BENSON, NC – A record crowd was on hand at GALOT Motorsports Park Friday night to see the stars of the Professional Drag Racers Association (PDRA) compete at PDRA Dragstock XIII, the seventh of nine races on the PDRA 2016 tour. After three qualifying sessions, Brandon Snider leads the NAS Racing Pro Extreme field with a 3.596-second pass at 215.07 mph. Part-time competitor Randy Weatherford jumped to the top of the qualifying order in Switzer Dynamics Pro Nitrous presented by MoTeC. Hometown hero John Strickland topped the GALOT Motorsports Park Pro Boost field, and Eric McKinney snagged the number one spot in Drag 965 Pro Stock Motorcycle. Richard Penland is the provisional number one qualifier in PDRA Extreme Pro Stock.

In the PDRA’s sportsman classes, Randy Perkinson raced to the top in Ronnie Davis Top Sportsman presented by MagnaFuel, Jody Stroud led in Lucas Oil Top Dragster, and Carson Brown and Coolidge Rivenbark qualified number one in Talbert Pro Junior Dragster and MegaCorp Top Junior Dragster, respectively.

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PITTSBORO, NC – The naturally aspirated, factory hot rod machines of Extreme Pro Stock (XPS) will rejoin the Professional Drag Racers (PDRA) 2016 tour as the organization heads to its marquee event of the season, Dragstock XIII, held September 8-10. XPS points leaders John Pluchino, Richard Penland, and Brian Gahm are all expected to be in attendance, along with other XPS favorites as the class makes its fourth appearance this season.

At least one new entry will be in attendance at the highly acclaimed GALOT Motorsports Park for the 13th running of Dragstock. Team “O” Motorsports will attend its inaugural PDRA event, returning to Pro Stock competition after a long layoff. The team remained sidelined during the various transitions that Mountain Motor Pro Stock has been through in recent years. Team “O” Motorsports owner Richard Otwell has faith in the PDRA program and decided it was time to put his car back in competition. The Chevrolet Cobalt has been given a complete makeover, including new windows, paint and fresh engines and is now ready for battle against the toughest eighth-mile Pro Stockers on the planet.

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BENSON, NC – For the first time ever, the Professional Drag Racers Association (PDRA) and its racers will converge on the new GALOT Motorsports Park for PDRA Dragstock XIII, Sept. 8-10. The storied race will be the first national-event for the North Carolina track after being purchased and completely rebuilt by track owner Earl Wells, who also owns the three-car GALOT Motorsports team.

“I think everybody is going to enjoy our facility that John (Strickland) and his crew have built. John’s been down a lot of tracks and he can attest to what we have to offer,” said Mr. Wells.

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PITTSBORO, NC – Outlaw 632 has deep roots at Bradenton Motorsports Park. The class was created there through a collaboration between racers and the facility. It has increasingly grown in popularity among Florida racers and is now spreading across the country.

The Professional Drag Racers Association will head to Bradenton Motorsports Park for the Mel Bush Motorsports Sunshine State Shootout September 29 through October 1. Along with the PDRA’s usual all star line up of classes, Outlaw 632 will make a PDRA debut at the track it calls home.

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MILLINGTON, TN – Intermittent rain showers might have pushed a portion of the 3^rd annual Professional Drag Racers Association (PDRA) Memphis Drags to Sunday, but the weather didn’t stop the PDRA from crowning winners in four Professional classes and four Sportsman categories. Brandon Snider scored his second win of the season in NAS Racing Pro Extreme, while Jay Cox and John Strickland earned their third 2016 victories in Switzer Dynamics Pro Nitrous presented by MoTeC and GALOT Motorsports Park Pro Boost, respectively. Brunson Grothus swept the event in his return to Drag 965 Pro Extreme Motorcycle competition, qualifying number one and winning the race.

Past world champion Dan Ferguson claimed his second win of the season in Ronnie Davis Top Sportsman presented by MagnaFuel. The win in Lucas Oil Top Dragster went to Darien Boesch. Courtney Howard won in Talbert Pro Junior Dragster, and Arellyn Garner-Jones earned the MegaCorp Top Junior Dragster trophy.

