PRO EXTREME

The Pro Extreme class at Rockingham featured racers and cars that have “stretched” the application of what few rules the class has and the result is the quickest, fastest, unpredictable and most ill-handling door cars ever built.

Jason Scruggs  (Ian Tocher photo)

Pro Extreme winner Tutterow, from nearby Yadkinville, NC, had neither the quickest nor fastest car in either qualifying or racing all weekend, qualifying his GALOT Racing '69 Camaro just 12th in NAS Racing Pro Extreme and posting the slowest pass among the winners through each of four rounds of racing. Polesitter Jason Scruggs led the 16-car qualified field with a best of 3.54 at 217.42 mph but the quickest ET of the meet honors (3.526) went to Pro Extreme racer R. Buhumaid and Top Speed honors (227.94) was by turbocharger racer J. Gonsalez.

"We kind of got lucky," Tutterow acknowledged. "We struggled all weekend here with this car but we made it to the final and I've always said if you can make it to the final you've got a chance to win the race and that was definitely true here this weekend."  

The opening round of eliminations was ran Saturday night with the event being concluded on Sunday. In Saturday’s first round Pro Extreme Tutterow went 3.66 to easily beat Wesley Jones’s .41 Studebaker. Jones had his hands full just keeping his tire-spinning, wall-hunting '41 Willys between the guard walls at Rockingham Dragway.

Round two of eliminations began Sunday and “King Tut” slowed to a 3.710/210.41 against the '71 Mustang of fellow North Carolinian Terry “Leg bone” Leggett, who shut off when the tires spun just off the starting line. . That set up a semi-final match between "King Tut" and Jose Gonzalez of the Dominican Republic. In the previous round posted a 3.61 pass at an astounding 227.84 mph that marked the highest speed ever attained by a doorslammer race car over an eighth mile.

Gonzalez ran into traction problems in the preferred right lane, though, allowing Tutterow to advance to the final with a 3.72 run at 209.07. Waiting for him was Buhumaid, who started from the number-three position and set low ET of the meet with a 3.52-seconds blast at 217.39 mph in his Friday-night win over David Reese. Buhumaid then defeated teammate Bader Ahli in round two with a 3.58, the quickest run of the round, before ousting defending class and PDRA National Champion Bubba Stanton from the semis with another 3.58 pass.

It looked like Buhumaid was poised to score his second PDRA victory after securing his career first at the series' opener last month at the Texas “Plex”. Perhaps feeling a little pressuer Buhamaid “bulbed” and had a terrible (-.084) negated his third 3.58 in a row and allowed Tutterow to coast to the win in 4.63 seconds at just 111 miles per hour.