Frequent pop-up rain showers prevented Professional Drag Racers Association (PDRA) officials from completing Friday qualifying at the PDRA Summer Nationals Ignited by Lithium Pros Batteries at South Georgia Motorsports Park. The all-eighth-mile series finished one of three scheduled qualifying sessions in all professional and sportsman classes, as well as two sessions in the Jr. Dragster classes.
“We’ve been battling weather issues all season, and this weekend isn’t any different,” said Tyler Crossnoe, race director, PDRA. “We were about to go into two pretty awesome night sessions before the rain started popping up. We have another chance of this (rain showers) tomorrow afternoon and we’re doing everything we can to get ahead of it so we can crown champions here at the Summer Nationals.”
After the lone qualifying session, the provisional low qualifiers in the professional classes are Daniel Pharris in Moroso Pro Boost, Jim Halsey 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.
The PDRA’s sportsman classes were in the staging lanes for their second session when the rain started. The provisional low qualifiers are Erica Coleman in MagnaFuel Elite Top Sportsman, Buddy Perkinson in Top Sportsman 32, Brian Bednar in Lucas Oil Elite Top Dragster and Bill Fordyce in Top Dragster 32.
The Jr. Dragster classes were able to run two qualifying sessions Friday afternoon. The leaders going into final qualifying are Aaron Reynolds in Coolshirt Pro Jr. Dragster presented by Knoxtown Products and Alyssa Rabon in Gilbert Motorsports Top Jr. Dragster.
Qualifying at the PDRA Summer Nationals Ignited by Lithium Pros Batteries will resume Saturday at 10 a.m. with Edelbrock Bracket Bash time trials, followed by the final qualifying session for Jr. Dragsters.
“After Jr. Dragsters, we’ll finish Q2 for Top Sportsman and Top Dragster, then go into the second qualifier for pros and we’re going racing right after that,” Crossnoe said. “We’re hoping to be into Q2 for pros by 11:30, starting eliminations at 1 and we’ll try to get it done as quick as we can so we can get ahead of the forecasted rain showers. Pro eliminations will start around 2 pm.”
Additional updates regarding the event schedule can be found at www.PDRA660.com and www.Facebook.com/pdraracing.
This story was originally published on June 28, 2019. 
