PDRA Season Opener: One To Remember

In a time where we have become quite complacent with most things that happen at the dragstrip, the season opener racing for PDRA at Galot Motorsports Park was one that will not soon be forgotten.

PDRA was the last major series to finally kickoff the 2022 year, and the team at PDRA, along with Galot certainly didn’t disappoint over the weekend. After a few large events, along with NHRA, Mid-West, NMCA, & NMRA all having their season openers in February and March, it was PDRA’s turn to show us what they are bringing to the table in 2022.

As I am sure most of you have seen on the interwebs throughout the weekend of the event, the weather did not want to play nice. Weather seems to be an ongoing theme with drag racing this season. At the Gators the rain was an issue, at Mid-West it was wind, and at PDRA it was the old adage “I’ve seen fire and I’ve seen rain”. Added to the rain was unseasonably cold temps that make for an interesting weekend.

Never deterred, Tyler Crossnoe and his team did the best to provide everyone on the property with the experience and specticle that is drag racing. The surface appeared to be on point all weekend for the competitors, and based on the numbers we saw, I would say it was mission accomplished.

The rumblings on Friday when we got into qualifying all seemed to revolve around how low of an ET Melanie Salemi would light the boards with. She and her team out of New York didn’t disappoint either. With their roots blower making all that power, they were able to set what is surely a new standard for that combination when she lit the boards and wrapped up qualifying in the top spot at 3.568. She appeared to have the field covered by a country mile, but that’s why we go through eliminations. Her qualifying effort allowed her to end up facing off against the North Carolina machine of Stan Shelton, who just a couple of weeks ago lit up the boards in Texas at the Mid-West Drag Racing Series season opener with his own high 3.50’s passes. This time though, it came down to the starting line, and Stan snapped off an .010 light to Melanie’s .057 light. That was all Stan needed, as he landed down a 3.602 to Melanie’s quicker 3.570.

This wasn’t Stan’s first holeshot win of the day actually. Stan faced off against former NHRA Pro Mod World Champion Steve Jackson in the first round and snapped off a .008 light with a 3.63 pass to defeat Stevie 3.62 hit. Another 3.60 pass in the semifinals and Stan was headed to the finals in Pro Boost. On the other side of that ladder was the Pro Mod Legend, and arguably one of the most well-respected door car drivers in history, Mr. Todd Tutterow, better known at King Tut. Todd’s road to the finals including a first round victory over Rob Cox, a second round heavyweight bout between he and Jason Lee that included Jason having a .000 light to Todd’s .009 light, and then a semifinal throwdown with John Camp. In the semifinals, it was a double red-light when Camp with -.021 to Todd’s -.002 sending Todd to tangle with Stan in the finals. Stan yet again had his opponent beat on the tree when he left an .036 to Todd’s .057, but at the top end it was Todd’s 3.588 that toppled Stan’s 3.610.

Jim Halsey, who has been the dominate force in Pro Nitrous over the last few seasons, came into this 2022 season with the goal of yet another championship. If you were there for qualifying, you’d think that Jim is well on his way to yet another championship in Pro Nitrous. If I told you that Jim Halsey qualified number one with a 3.65 you’d have no problem believing me. What if I told you that Jim lost first round to the number 16 qualified car of Cam Clark, who qualified with a 3.85? You’d call me a liar and tell me there is no way that happened. Well, you’d be mistaken, as that is exactly what happened on Saturday. Issues caused Jim to slow to a 4.17, while Cam cruised down, ripping off a 3.81 pass to secure a first round win.

A first round exit by Jim Halsey and a second round exit by Tommy Franklin left the door wide open for a number of competitors looking to sure up their place at the end of the season opener. On one side of the ladder it was Mike Achenbach, who had qualified number 5 and disposed of names like Dane Wood, Chris Rini, and Jason Harris, in his run to the finals. On the other side of things it was the rockstar Jay Cox and his Pumpkin who were just rolling right along. Jay qualified number 3 before heading into an eliminations that saw him John Vergotz, teammate Marcus Butner, and number 10 qualifier Fredy Scriba, before a final round rendezvous with Achenbach. Mike had Jay on the tree and never looked back. Something caused Jay to be well off the pace and only muster a 4.36 to Mike’s 3.66.

820 cubic inch engines with a clutch. If you haven’t seen or heard a mountain motor pro stock car you are missing out. PDRA’s Extreme Pro Stock might be one of the most pure forms of ecstasy in the world. There are no power adders involved in this game, just a place where size matters and so does ability. Over the weekend there were 16 cars that came to play in the world of Extreme Pro Stock in Galot. A ton of things happening in that class. The Voss team showed up with their new entry that they picked up just a few weeks ago in Iowa. A figure head that we thought wouldn’t be out this season, John Montecalvo, who sold his car in the off-season, showed up wheeling the Roy Hill Drag Racing School entry. Most of the talk outside of new entries and the health of the class was if we were going to see that elusive three second pass.

Unfortunately the three second pass will have to wait until another race, as we didn’t see it at Galot. What we did see though was last years World Champion Chris Powers get around names like Morton and Gillig in a quest to be in the finals of the season opener. On the flip-side it was Justin Kirk, who defeated both JR Carr and Tommy Lee in route to his finals. Justin nailed the tree but then had issues and left the door wide open for Chris. Taking full advantage, Chris popped off a 4.014 at 178 to secure the victory!

I could go on and on talking about what a weekend it was in Galot. The fact that it was April and I was wearing overalls and an insulted Carhartt jacket most of the weekend should give you an idea of how cold it was. The PDRA did a great job on the season opener. The fans were loving it, the action was great, you couldn’t have asked for much more but some warmth.

The next event for E3xtreme on site with be in Memphis for the second stop of the MWDRS. In the mean time, here is a full list of the finals and winners from PDRA Galot:

Pro Boost: Todd Tutterow over Stan Shelton

Pro Nitrous: Mike Achenbach over Jay Cox

Extreme Pro Stock: Chris Powers over Justin Kirk

Pro 632: Alan Drinkwater over Walter Lannigan Jr.

Pro Nitrous Motorcycle: Chris Garner-Jones over Jeff House

Pro Street: Tim Essick over Nick Agostino

Elite T/S: Steve Drongowski over Chris Nyerges

Top Sportsman: Doug Crumlich over Nick Meloni

Elite T/D: Steve Furr over Mike Cooke

Top Dragster: Tisha Wilson over Nick Meloni

Pro Jr. Dragster: Bladen Core over Justin Kerby

Top Jr. Dragster: Carter Jackson over Reese Corker

Bracket Bash: Nathan Tanner over Cody Strickland