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The PDRA tour stopped at its home track at Virginia Motorsports Park for the 5th race of 2021 and was the hottest (temperature wise) one to date. The Summer Shootout media graphic was spot on with track temps reaching above 150 degrees making it difficult to predict, although the VMP crew did what they always do, delivered the best racing surface that could be expected.
Sweltering temperatures persisted throughout qualifying on Friday and into the first two elimination rounds on Saturday, until a torrential thunderstorm halted racing until Sunday morning.
The action intensified during qualifying, building up to the final qualifier. Nighttime brought about better temperatures and allowed teams to make significant changes to tune ups resulting in swift changes to the qualifying ladder.
Just like the race before, it was Johnny Camp all the way in qualifying, who claimed top spot in all three qualifiers and finished with a 3.651 to No. 2 qualifier Kevin Rivenbark’s 3.690 ET!
The full qualifying sheet saw three racers just outside the field but all Proline teams were set to race Saturday.
The weather didn’t get any better for eliminations on Saturday. Luckily, the Proline team didn’t meet each other in the first Round with four teams getting through to the 2nd Round:
By the time Round 2 came about the skies were looking more and more ominous and the PDRA Racing crew made every effort to speed things up to get this round in before the torrential rain and winds hit the track.
Photo by: Roger Richards
This round resulted in two of the four Proline teams bowing out and the two Galot Motorsports entries continued on to the Semi Final:
And then the rain and wind came in hard, postponing the rest of racing until Sunday. It was so bad that teams were scrambling to secure awnings and tents and getting cars into trailers as quickly as possible.
Sunday’s weather was a little better and not so humid as Saturday. The two Galot Motorsports cars and the two P2 Racing cars were paired against each other, and the numbers were faster than the previous day.
Kevin Rivenbark just got over Daniel Pharris in an awesome semi-final between the teammates. The margin of victory was just .019!!
In the final round Kevin Rivenbark got to face off against Todd Tutterow from the P2 Racing team and it was full of excitement and anticipation.
Kevin left 2nd with a .036 light but caught Todd early as the blown Camaro shook and got out of the groove, handing the win to Rivenbark’s 3.653 ET to Tutterow’s 5.067.
The win extended Rivenbark’s lead in the Championship by 210 points over Todd Tutterow and 398 over Johnny Camp with 3 races to go!
See ya’ll at Maple Grove Raceway in PA.
