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Bryant Marriner Puts Up
Five Thousand Dollar Pro Nitrous Bonus
“I want to give five thousand dollars away. I can’t wait to hand the cash to a
PDRA driver.”
So says Pro Nitrous team owner Bryant Marriner as the PDRA prepares for its
sophomore season of eighth-mile competition. In an effort to see history made in
the Pro Nitrous class, Marriner is prepared to hand over five thousand dollars
in cash to the racer who breaks into the 3.60s in 2015.
Marriner, owner of Morrisville, North Carolina-based Bryant Industrial Crane &
Rigging, wants to see the barrier broken, and he’s ready to get behind the
effort by offering a major incentive in the form of cold, hard cash.
“I’m putting up a five thousand dollar cash bonus to the first driver in Pro
Nitrous that gets into the 3.60s during qualifying sessions or elimination
rounds this season,” said Marriner. “Test or practice runs don’t count, just
qualifying and eliminations. The first driver to run a 3.699 or better gets the
cash.”
Presently the PDRA Pro Nitrous elapsed time record is in the possession of Tommy
Franklin,
who
set the mark last October at Virginia
Motorsports Park when he recorded a
pass of 3.737 seconds. With the
constant improvement in equipment and
track preparation, Marriner knows the
historic performance is just on the
horizon, and he intends to help push
things along.
“The way things are going, this season
somebody is going to turn a 3.69 or
better,” he said. “You really got to
get after the motor and the car has
got to be happy to do it. I figured
I’d like to make it worth the while
for somebody to get after it that
hard. It could cost the person that’s
going to try it some serious money to
get their car right and ready to take
what it’s going to take. I’ll have
five thousand dollars in cash ready to
hand over to the first driver to do
it.”
Marriner, 65, is the owner of Bryant
Industrial Crane & Rigging, a large,
diversified operation based in
Morrisville, North Carolina, that has
been in business since 1983.
Although he was on the sidelines for
over four decades, mariner does have a
racing background.“I started racing
when I was 17 years old, and I raced
locally for a couple of years
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until I got
drafted into the army. When I was in
Viet Nam I made up my mind that I was
never going to spend another dime on a
race car. And I think I did a pretty
good job of sticking to that promise
for 43 years.”
But like so many others, the siren
call of the track, the competition and
the camaraderie was just too great,
and last year he took a giant leap
back into the deep end.
“Once racing gets in your blood you
can never, never, ever get it out,”
Marriner said. “From before I
graduated from high school in 1967 I
was going to every race I could,
whether it was NASCAR, IHRA or NHRA.
And every time they fired the engines
up I got chills from my toes to the
top of my head. And I still get ‘em
today. The thrill, the drive, the
excitement is still there, just like
it was when I was a teenager.
“I finally decided that I had to get
involved again, so this past year I
bought Pat Stoken’s ’69 Camaro and
went racing, this time with Jay Cox
driving,” said Marriner. “We ran the
car the second half of the season last
year and finished tenth in the Pro
Nitrous points. We did okay but didn’t
quite have enough for the top dogs. At
the end of the season we sold the used
motor that we had been running with
and had Charlie Buck get to work
building us a big new motor, one that
will be over 900 cubic inches. Now
we’ll be able to run with the big
boys!”
Like so many others, Marriner finds
the PDRA experience exactly what he
was looking for.
“I think the PDRA is great, it’s as
simple as that. It’s not going to be
like other organizations that fell by
the wayside. They’re got their ducks
in a row and their heads screwed on
tight. The reason it’s this way is
because racers own it, back it and
know what it takes to make it
worthwhile for the racers that want to
come out there and run.
“It’s not a corporate type of a deal
where somebody is in it just to make
some money,” Marriner added. “These
boys are doing it because they want to
do it and that makes all the
difference. Of course there were a few
bumps in the road the first season,
but you have to expect that no matter
what you do. There’s always a learning
curve. But they had enough experience
and expertise to make good, logical
decisions. It’s really going to grow,
and that’s all you can say. It’s going
to grow, grow, grow.”
PDRA Race Director Bob Harris is very
pleased to have the backing and
support of racers and team owners such
as Marriner.
“This is an unbelievable deal for the
PDRA and the Pro Nitrous racers,”
Harris said. “It’s going to take some
serious preparation, perfect track
conditions and a little bit of luck to
break into the 3.60s, and Bryant’s big
bonus is going to motivate a lot of
people. We can’t thank him enough.”
Article by: Brian Wood
Photo: RaceWorks.com / Chuck Brooks /
PDRA660.com
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