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MILLINGTON, TN – Pro Extreme star Jason Scruggs continued to lead the quickest and fastest eighth-mile doorslammer class this Friday when he qualified number one at the 3rd annual Professional Drag Racers Association (PDRA) Memphis Drags. Continual favorites Tommy Franklin and John Strickland led the Pro Nitrous and Pro Boost fields, respectively, while Brunson Grothus rode to the top in Pro Extreme Motorcycle during Friday’s rain-shortened qualifying action.

Past Pro Extreme world champion Mick Snyder qualified number one in Top Sportsman, and Darian Boesch led the Top Dragster field after two qualifying session. Blake Denton and Jordan Eperjesi currently lead the fields in Pro Junior Dragster and Top Junior Dragster, respectively.

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MILLINGTON, TN – As the Professional Drag Racers Association (PDRA) heads into the second half of its 2016 tour, the championship points battles in two of the premier professional classes are tightening up. Defending NAS Racing Pro Extreme world champion Jason Scruggs currently leads Brandon Snider by 51 points, while a mere 14 points separate Drag 965 Pro Extreme Motorcycle frontrunners Eric McKinney and Chuck Wilburn as the PDRA rolls into Tennesee for the 3^rd annual PDRA Memphis Drags, August 11-13, at Memphis International Raceway.

Scruggs and Snider have been fighting back and forth since the first PDRA race of the year in Tulsa, where Snider scored the event victory over Scruggs in the final round. Two races later, Scruggs and his ScruggsFarm.com 1969 Camaro had a commanding lead after taking runner-up at Rockingham and winning Texas. Snider tightened things up by 101 points with his runner-up finish at Michigan, then added another 201 points at the most recent race in Maryland. Scruggs enters the weekend as the defending event champion.

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PITTSBORO, NC – Lucas Oil Top Dragster competitor, Justin Kirk, currently sits second in PDRA championship points, just over three rounds behind points leader David Brown. Despite the fact that Kirk has put himself in a position to possibly win the PDRA Top Dragster World Championship, he admits it’s been a difficult year. This season he hasn’t seen much of the success he’s become known in his budding career.

After fighting their current dragster for the first five events, Kirk and his team decided they’d had enough. They were planning to build a new dragster in the off season, but they found a deal they couldn’t pass up. With the help of backer BWC Trucking, Kirk quickly decided to purchase Bob Sheridan’s 2014 Spitzer dragster. “Bob Sheridan was wanting to go a different route with his racing,” Kirk explained. “The dragster has only got about six or eight races on it. We just decided to snatch that one up now instead of waiting to build a new one. It’s practically brand new; he just got the bugs worked out for us.”

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PITTSBORO, NC – Wesley Jones made the best pass of his career at the PDRA Spring Nationals earlier this year. He took his famed ‘41 Willys to a 3.55 elapsed time at almost 215 miles per hour. On the very next pass, just past the finish line, Jones took a wild ride, slamming into the Rockingham Dragway guard wall. Jones suffered an L4 vertebra compression and fracture. His iconic Batman-themed Willys was damaged significantly and Jones would be sidelined as he and the car both recovered.

“We put a front half on and a body on the car,” Jones explained of fixing the Willys, built in 2002 by Tommy Mauney. “The front firewall-forward was damaged so I had to replace a lot of front end parts. The body on both sides got damaged and I just decided to replace it instead of repairing it, which was a good thing, because the car ended up losing some weight. It’s going to be legal weight now.

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BUDDS CREEK, MD – NAS Racing Pro Extreme veteran Tommy D’Aprile and Drag 965 Pro Extreme Motorcycle rider Eric McKinney earned their first Professional Drag Racers Association (PDRA) wins of the season last weekend, joining repeat winners Tommy Franklin (Switzer Dynamics Pro Nitrous presented by MoTeC) and John Strickland (GALOT Motorsports Park Pro Boost) in the PDRA North-South Shootout winner’s circle. The fifth race on the PDRA 2016 tour was finished on Sunday due to rain that moved into the Maryland International Raceway area near the end of first round on Saturday night.

Maryland’s own Mo Hall claimed the DiSomma Racing Engines Outlaw 10.5 win in the class’ second stop with the PDRA. Number one qualifier John Montecalvo won in PDRA Extreme Pro Stock, adding to his event titles in two other major series.

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