Salemi Stars In East Coast PDRA Drills

BENSON, N.C. — Melanie Salemi, who kicked off the Summit Racing Equipment PDRA East Coast Nationals presented by FuelTech as the provisional No. 1 qualifier in Pro Boost on Thursday night, held on to the top spot Friday as qualifying wrapped up at GALOT Motorsports Park.

Salemi recorded a 3.615-second pass at 206.29 mph in the screw-blown “Purple Reign” ’68 Firebird to top the list of 28 WS Construction Pro Boost presented by P2 Contracting and Ty-Drive entries at the first of eight races on the 2025 Red Line Oil PDRA Drag Racing Series schedule.

PRO BOOST

Melanie Salemi, a two-time winner of the East Coast Nationals, made it known that she’s chasing a third win at the season opener when she jumped to the No. 1 spot in Pro Boost on Thursday night. Though 27 other drivers attempted to pass her in Friday’s two sessions – and Salemi herself tried to improve – no one went quicker than Salemi’s 3.615 at 206.29 behind the wheel of Eddie Whelan’s screw-blown Al-Lee Installations “Purple Reign” ’68 Firebird tuned by husband Jon Salemi and brother-in-law Jim Salemi with power from Mike Stawicki Racing.

“It never, ever fails – you qualify No. 1, you have to work your butt off to win a race. You qualify No. 16, you have to work your butt off to win a race,” Salemi said. “It doesn’t really matter where you qualify, especially in a field of all these extraordinary cars. We have a lot of competition in PDRA and that’s what drives us to come here. To be able to win a race, you kind of have to throw all your testing and qualifying aside and take each run as you’re given because track conditions change and atmospheric conditions change. We’ll continue to adapt and hopefully that will bring us to another win here at GALOT.”

Two-time and reigning Pro Boost world champion Jason Harris, one of the home track heroes competing in the East Coast Nationals, qualified No. 2 with a 3.623 at 206.80 in his ProCharged Southern Diamond Company “Party Time” ’69 Camaro. Another Brandon Stroud-tuned, ProCharged ’69 Camaro – the “Hells Bells” entry driven by Johnny Camp – qualified third with a 3.631 at 205.44.

PRO NITROUS

Former Elite Top Sportsman standout Tim Paap is accustomed to going fast in his nitrous-assisted Paap Auto Body ’16 Corvette, but he had modest expectations for his Pro Nitrous debut. Teamed up with Killin’ Time Racing and tuner Jeffrey Barker, Paap converted his Elite Top Sportsman entry to Pro Nitrous trim over the offseason to step up to the heads-up, nitrous-only category. Paap went to the provisional No. 1 spot in Thursday’s lone qualifying session, then improved in the second session on Friday. His 3.676 at 204.45 held up as the No. 1 spot through the third session, where multiple drivers stepped up in attempts to unseat Paap.

The father-daughter duo of Tommy Franklin and Amber Denton qualified No. 2 and 3, respectively. Franklin, driving a brand-new, Musi-powered “Jungle Rat 3.0” ’69 Camaro, came just thousandths of a second from taking the top spot with his 3.679 at 204.54 in the final session. Denton, the two-time and reigning Pro 632 world champion who’s making her Pro Nitrous debut, also improved in the final session with a 3.686 at 205.34 in her Musi-powered “OG Jungle Rat” ’69 Camaro.

PRO STREET

Pro Street is the only class that saw a new No. 1 qualifier step up after Thursday’s first session, as Blake Denton jumped up to the top spot in the final session. Wheeling the nitrous-fed “Bonnie” ’69 Camaro formerly driven by the late Lizzy Musi in Street Outlaws: No Prep Kings competition, Denton lit up the scoreboard with a 3.976 at 201.61 to take the top spot from Tim Dutton based on speed. It marked the first time a nitrous car qualified No. 1 in the PDRA Pro Street division.

Along with the No. 1 qualifier bonus check, Denton earned a custom baseball bat trophy from Victus Sports and Kasper Performance Edge.

Dutton, who’s making his PDRA debut in both Pro Street and Pro Boost, qualified No. 2 with a matching 3.976, though he went 190.14 in his ProCharged “Azul” ’19 Corvette. Reigning world champion Ethan Steding qualified third in his roots-blown P2 Contracting “College Fund” ’24 Camaro with a 4.01 at 190.65.

