A second evening of heavy pop-up rain storms forced Professional Drag Racers Association (PDRA) officials to push Saturday eliminations for the PDRA Summer Nationals Ignited by Lithium Pros Batteries into Sunday. Racing will resume at 9 a.m. at South Georgia Motorsports Park to complete the all-eighth-mile series’ fourth of eight races.
“We were all worried about the heat when we came to South Georgia in June, but this time of year also comes with these pop-up showers and thunderstorms,” said Tyler Crossnoe, race director, PDRA. “We hate to push things to Sunday. We know it’s a long drive for a lot of people. But Sunday is our rain date at the PDRA and we’re going to have to utilize it. We explored other options, such as pushing it to the next race, but we feel this is the best decision for the series.”
The series was preparing to go into the first round of eliminations for its professional categories after starting racing in the sportsman classes. Efforts to dry the track were stopped twice, leading race officials to push racing into Sunday.
“We’ll start at 9 a.m. with Pro Boost and continue through the first round of the rest of the pro classes,” Crossnoe said. “We’ll run it as fast as we can and we’ll wrap up by early afternoon as long as everything runs smoothly. We want to get teams on the road as soon as possible.”
The professional class low qualifiers going into Sunday eliminations are Daniel Pharris in Moroso Pro Boost, Randy Weatherford in Switzer Dynamics Pro Nitrous, John Montecalvo in Liberty’s Gears Extreme Pro Stock, Walter Lanningan Jr. in Schwing America Pro Outlaw 632 presented by East Side Auto Transport, and Eric McKinney in Drag 965 Pro Nitrous Motorcycle.
Eliminations started in the PDRA’s sportsman classes: MagnaFuel Elite Top Sportsman, Top Sportsman 32, Lucas Oil Elite Top Dragster, Top Dragster 32, Coolshirt Pro Jr. Dragster presented by Knoxtown Products, Gilbert Motorsports Top Jr. Dragster and Edelbrock Bracket Bash.
Spectators who attended Saturday qualifying at the PDRA Summer Nationals can return for Sunday free of charge with a valid Saturday wristband. Otherwise, Sunday spectator passes will be available at the gate for $20.
This story was originally published on June 29, 2019. 
