PRO NITROUS

The North-South Shootout trophy in Pro Nitrous had a short journey to its new home in Tommy Franklin’s trophy case in nearby Fredericksburg, Va. The local hero, who recalled a crash at this track eight years ago to the date, was eager to perform well for the home crowd.

As one of the quickest cars throughout qualifying and eliminations, Franklin and his Musi-powered 1969 Camaro made racing look easy. In reality, he was fighting the same conditions as the rest of the field.

“Just racing the racetrack was the biggest concern with the high track temperatures. I had a hard road to go through. I had Tommy Mauney, then Ron Muenks, then Stevie Jackson, and Travis Harvey in the final. I definitely had the bad side of the ladder,” Franklin claimed.

Franklin used a 3.834 and 3.793 to dispatch Mauney and Muenks, then ran a 4.127 against Jackson’s 4.78, making up for Franklin’s loss to “Stevie Fast” in the Pro Nitrous Shootout final round on Friday night. Finally, a 3.814 at 202.21 was enough to beat Harvey for the second time of the weekend.

“I beat Travis in the first round of the shootout, then Stevie beat me in the final round of the shootout. There was a little bit of redemption there for me to be able to beat Stevie in the semifinals,” Franklin said, thanking his crew and the Good Lord for the opportunity to race.

Lizzy Musi drove her Frank Brandao-owned Dodge Dart to a 3.758 at 204.48 to top the Pro Nitrous qualifying. With a powerplant from her father, Pat, and online tuning assistance from defending Pro Nitrous world champion Rickie Smith, Musi overcame traction issues to power the Drag 965/Lucas Oil machine to the top.