After three years of developing an engine, chassis, and clutch combination that often had the rest of the Pro Extreme field dominated by at least two-tenths of a second and nearly ten miles per hour, Mitchell had problems making it four rounds on raceday. Jason and his crew finally found a way to keep the clutch in their ‘Vette for four-straight rounds of competition. As a result, they were the only team that did the “double” at the ‘Plex winning both the season Championship and the World Finals. Scruggs finished his stellar weekend with a 3.870 to 3.933 win over Joey Martin in the Pro Extreme final.
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Scruggs came to the event with a clear performance advantage, but as the weekend rolled on more and more drivers stepped up their performances in an effort to get competitive with the Scruggs juggernaut.
Although the World Finals Pro Extreme field wasn’t an all three-second affair as Dragstock IV had been, Texan Gene Hector’s 4.031 bump number was the only one not under three seconds. While no other car except Scruggs’s Tommy Mauney-built Hemi-powered ’63 ‘Vette ran in the 3.70/200 mph range, several cars and drivers came close. Bubba Stanton and Frankie Taylor both ran low 3.80’s. Stanton reportedly was using nitrous injection with his supercharger for the first time joining Dwayne Watkins in that category. Legendary Pro Mod tuner Jim Oddy was advising Taylor, who ran a career best 3.81/197 in the semi-finals. Watkins, using “Big Chief” Chevy power, ran a 3.95/185.
Oregonian Dennis Radford got his first career ADRL Pro Nitrous national event win driving his Larry Jeffers-built, wedge-powered ’70 Cuda to a string of low-4-second passes for the win while the Pro Nitrous three-second hitters, Jim Halsey, Shannon Jenkins, Terry Murphy, and Doug Riesterer, fell in eliminations.
Both Texas racer Riesterer and Missouri’s Terry Murphy overpowered the concrete in the semis, coasting to five-second-plus laps while Radford and runner-up Terry Savell made low four-second laps for their wins.
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It should be noted that Radford beat his team owner, Billy Harper, in the first round on a holeshot .004 win. Radford wrapped up the title with a 4.00 to 4.37 win over second alternate Savell in the final. Charles Carpenter was the first alternate but had a broken engine. Savell was attempting to join Brian Daniels (Huntsville, 2006) as the only alternate to ever win an ADRL event title.
Mike Hill avenged his Friday loss in the Battle for the Belts to claim his first Extreme 10.5 title on Saturday. Hill out powered everyone and left on two of his three opponents Saturday. He had low ET of every round and ran the quickest eighth-mile pass on 10.5W tires with a 4.266/173.30 to 4.507/167.20 final-round win over Kenny Kneece, who lost his second straight ADRL final. Hill beat Michael Neal (the only racer to qualify for two classes at this event; he also qualified in Pro Extreme) and David Janes. Janes set Top Speed for the class at 178.56 mph in winning the first round over Bill Jewett.
Ron Clark, the No. 2 qualifier, held off No. 13 Brian- Carr to win the 16 bike Pro Extreme Motorcycle division, 4.29 to 4.36. Both riders were competing in their first career ADRL final rounds.
The World Finals held no surprises. Once again the venue was filled (although the Motorplex was not expecting a crowd and only opened one side of the grandstands). Nonetheless, over 35,000 tickets were used over the two-day period according the ADRL president Kenny Nowling.
The Pro Extreme cars just keep getting faster and now we are beginning to see nitrous and supercharged combinations. Nitro can’t be far away. Brad Personett continues to show that six-cylinder “sport compacts” can compete. Chassis and engine builders at the event say more and more of their customers are ordering cars and engines just to race the eighth-mile ADRL circuit. Evidently “No Performance Rules” is Good Rules.
There was not a single engine failure or crash at the race. How often does that happen when they race the full quarter at the ‘Plex? There wasn’t a bad seat in the house as the stands extended to the end of the eighth-mile track. The crowd stayed until the last car ran down the track.
The ADRL is on a roll right now and next year ought to bring quicker and faster cars and drivers. I can’t wait.