Despite a near-rainout, Frankie Taylor used excellent track conditions and a fast track on Sunday morning to take home the Pro X-Treme win this past weekend in the X-DRL’s first showing at Maryland International Raceway in Budds Creek, Maryland. Despite an event in the heat of the summer, the air conditions showed 2,100 feet when eliminations began, making them favorable for quick and fast passes.

Taylor didn’t disappoint. After an insane set of qualifying rounds where he ran a pair of 3.604 (!) eighth-mile hits to set the Budds Creek track record and the Pro X-Treme record for X-DRL, Taylor lined it up in the final round in his Davis Technologies-equipped screw-blown machine against Terry Leggett’s Mustang. Leggett set his own career best during Friday night’s qualifying sessions, running just behind Taylor’s machine with a 3.610. The final round came down to the pair, two of the top three two qualifiers. Leggett got out of the gates first with a .050 reaction time but Taylor was just behind him with a .099 light. On the top end, it was all Madman, all the time, as he crossed the stripe with an outstanding elapsed time, 3.613 at 207 mph, to Leggett’s 3.69/207 mph blast.

Taylor relies on the Davis Technologies traction-control system to keep the car running on the straight-and-narrow, especially at the insane speeds these cars are capable of hitting on the track. “We changed our combination to pick up the 60-foot time – we thought it was enough to get us into the 3.50’s but the car shook in the middle. The track was phenomenal all week-end long. We just didn’t have enough in the car for the track,” said Taylor. Regardless, his combination held together long enough to take home a win and advance in the points standings.