EXTREME PRO STOCK

Two-time and reigning Extreme Pro Stock world champion Chris Powers charged to the No. 1 spot on Thursday evening and kept the position through two more sessions on Friday. Improving on a 4.101 on Thursday and a 4.100 in Friday’s second session, Powers drove his Chuck Samuel-tuned Sonny’s Racing Engines/ATI Performance ’21 Camaro to a 4.099 at 176.26 in the final session to lock in the No. 1 qualifier position. Powers won the East Coast Nationals three times, including his first win in the class.

North Carolina’s own Jeremy Huffman, who qualified No. 1 at DragWars at GALOT last October, qualified second in his 3V Performance-powered ’10 Cobalt with a 4.100 at 175.37. Returning past world champion Alan Drinkwater recorded a 4.103 at 175.75 in his Kaase-powered ’08 Mustang to end up No. 3 on the qualifying order.

PRO 632

Lexi Tanner has won multiple times in Pro 632, including at last year’s season finale, but she entered uncharted territory Friday when she locked in her first No. 1 qualifier award. The past Top Jr. Dragster world champion drove her Musi-powered “Thunder” ’16 Camaro to a 4.201 at 168.58 in Thursday’s first qualifying session. When the third session concluded Friday evening, Tanner’s performance was still the quickest in the class.

Perennial contender Walter Lannigan claimed the No. 2 spot after running a 4.204 at 167.63 in Chris Holdorf’s Nelson-powered ’10 GTO. Multi-time Pro Nitrous winner Chris Rini, pulling double duty this weekend, posted a 4.209 at 167.49 to qualify third in the new Musi-powered ATI Performance ’69 Camaro that stepson Carson Hoyle will drive later this season.

SUPER STREET

The No. 1 qualifying mark Austin Vincent set in the first Super Street qualifying session on Thursday evening couldn’t be topped on Friday. Vincent in his nitrous-fed Vincent Performance ’88 Mustang was the only driver to dip into the 4.50s with his 4.583 at 152.30 to lead two other nitrous cars in the top three. It was Vincent’s first No. 1 qualifier award.

Connor McGee, who won two times in 2024, ripped off a 4.611 at 149.73 in his Fulton-powered Brian’s Heating & Cooling ’90 Mustang to qualify second. Matt Schalow, who’s pursuing his first victory in the class this season, qualified third in his Knieriem-powered ’00 Camaro with a 4.653 at 157.26.

TOP SPORTSMAN

In Elite Top Sportsman, reigning world champion Glenn Butcher held on to the No. 1 spot that he established in Thursday’s first qualifying session. He stepped up by almost a tenth of a second to a 3.742 at 198.90 in his nitrous-fed, Albert-powered Butcher & Son Demolition ’69 Camaro to hold off Bryan LaFlam and Randy Perkinson. LaFlam in his supercharged Big Stuff Total Power Management ’67 Mustang posted a 3.773 at 194.18 to lock in the No. 2 spot. Perkinson, the defending event winner, qualified third with a 3.824 at 189.63 in the ProCharged ’67 Mustang that he debuted with a win last year.

Vonnie Mills came close to qualifying for the 16-car Elite field, but she instead qualified No. 1 in Top Sportsman 48, posting a 4.052 at 179.02 in her nitrous-fed “Show-N-Tell” ’13 Camaro.

TOP DRAGSTER

Jody Stroud laid down a pass in Thursday’s single qualifying session that proved impossible to top for the rest of the Elite Top Dragster field in Friday’s two sessions. Stroud’s 3.691 at 199.14 in his supercharged “Zombie” ’07 Spitzer dragster held up for the No. 1 spot.

Numerous drivers stepped up on Friday, though, with Josh Duggins and Russ Whitlock being the quickest of those drivers. Duggins recorded a 3.73 at 200.29 in his ProCharged Maddox dragster to qualify second, and Whitlock ran a 3.769 at 192.28 in his ProCharged ’08 Race Tech dragster to round out the top three.

Danielle Gonzalez in her Connecticut-based, ProCharged ’23 American dragster used a 3.889 at 191.24 to take the No. 1 spot in Top Dragster 48, just missing out on the 16-car Elite field.