Pro Nitrous star Lizzy Musi was having a very good weekend until an incident during qualifying. The sophomore driver started out doing her normal burnout and then things went a little wrong when a rear tire hooked at the wrong time and drove her car into the "A" board. The car suffered minor cosmetic damage and although Ms. Musi was a little embarrassed, it was nothing serious. (Jeff Burk photo)

Scruggs, Harvey and Rivenbark Win as Speed and ET Records Fall

Pull quote:  "When it's your day it's your day is all I can say." -- Jason Scruggs

Words and photos by Jeff Burk and Slade Tyree

The Professional Drag Racers Association series, which can boast that it has the quickest and fastest 1/8th mile doorslammers in the world, came to Gateway Motorsports Park located across the Mississippi River from downtown St. Louis, Mo., the last weekend of May.

More than 160 PDRA race teams were on hand for the scheduled two-day, $110,000-purse event that, because of persistent rain, stretched into a three-day affair when the entire Saturday program was lost to rain. Fans that braved the weather were treated to seeing some long-standing PDRA speed and ET records broken in the Pro Nitrous division.

Pro Nitrous winner Travis Harvey ran 3.70's all weekend long and eventually lowered the Pro Nitrous ET record previously held by Tommy Franklin at 3.71 to 3.703 seconds. Veteran Pro Nitrous racer Pat Stoken reset the class speed record at 202.18 mph taking that record away from Lizzy Musi.

PDRA track personnel, led by brothers Cale and Cody Crispe, the organization's nicknamed "Traction Twins, worked tirelessly all weekend to repeatedly dry and prepare what Jason Scruggs called, "probably the best track I've ever raced on." Their efforts obviously paid off.

In PDRA Sportsman class action Ronnie Davis won his second consecutive PDRA Top Sportsman trophy, Lynn Ellison was the winner over a huge field in Top Dragster and Aaron Philpot and David Roloff won titles in PDRA Jr. Dragster competition.