The PDRA rolled into its home track of Virginia Motorsports Park this past weekend for the Travis Mills Foundation PDRA Mid-Atlantic Showdown presented by Red Line Shirt Club. The second stop of the tour saw some big upsets and had some racers making an appearance in the FuelTech Winner’s Circle for the first time.

Switzer Dynamics Pro Nitrous

After struggling over the winter, Marcus Butner and his team regrouped. Butner lined up some preseason and between-race testing to figure out his hot rod. After a second-round loss at the season opener at GALOT Motorsports Park, the car was showing improvement, but was not quite where it needed it to be. Butner and crew unloaded the Butner Construction-sponsored ’69 Camaro known as “Heartbreaker” at VMP this past weekend and had something to prove. During qualifying, he never fell below the fourth spot and ended up as the number two qualifier with a 3.650, only being bested by Tommy Franklin’s 3.648. Five hundredths of a second separated the top five with 19 cars trying to find a spot in the 16-car field. Marcus was able to get wins over Cam Clark, Brian Shrader, and Buddy Perkinson on his way to the finals where he would face class rookie Amber Denton. Butner in his Musi Powered Camaro would be the first off the starting line, and would hold onto the lead all the way to the finish line where he got the win with a 3.639 at 208.55 MPH versus Denton’s slowing 3.772 at 189.95 MPH.

Top Qualifiers: Tommy Franklin 3.648 at 206.99 MPH, Marcus Butner 3.650 at 207.56 MPH, Billy Albert 3.658 at 206.67 MPH.

WS Construction Pro Boost presented by P2 Contracting and TY Drive

As one of the largest classes in the professional categories, Pro Boost had 23 cars on the property this weekend looking to make their way into the 16-car field. After a strong showing at the first race at GALOT, Kurt Steding unfortunately went out first round due to a red light. Steding, in his P2 Contracting ’69 Camaro tuned by Todd Tutterow, made consistent passes to make it into the show. On his way to the finals, he faced James Beading, Gabriel Andino, and John Doc. In the finals, it was Steding in his screw-blown Camaro against the current Pro Boost Champion, Jason Harris, in his ProCharged Camaro. When the tree dropped, Steding was 0.007 on the reaction time, while Harris was a little too quick and turned on the red light. Kurt ran 3.615 at 208.97 MPH to Jason’s 3.637 at 207.15 MPH. Kurt’s run was low E.T. and the fastest MPH of eliminations.

Top Qualifiers: Jason Harris 3.626 at 207.02 MPH, Ed Burnley 3.631 at 205.79 MPH, Preston Tanner 3.637 at 205.72 MPH.

Liberty’s Gears Pro Street presented by Menscer Motorsports

Pro Street is once again becoming one of the classes to watch. With sub-four-second and half-track wheels-up runs, coupled with just about any power adder available, these cars make big power and put down as much as they can on a 10.5-inch tire. As popular as the class has become again, more eyes were on it for this race due to an announcement a couple of weeks ago. Team and car owner, now driver, Fletcher Cox made his PDRA driving debut this past weekend. In testing a week prior to the evet, the car was rumored to make some very respectable runs. The rumors were put to rest once it hit the track at Virginia Motorsports Park. Cox’s Camaro was on rails all weekend and went A to B every time.

Cox was able to qualify number four in his debut and made it all the way to the semi-finals where he would lose on a hole shot to Blake Denton, running 3.951 to Denton’s 3.978. On the other side of the ladder, eyes were on current class champion Ethan Steding. Qualified third, Steding was making his way to the finals by winning against Joe Thomas in the first round, Ron Green in the second, and Tim Essick in the semi-finals. In the finals, it was the number three qualifier, Steding, versus Denton, the number one qualifier. Steding had a huge starting line advantage and carried it all the way for the win, running 3.948 at 192.77 MPH versus Blake’s 3.958 at 195.96 MPH.

Top Qualifiers: Blake Denton 3.962 at 196.70 MPH, Tim Essick 3.977 at 189.71 MPH, Ethan Steding 3.985 at 191.81 MPH.

AED Competition Fuel Systems Extreme Pro Stock Presented By Steven Boone Motorsports

The 800 cubic-inch, naturally aspirated class came into Virginia Motorsports Park with ten cars fighting for the tight eight-car field. At the of the end of qualifying, it was the winner and runner-up from the last race holding the number one and two qualifying spots. Current class champ, Chris Powers, claimed the top spot with a 4.094 at 177.70 MPH. During eliminations, it was a different story, as Jeremy Huffman got the hole-shot win over Powers in the first round. In round two, Alan Drinkwater fell to Steven Boone due to a red light, and Huffman got the win in a close race with Jordan Ensslin. In the finals, it was Huffman and Boone. Huffman has been to the finals several times in the past but has not been able to get the win light. This time, Huffman had a huge starting line advantage and carried the advantage all of the way to the stripe, getting the win over Boone by running low E.T. of the weekend with a 4.085 at 175.41 MPH versus Boone’s 4.125 at 169.44 MPH.

