Words and photos by Gordon Columbine

He made his name as an outlaw racer, tearing up eighth-mile tracks in the Midwest and Deep South with a blown, small-block ’63 Corvette. But Jason Scruggs became a legitimate doorslammer driving star with the ADRL in 2007 when he became the first door car driver to exceed 200 mph in the eighth mile and followed that up with the ADRL Pro Extreme championship that year and again in 2008.

Several more event wins came for Scruggs before the ADRL folded up shop at the end of 2013. With rival organization X-DRL also failing halfway through last season, it left a void for the lightweight, high-horsepower, purpose-built race cars the ADRL had bred. So Scruggs, along with his father and crew chief, Mitchell, fellow Pro Extreme team owners Roger Henson and Gene Hector, and Pro Nitrous team owner Tommy Franklin, hastily banded together and pooled their resources early this year to create the Professional Drag Racers Association.

This inaugural season for the PDRA includes eight events, with the sixth on Aug. 15-16 at Tulsa Raceway Park. The PDRA features five pro classes: Pro Extreme, Pro Nitrous, Extreme Pro Stock, Pro Extreme Motorcycle and its new Pro Boost division for NHRA-legal, roots blown and turbocharged entries. The series also includes Top Sportsman, Top Dragster and two Jr. Dragster classes, with all nine classes running the eighth mile.

Scruggs, from Saltillo, MS, spoke with DRO at the PDRA race at Virginia Motorsports Park this July about the motivation and challenges associated with running the PDRA and how being a co-owner of a sanctioning body has affected his own racing program.