother, heads up M&M Race Cars. The eldest Melton added an engine shop to the family business and was one of the first to come up with a proven blower combination for bracket racing. Besides M&M Race Cars, Melton credits Schaeffer Oil by Greg and The Zone Bar & Grill with aiding his Top Dragster success. “I can’t say enough about my dad, my brother, and our whole group. Danny Payne and Ms. Judy Payne are like a second set of parents to me. They’re super nice people. They’ve helped me out multiple times as friends. I enjoy going to the races with them. They’re just great. I have to give a shoutout to my wife, Wendy, and my little girl, Taylore, and my little boy, Tanner. Both my kids race Junior Dragsters close to home, but they have to stick home while I travel to PDRA events. It gets a little tough, but they’ve been good for their mama while I’m gone,

and mama’s been patient with me while I’m gone. If it wasn’t for that, it wouldn’t happen. They watch me every weekend on the Live Feed. It works out so nice.”

Melton says his family will be watching the World Finals online, cheering him on for his first Championship. Sholar has recently become a father himself and says this has given him more motivation than ever before. “[Being a father has] actually made me want to win even more, to have him there and be a part of it,” told Sholar. “He’s only a few months old and has already been to two races. It’s the same way I started out. I went to a race in my very first year.

“Last year we only went to four of the races and we won two of them,” he continued. “We were laying down good, consistent packages, but once we started trying to go fast and qualify higher, that’s when we started running into problems. That threw us a major curveball. We had a very rough start to this year, but in Memphis we were able to get a little bit of a hold on it. It took off.

“One thing that’s really helped us is Ross Willard, my Crew Chief. He’s taken a lot of time and dedication. We study RacePak runs one after the other. There’s been nights where it’s two o’clock in the morning we’re still looking at it, figuring out what we can do better. He’s really helped us get us where we are. I hope things work out where we can actually win this thing. We’ve got the race car to do it with, and I feel like I’m the driver than can do it. It’s going to be interesting. I have a major strategy. We’re going to see if it works out. Good Lord willing, it should work, but it’s definitely going to be a tough race.”

Sholar’s determined drive contrasts Melton’s more laid back approach. However, both men are confident in their cars and their own abilities. And each driver wants the Championship title badly. “We’re going to go in and try our same game plan that’s been working for sure the last half of the year,” told Melton. “We’re going to do the same strategy and try to seal the deal. I go into every one of them wanting to win the whole event. We have to take it one round at a time. I promise you we’re as excited about each round as everybody else.”

Melton may be as excited about each round win as the next guy, but one thing is for sure, if he wins first round in Virginia, no one will be more excited than him.

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.

Photos: Gary Rowe / RaceWorks.com


PRESS CONTACT: Lisa Collier
Professional Drag Racers Association
lisa@pdra660.com