Top Qualifiers: Chris Powers 4.094 at 177.70 MPH, Alan Drinkwater 4.101 at 176.81 MPH, Kurt Neighbor 4.122 at 175.30 MPH.

Pro 632 Presented By PTC Torque Converters

Past class champion, Jeff Melnick led the field of 12 cars in qualifying in the Greenbrier Excavating and Paving-sponsored 2020 Camaro owned by Alan O’Brien. Melnick used consistent lights and runs to make his way to the finals, running 4.194 in the first round and 4.192 in the second round. Kyle Salminen was doing the same thing on the other side of the ladder as he ran 4.220 over George Coleman, 4.210 over Jeff Pittman, and 4.193 over Walter Lannigan on his way to the finals. In the finals, Salminen had a slight starting line advantage and ran low E.T. of eliminations with a 4.185 at 171.40 MPH to get his first PDRA event win.

Top Qualifiers: Jeff Melnick 4.178 at 168.37 MPH, Walter Lannigan 4.184 at 168.68 MPH, Kyle Salminen 4.189 at 175.25 MPH.

Super Street Presented By Brian’s Heating and Cooling

A class that mostly sees the Ford Mustang as the car of choice. There are a few Camaros, David Knight’s clean ’72 Nova, and the 1963 VW Fastback of Brad McBride. Thirteen cars made the trip to see who could get the win at the Mid-Atlantic Showdown. At the end of qualifying, it was Austin Vincent scoring his second consecutive top qualifying spot thanks to a 4.582 at 159.89 MPH. In eliminations, Vincent had a first-round bye, faced Brad McBride in round two, and Conner McGee in the semi-finals. Carson Perry’s team struggled at the last race and unfortunately, had a first-round loss. Perry came to VMP with guns blazing and went quicker every round of qualifying, ending up number three. In the finals, it was another number one qualifier versus number three. Austin Vincent had a killer 0.018 reaction time and ran a 4.625 at 158.63 MPH, while Perry had trouble in the other lane. This was Austin’s first PDRA win and the third racer of the event to make their first appearance in the FuelTech winner’s circle.

Top Qualifiers: Austin Vincent 4.582 at 159.89 MPH, Matt Schalow 4.631 at 156.41 MPH, Carson Perry 4.642 at 153.84 MPH.

Sportsman Results

In MagnaFuel Elite Top Sportsman presented by PAR Racing Engines, reigning champion Glenn Butcher took the number one qualifying spot with his 3.774 at 199.02 MPH. Butcher kept that momentum going for the rest of the weekend as he took the event win over Ron Whitlock.

MagnaFuel Top Sportsman 48 had Vonnie Mills at the top of the sheet for the second race in a row with a 4.066 at 181.15 MPH. In the finals, it was Keith Castle against Jeff Melnick, with Castle getting the win.

Laris Motorsports Insurance Elite Top Dragster presented by Greenbrier Excavating and Paving once again saw Jody Stroud get the number qualifier position with a 3.686 at 201.16 MPH. The finals saw Linzie Coleman face off against Alan O’Brien. O’Brien had problems, and Coleman cruised to the finish line for the win.

Laris Motorsports Top Dragster 48 presented by Derrick Wolfe Trucking had Danielle Gonzalez in the top spot with a 3.893 after qualifying was over. In the finals, it was Nick Meloni against Anthony Bertozzi, with Meloni getting the win.

Paragon JR Dragster presented by PRP JR (7.90 Index) saw a perfect run for the number one qualifier. Emma Crane ran “dead-on” 7.900! Just to show how good these JR’s are, number two and three qualifiers ran 7.901, fourth was 7.902, and fifth was 7.903. The difference between number one and number 32, 0.026. Shane Dailey got the win over Makinze Alexander.

Classic Graphix Top JR Dragster’s number one qualifying spot was held by Ty “Bubba” Smith with a perfect 0.000 reaction time. Jayden Hogan gets the win over Will O’Brien. In Edelbrock Bracket Bash presented by Comp Cams, Nathan Tanner and Rick Raasch made their way to the finals. Tanner had the starting line advantage and ran 4.862 at 137.62 MPH (4.82 dial-in) against Raasch’s 6.657 at 103.03 MPH (6.62 dial in).

In Edelbrock Bracket Bash presented by Comp Cams, Nathan Tanner and Rick Raasch made their way to the finals. Tanner had the starting line advantage and ran 4.862 at 137.62 MPH (4.82 dial-in) against Raasch’s 6.657 at 103.03 MPH (6.62 dial in).

The next stop for the Red Line Synthetic Oil PDRA Racing series will be May 22-24 at Summit Motorsports Park in Norwalk, Ohio, for the American Door Slammer Challenge presented by Callies.