But Ulsch couldn’t close the deal and lost in the finals to Billy Glidden’s small-block Ford-powered 2006 Pontiac GTO despite a .014 RT. Ulsch’s Camaro overpowered the track, shook the tires and limped to a 4.336/187.47 while Glidden ran a 4.076/176.74.

Ulsch could dominate the class the rest of the year.

Other winners besides Glidden were Mike Janis in Pro Extreme, his second this year, Mike Castellana in Pro Nitrous, Brian Gahm in Pro Stock and, getting his first career ADRL Minuteman, Travis Davis in Pro Extreme Motorcycle. Second generation racer Ty Tutterow got the win in Jr Dragster.

Pro Extreme RESULTS

Once again Jason Scruggs, National Guard ADRL Pro Extreme 2008 champ, was the dominant performer in the class and, as sometimes happens, he just ran out of time and parts before the racing was over.

In a bizarre semifinal matchup against Cody Barklage, Barklage’s Firebird broke a fuel fitting after firing up and was spewing alky down on the track and was shut off by the starter giving Scruggs a bye run to the final. Instead of easing down the track Scruggs hammered the Hemi-powered Camaro to a stellar 3.741/207.18. That pass was crowd-pleasing but costly as Scruggs wounded his Hemi powerplant to the extent that it required at least an hour and a half to repair for the finals. .

In the other semifinal pairing Janis eased by Texan Frankie Taylor with a 3.967/192.66 that easily covered Taylor’s troubled 4.087/178.57.

The final round ended up being a single as the ADRL had told the racers they had 45 minutes to service their cars and bring them back to the line at 10.50 p.m. Scruggs had hurt his second engine of the race and told ADRL officials his team needed an hour and a half. The Scruggs team couldn’t answer the call and Buffalo, NY-based Mike Janis made a single for the dough and the Minuteman trophy.and by the way the second ADRL National Event win for the New York team that publicizes the fact they use a traction control device as a tuning device.  

The unanswered question here is why didn’t Jason Scruggs make a half-pass in the semi-finals  and save his parts for the final round instead of making a near record lap that burned his engine up ?