The Southern Nationals signals the beginning of the final leg of the 2019 PDRA season, and that means racers need to make sure they’re in a good position to challenge for a world championship. Pro Nitrous veteran Chris Rini has been in the hunt all year and rides into South Georgia Motorsports Park sitting in the third spot in points. He hopes to use the Southern Nationals as a springboard to launch him into the top position in points.

So far the 2019 season has been good to Rini and his ATI-backed Camaro. Being able to use what he learned during the 2018 PDRA campaign allowed him to make adjustments coming into this season and car has responded. So far, Rini has been a top-four car at every race he’s attended and run low ET for the round several times.

“It’s been a good 2019 season, it’s been our best start in years. We have a car that’s performing well with the help of Brandon Switzer. He’s made some changes in our nitrous program with our manifold and tune-up. We are using MoTech with fuel injection along with all the Switzer products. ATI has been improving our TH400 transmission and provided a nearly bulletproof lock-up transmission,” Rini says.

Another key to Rini’s success this year is the 959 cubic-inches of Buck Racing Engines power under the hood of his car. After spending last year trying to get a handle on the new engine package, Rini and Buck have got the engine working well in 2019.

“We went over to the 959 cubic-inch engine last year and struggled with it a bit. That came from the newness of it and trying to figure out what it liked. Charlie Buck has been instrumental in getting our 959 cubic-inch program running well. Being able to put more nitrous volume into more cubic inches has helped us so much to compete at a higher level. We’ve got a handle on it now with the help of good people like Total Seal, ProFab, ATI, and Jerry Bickel keeping the car updated things are going great,” Rini explains.

The Summer Nationals will be a test for every tuner and driver in the Pro Nitrous division due to the challenging conditions they will encounter. The weather will be hot and SGMP isn’t a track that these teams race at often, so gathering data during testing will be vital to a solid race day performance.

“We’re heading to Georgia with high hopes and a good hot weather tune-up. Going to this race you know it’s going to be hot and everybody has to race in those same conditions. We’re going to try and go as fast as we can based on the conditions. With the race schedule, you have to be able to race well in both the daytime and nighttime, so if you can get past the first round you’ll be in good shape,” Rini says.

The PDRA Southern Nationals is going to bring the action to South Georgia Motorsports Park June 27-29. You won’t want to miss Chris Rini and the rest of the PDRA’s stars battle it out in the Peach state. All of the racing will be broadcast live RIGHT HERE on SpeedVideo.com. This broadcast is brought to you by presenting sponsor Edelbrock along with, Lunati, Lithium Pros, ATI Performance Products, COMP Cams, TCI, Flying A Motorsports, Jerry Bickel Race Cars, and Speedway Motors.

Photos Provided By: Black Rock Photography