he ADRL’s fifth annual Dragstock event and the third straight at Steve Earwood’s historic Rockingham Dragway was by all measures better than the previous two Dragstock events held at that track.
A record 31,000+ drag fans redeemed their tickets and crowded into the “Rock” Saturday, Sept. 13, for the final. The fans were treated to a record number of entries (123), record-setting performances in almost every one of the four outlaw doorslammer classes and one motorcycle classes that competed at Dragstock V.
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Thanks to an immaculately prepared Rockingham race surface, the fans were witness to some amazing records being set, including a remarkable 4.14 ET record in the Extreme 10.5 class courtesy of Billy Glidden, and an unreal 3.87 ET record in the Pro Nitrous class from the turbocharged small-block Chevy entry of Andy Jensen (turbocharged cars were allowed to compete in the ADRL Pro Nitrous class at the time of the race). Pro Nitrous winner Raymond Matos was the first Puerto Rico-based team and driver to win an ADRL national event and maybe the first in drag racing history.
PRO EXTREME
ADRL’s quickest and fastest class didn’t disappoint the fans or racers at Dragstock. There were 26 Pro Extreme competitors trying to qualify for the 16-car field. By the time qualifying was done, Potts Camp, MS, racer Bubba Stanton was the quickest qualifier with a stellar 3.819/197.33 blast that just dropped defending champ and ADRL ET record holder Jason Scruggs, who mustered a 3.847 into the second qualifying slot in his 2007 Hemi-powered Dodge Stratus. Scruggs did manage to set Top Speed of the meet in the first round of eliminations with a 3.844/200.77 lap.
Unlike last year when it took a sub four-second ET to make this elite race, this year Joe Baker’s 4.004 held up as the bump spot after the final qualifying round, despite the fact that the track yielded enough three-second passes that 15 of the Pro Extreme qualifiers ran 3.99 or quicker.
One of those qualifying in the last session was points leading National Guard entry tuned by Jim and Dave Oddy and driven by Josh Hernandez.
This year there were several bad crashes including one in the Pro Extreme division with R.E. Smith wrecking his Studebaker. It is a testament to the strict ADRL driver safety rules that no one was seriously injured.