PDRA Extreme Pro Stock veteran Elijah Morton has his eyes on the ultimate prize: a world championship in the series’ challenging all-motor division. Trying to secure that title has proven to be a slippery slope, but Morton has all the tools he needs to scale the Extreme Pro Stock mountain. Coming into the PDRA Drag Wars event at GALOT Motorsports Park, Morton is prepared to grind his way into the winner’s circle by staying as consistent as possible.

Morton kicked off his 2018 campaign in Extreme Pro Stock with a win at the first PDRA event of the year. His Mustang was the model of perfection, capitalizing on outstanding track conditions and providing repeatable performances each round. At the second stop of the PDRA season, Morton went to the final round but fell short when he experienced fuel system issues courtesy of a faulty fuel regulator.

Since those first two races, Morton has been able to stay within striking distance of points leader John Pluchino, only trailing by eight points.

“The reason we do this is to win races and championships, so we’re in a good spot right now. The next three races are going to be critical and we’re going to do everything we can to make a move towards the points lead,” Morton explains.

Being locked in such a tight points race like this requires nerves of steel from both the driver and team. Having a razor-sharp focus allows the team to extract the most out of every opportunity to gain points and have nearly mistake-free races. Morton is perfectly fine with this and believes his team has a great approach for this situation.

“We take it one round at a time and we don’t get too aggressive. You’re going to win by going down the track each time and I have to concentrate on the driving portion of things. The team provides a great car and it’s my job to get the car down the track for us to be in the hunt. You have to also hope to catch some luck and have the other guy go out earlier than you when you’re chasing someone in points,” Morton says.

Part of the plan that Morton’s team has put together revolves around how consistent they are from round to round. Playing homerun derby may be tempting, but when you have such a small window to get things right it can lead to disaster. To pump up their chances of having consistent performances, Morton’s team spends a lot of time preparing for every event.

“To make sure we’re as consistent as possible we stay the course and do a lot of testing to see what the car likes in different scenarios. Taking all of that information and data, we have setups for different conditions that are on the ragged edge, as well as being a little more conservative to stay consistent. These races are sometimes won by the smallest of margins, so we can’t slow down too much or it will cost us a win. It’s a balance of being safe and going for it at the same time while riding that edge,” Morton says.

Taking the most scientific approach possible is something that Morton and his team pride themselves on. That attention to detail should help pay big dividends since the last time they visited GALOT Motorsports Park the conditions were much different. They’re going to use every page of their playbook to ensure the Mustang does what they want every pass.

“When it comes to these types of conditions there are equations we use for the air and track conditions to see where we need to start at and adjust from with the tune-up on the car. Mike Allen is my engine builder and crew chief, so he understands all of that and will adjust to what we’re given when it comes to conditions to keep the car fast and happy.  Every little thing can change how we put weights in the clutch or adjust the launch to make sure we get down the track,” Morton explains.

Winning a race in Extreme Pro Stock is never easy and Morton believes his team has what it takes to make the final push starting at GALOT to lock in the points championship.

“To win GALOT we need to do what we did at the first race and go rounds. It’s going to take the entire team to beat the tough competition through the setup. We’ve had four different winners at four different races in Extreme Pro Stock this season, so you have to really be consistent and pay attention to the details to win. The driver also is going to have to stay focused and do his job so he doesn’t fall into the games that can be played out there. We’re all friends until we stage, but then shake hands at the end.”

If you like naturally aspirated drag racing at its highest levels you’ll want to check out PDRA Drag Wars at GALOT Motorsports Park September 6-8. SpeedVideo will be covering this event from start to finish RIGHT HERE so tune in to catch all the racing action. This SpeedVideo.com broadcast is brought to you by Jerry Bickel Race Cars, COMP Cams, Moser Engineering, Flying A Motorsports and Penn Grade Oil.