“I knew he (Rini) was right there with me, but the old ‘Warbird’ pulled through again,” Harris said. “We had everything thrown at it for that round, too, because we really wanted to finish this season with a win. I can’t say enough about my crew chief Robert Hayes and all my guys about how hard they all worked at this all year. To make it to every single final was pretty amazing and way more than any of us would’ve hoped for or even thought possible. This is a pretty special year.”

Brandon Snider of Atmore, Ala., also enjoyed a good year, especially at VMP where he won both visits by the PDRA in July and October. For the Championship Finals Snider qualified on top of the 16-car NAS Racing Pro Extreme field with a 3.551-second pass.

When race day finally arrived, Snider’s ’63 Corvette painted a picture of consistency, running a trio of 3.59s in defeating Gene Hector (no show), Mustafa Buhamaid and Mike Recchia before going 3.586 at 211.26 in the final against number-two starter Jason Scruggs, who, in his first final of the year, made his weakest run of the day at 3.612 and 215.93 mph.

“I’ve changed the way I race this year. Instead of worrying about what my opponent might run and always trying to beat that number, I’ve concentrated this year on getting a good, fast combination that I can repeat without tearing a lot of stuff up. I knew Jason could probably run another 3.56, but I planned for a .58 and told him he’d have to work for it on the tree if he wanted to beat me,” Snider explained.

“It turned out I had a .027 light and he had a .70 or so (.073), but it didn’t matter because he slowed down a little. He was 3.61, so he wasn’t that far back, but I never did see him, probably because of the start I got.”

Snider also vaulted past Scruggs to finish second in points, but on the strength of wins at Rockingham, Valdosta, GA, and Tulsa, OK, this year, Bubba Stanton in the Henson Motorsports ’69 Camaro was named the inaugural PDRA Pro Extreme world champion.

“I have to thank Roger Henson more than anyone for making this happen,” said Stanton, who won a similar title in 2006 with the ADRL. “It’s been a long road back, but my whole crew deserves credit for working hard and getting things done.”

New Jersey’s Anthony DiSomma was the only driver able to pull off the double at VMP and head home with both the Dragstock and Championship Finals trophies. After qualifying number one over 30 entries in Virginia for the 16-car Precision Turbo Pro Boost field with a 3.855 at a new official record 208.20 mph, DiSomma won the Rockingham portion of the weekend in a weird final against Larry Higgenbotham.

With both cars poised to launch, both left the line prior to the starting tree being activated. As announced by PDRA interviewer Brian Olson over the live online feed from the track, with no times or speeds recorded or posted to the track’s scoreboards the two drivers agreed to a rerun the next morning. However, upon official review later that evening by PDRA officials, it was determined Higgenbotham’s ’57 Chevy left first, thus disqualifying him first and automatically awarding the race title to DiSomma—no rerun required.

In Monday’s eliminations, DiSomma beat David Monday, Tommy D’Aprile (no show) and Kevin Rivenbark before facing off against newly crowned class champion Todd Tutterow in the final round. DiSomma’s win in the semis actually decided the PDRA Pro Boost championship as the closest challenger for the title to points leader Tutterow was his teammate, Rivenbark.

DiSomma left with a .057 light in the final and needed almost every bit of the .014 holeshot it gave him as his twin-turbocharged ’67 Mustang ran 3.824 at 207.46 mph to beat the quicker 3.819 at 195.36 by Tutterow in his roots-blown ’69 Camaro by just nine-thousandths of a second.

A pair of first-time winners split the Aruba.com Extreme Pro Stock titles in Virginia as Cale Aronson prevailed on Sunday in the Rockingham final over Richard Penland, who also made it to the Virginia final the next day to score his own career-first class win. Penland also qualified his 2010 Mustang in the number-one slot over the eight-car field with a 4.084-seconds pass at 178.21 mph.

When racing began, Penland dispatched Doug Kirk and John Pluchino from competition before facing off against number-two qualifier Brian Gahm in the final round.