PRO EXTREME

Brandon Snider

The NAS Racing Pro Extreme final round featured two of the strongest competitors in the all-eighth-mile series’ quickest and fastest class. Number one qualifier Brandon Snider seemed to have the advantage heading into the final round, but Frankie “Mad Man” Taylor stepped up on the starting line to beat Snider’s 3.54 elapsed time with a 3.57. The margin of victory was .0000, or less than one inch.

“That was crazy, huh? Frankie stole it. I put it in deep and just happened to let go of the button at the right time. My brother (Paul Taylor) put a good tune-up in the thing to where it would go down the track,” noted Taylor, who qualified third with a 3.58 at 209.79 mph.

Frankie Taylor

Taylor’s Corvette started eliminations with a safe 3.65 first-round win over Monte Grace, then dipped back into the fifties to beat logger Terry Leggett. A weekend-best 3.57 earned him a semifinal win over PX points leader Jason Scruggs, who beat Taylor in the final round at the PDRA Texas Nationals last month. The final round against Snider was easily the best race of the weekend, if not one of the best races in the three-year history of the PDRA.

“It was pretty exciting. I didn’t see his car. Usually I can see when we’re side-by-side. I was hoping maybe he hit the tires or something. I saw his scoreboard come up with a 3.54 and I looked up to see what mine ran. It went 3.57 and I was like, how come my win light is on? I said he must have redlighted or something, but they told me I won on a holeshot. I was pretty excited,” Taylor exclaimed.

The patriarch of one of the great racing families in the PDRA, Taylor thanked his brother and tuner Paul, wife Cindy, daughter Emily, crew member Jeremy, and son Scottie, who was actually the first Taylor to win a PDRA race.

“I’ve won in the ADRL, I’ve won in the XDRL, I’ve won across the pond over in Qatar, but this is my first win with the PDRA. My boy, Scottie, has two of them (in Junior Dragster). I finally got one.”