Reigning Pro Extreme Champ Jason Scruggs and his ‘Vette were conspicuous in their absence from this event. The Scruggs family business in Tupelo, MS, was struck by a tornado just prior to their leaving for the race. No one was hurt but the family business was severely damaged.
“I owed Quain that one,” Hernandez said, referring to a final-round loss to Stott at the same track two years ago. “We were ready for him. I knew it was going to run a good number because once Jimmy and the boys found the right tune-up for the hot track they weren’t going to let go.”
Despite being embroiled in controversy at times, Billy Harper retained his focus and drove to a new ADRL elapsed time record and the Pro Nitrous win.
In Pro Nitrous action Billy Harper, a former Kentucky gubernatorial candidate dominated the class despite some early qualifying drama. He had his first qualifying attempt disallowed after dragging either the transmission or engine “bag” of his 2001 Viper through the timing lights, but after fixing that issue he and tuner Dennis Radford put together an excellent 3.95-second pass to secure the top spot and unofficially set a new class E.T. record in the third and last session.
In the second round of eliminations running against teammate Radford, Harper had another stellar ET disallowed by the ADRL staff again due to something under the Viper tripping the timing equipment, but his win was allowed to stand and he was permitted to continue. In the semi’s Harper ran a verified 3.94 against Randy Weatherford that lowered the existing record. That ET eventually served as the required within one percent back-up ET to set a new ADRL national record of 3.93 at 186.67 mph with his win over 2005 ADRL Pro Nitrous world champion Dan Parker in the final.
“We faced some adversity this weekend, but our team led by Dennis Radford’s tune-up did a great job,” Harper said of his career-first ADRL win. “Hopefully, we’ll be doing this again soon.”
Washington, Georgia’s Mike Hill was one of two number-one Pro qualifiers who also managed to pull off a race win. After relatively easy victories over Elliott Thompson and reigning class champ Steve Gorman, Hill used a better reaction time to overcome the E.T. advantage of Michelle Wilson in the semi-finals. That set up a titanic clash for the final between Hill and long-time rival Steve Kirk Jr., who earlier established a new class E.T. record of 4.26 seconds in his debut with a new ’63 Corvette.
Unfortunately, it was over at the starting line as Kirk’s engine suffered problems with its nitrous system while Hill streaked to the win in 4.28 seconds at 173.61 mph.
“This feels really good. We were breaking little things on the car just about every run, so we really had to work hard for it,” Hill said. “This was not an easy win, that’s for sure, but I think that makes it that much better.”