Photo courtesy Roger Richards/PDRA
The Extreme Pro Stock contingent — more widely referred to as Mountain Motor Pro Stockers — have spent the better part of the last five to six years flirting with the three-second zone, as various racers have clocked runs within mere thousandths of a second of the long-awaited naturally-aspirated barrier at one time or another. This weekend, the class seemed poised to get it done, given Disney Land-like atmospheric conditions on tap with corrected density altitudes hovering just above sea level — and at times, a couple hundred feet below it — at the PDRA’s season-ending World Finals at the Virginia Motorsports Park.
On Thursday afternoon in pre-race testing, Wilmington, North Carolina’s Jeff Dobbins proved those premonitions correct, as he blasted to a 3.988-second run at 181.62 mph in his 2014 Dodge Avenger powered by a monstrous 830 cubic-inch Chrysler Hemi-based powerplant. Dobbins’ effort set the Extreme Pro Stock pits, and the internet, ablaze, as not only did he bust into the threes, but he did so in what weren’t even the best conditions the racers would see during the weekend. The run, however, did not occur in official competition, making it null and void as far as the record books go; but make no mistake, Dobbins went into the threes.
Photo courtesy PDRA
During Friday evening’s qualifying session, with the air some 250-foot below sea level, one racer after another failed to navigate their way to a sub-four-second run, many shaking the tires or driving out of the groove — a result of additional atmosphere-induced horsepower and perhaps a few ‘hot’ tune-ups aiming for that 3.99. Dobbins did, however, capture the No. 1 qualifying position during that session with what was, given the conditions, a disappointing 4.010-second effort and held it through the remainder of qualifying.
With that, the Extreme Pro Stock brigade and their three-second aspirations (no un intended) will likely have to wait for next season; but if you ask Jeff Dobbins, the deed has been done.
