EXTREME PRO STOCK

Buddy Perkins (near lane) took the XPS win over John Pluchino.

The starting line at Virginia Motorsports Park was full of emotion when Virginia’s own Buddy Perkinson turned on the win light over John Pluchino in the Extreme Pro Stock final round. Perkinson was driving for team owner Enoch Love, who was fielding a car for the first time since 2011 when his former driver, Bert Jackson, succumbed to injuries sustained at a race in Rockingham, NC.

“I knew we had a very good engine and the right parts, but I don’t think anyone had the expectation to come out and have a weekend like we did,” Perkinson admitted. “It was more about just getting back to the track. It’s been about five years since E. Love last fielded a car. It was a very emotional deal. A lot of people came together to help get the car ready.”

Perkinson qualified 11th and earned an opening round holeshot win over Elijah Morton, courtesy of a perfect .000 reaction time. His performance picked up in his following victories over Frank Gugliotta and Doug Kirk, eventually running a weekend-best 4.077 to defeat Pluchino’s 4.096 in the final round.

“It was really a storybook weekend, a really cool deal for E. Love and all of the original crew members who were around when Bert Jackson was driving.”

The Extreme Pro Stock victory was the second win of the weekend for Perkinson, who drove his family-owned Camaro to the Top Sportsman win in the rain-delayed Bradenton event.

“You don’t have very many races like that in drag racing, especially in the PDRA where the competition is so tough. I was feeling good about our chances on Thursday – we were going down the track and making the right calls. We got lucky in the final round. The car didn’t shift and (Dan) Ferguson went red. I think you need to be good when you need to be good, but you gotta’ have a little lucky every now and then,” laughed Perkinson, who thanked parents Mark and Terri Perkinson, crew chief Christian Thompson, and crew member Brian Terrell, as well as XPS team owner Enoch Love and his team for the opportunity to drive the Pro Stock car.

OUTLAW 10.

Canadian driver John Carinci (near lane) proved that he had the car to beat all weekend long, qualifying number one and marching past opponents Brian Weddle, Jesse Lambert, and Martin race winner Frank Pompilio before lining up against Ron Green in the final round. Green left the starting line first, but Carinci powered to a 4.032 at 195.53 to set low ET of the weekend and take the Outlaw 10.5 win.