PRO BOOST

Now six times a winner this season, Kevin Rivenbark was primed to bring a second Pro Boost championship to the GALOT Motorsports team. The only driver who could unseat him from the top spot was his teammate, John Strickland, who won the other three races that Rivenbark didn’t win. The two North Carolina drivers faced off in the semifinals from the rain-delayed Bradenton race on Saturday, with Rivenbark taking the round win and the championship with his 3.725 pass. He backed it up with a 3.721 in the final round to beat first-time finalist Marc Caruso and reset the ET world record.

Moving on to the Virginia race, Rivenbark and his Todd Tutterow and Jeff Bohr-tuned 2015 Camaro continued the streak of blistering elapsed times. Rivenbark’s first-round 3.711 reset the world record again in a winning effort over Ric Fleck. Further round wins over the turbocharged entries of Eric Dillard and Rick Hord sent Rivenbark to the final round, where he faced young teammate Ty Tutterow. The son of tuner and veteran driver Todd Tutterow posted a strong run in his Pro Boost debut, but another 3.715 at 200.77 out of Rivenbark’s machine was too much for Tutterow’s 3.763 at 197.97.

“After the first few runs this weekend we realized we could run quick enough to reset the record,” Rivenbark recalled. “When we ran Ty, we were actually shooting for the sixties and it just didn’t happen. Tommy (Franklin) ran a 3.67 right behind us (in Pro Nitrous), so obviously the track conditions were there. We just missed it somewhere. I’ve set the record four times this year. We set it at Tulsa, Rockingham, and then Bradenton. To do it four times in one year…words can’t describe it. All of us at GALOT have had a remarkable year.

“Ty was driving an older car that his dad used to drive. For him to enter his first race in Pro Boost and come out with that kind of success just goes to show how much potential he has,” Rivenbark boasted of his 21-year-old teammate.

Teammates John Strickland (near lane) and Kevin Rivenbark.

The dominant weekend was a fitting way to end the season for Rivenbark and the Earl and Peggy Wells-owned GALOT Motorsports team. Between Rivenbark and Strickland, the team leaves the 2016 season with the world championship, the ET world record, and nine wins in as many races. Strickland also won a National Tractor Pulling Association national championship this season. He finished second in the PDRA Pro Boost championship points.

 

PRO EXTREME MOTORCYCLE

Like Franklin and Rivenbark, Pro Extreme Motorcycle rider Eric McKinney won the race, reset the world record, and won the world championship all in one day. He rolled into Virginia Motorsports Park second in points behind Chris Garner-Jones, leaving the two-time champion to fight down to the wire for the title.

“We just about didn’t qualify at Bradenton and I think I lost first round at the race before that,” McKinney remembered. “It’s been an up-and-down rollercoaster season – going from being a dominant team for the last couple years to chasing and chasing and just getting beat. It was brutal the last couple races, just about enough to take the wind out of your sail.”

The McKinney Motorsports team set their program into overdrive in the tail end of their championship defense season, making an estimated 50 test runs in the last month. Their efforts paid off, as McKinney qualified number one at Virginia and recorded three of the quickest runs of the season – 4.025, 3.997, and 3.986 – in eliminations. The 3.986 at 178.12 in the final round was an ET world record, though McKinney insists he wasn’t expecting such a quick run.

“I went 4.02 first round, then we went into championship mode. After Chris (Garner-Jones) went out first round, I knew I needed to win the race, so our goal was to get down the track every round. The weather and the track conditions came to us, and it just happened. We chased a 3.99 run since we first ran in the threes at Dallas last year. We ran numerous 4.01s or 4.02s, then boom, it happened. Now that Ashley (Owens) has the tune-up figured out, I think common three-second runs won’t be out of the question. To run two of them back-to-back this weekend was pretty impressive.”

McKinney thanked his team – tuner and teammate Ashley Owens, who he was scheduled to run in the final round; father Scott; uncle Steve McKinney; and fiancé Ashley Fischer for their efforts.

“It’s a team sport, and I’m just the fortunate one who gets to ride the motorcycle. Everybody behind the scenes, this is their championship; their race win; their world record. I’m just the guy who gets to ride it, and I don’t think they get enough credit. Everyone does their job well, and that makes my job that much easier because I know my motorcycle will do the job,” McKinney noted.