Ty Tutterow has made the most of his rookie season in the PDRA’s Pro Boost class by keeping pace with turbo ace Jose Gonzales and taking the championship points battle all the way to the finale. Now, Tutterow and his team are preparing for what could be a wild weekend of racing at Virginal Motorsports Park October 21-22 when they try to finish strong with their championship run.

The 2017 season began for Tutterow behind the wheel of his Tim McAmis-built 1968 Camaro, but that changed early in the year when a possible performance advantage was found in switching to a new car. To remedy the situation, Ty’s Pro Mod legend father, Todd, put him behind the wheel of his own 1968 Camaro, known as the “Tomcat”, to finish the year. According to Tutterow, this car gave them a bigger tuning window so they could use more of the power they had on tap.

As the year progressed for Tutterow, it became clear they were going to be a force in the Pro Boost class so they decided to start experimenting with the car to gain every possible performance advantage.

“At the start of the year everybody in the class made a switch to the Liberty transmission, so at Maryland, we decided to try a four-speed Lenco to see if it would work with our combination before we purchased a Liberty setup. We did see a solid performance gain, so we ended up purchasing a Liberty to put behind our Ty Drive for the rest of the season. That allowed us to pick up a couple of numbers,” Tutterow says.

After the race in Maryland, Tutterow earned his first victory of the year at Lucas Oil Raceway when the PDRA visited Indianapolis. That victory rocketed Tutterow into the position of a serious title contender and put more pressure on Gonzales to turn up his own performances the rest of the season. The Tulsa event was rained out and Tutterow wasn’t able to gain much ground on Gonzales, but he had no intentions of giving up.

The Drag Wars event at GALOT was viewed by Tutterow and his team as a chance to try and take the points lead, but things just didn’t fall their way during the race. “Going into GALOT we knew we were going to try and go for the Pro Boost record, but Jose got it Friday night after we shook the tires trying to go for a 3.65 or .66 pass. The car just rattled the tires right before the first gear change and that was that, it happens. We ended up having some tough luck at GALOT and lost earlier than we wanted to,” Tutterow explains.

Tutterow and his team are ready for a showdown at the finals with Gonzales that could lead to some exciting racing.

“As a team, we’re going to have to put all of our focus into making sure the car is 100 percent. We might have to do some extra testing on Thursday to get everything ready for the weekend so we have the data we need. They have a great team and formula over there, so that makes them tough to beat, but our team is ready to give it all we have to try and win the championship,” Tutterow says.

Even if Tutterow falls short in his championship quest this season has been exceptional for he and his team. “This season has been a great success, I’m incredibly blessed to get to do what I do. To go out and perform the way we have I would have never expected it. It would mean everything to our team to win the championship this year for sure,” Tutterow explains.

Make sure you’re tuned into SpeedVideo when the PDRA World Finals come to you live RIGHT HERE from Virginia Motorsports Park, October 21-22. This broadcast is brought to you by presenting sponsor Jerry Bickel Race Cars, along with Comp Cams, Chassis Engineering, SCAT Crankshafts, QA1, Miller Electric Welders, Russell, ATI Performance Products, CV Products, Race Part Solutions, and E3 Spark Plugs.