Throughout the 2026 PDRA season, 1320 Fabrication Super Street presented by Brian’s Heating & Cooling has been dominated by two of the sport’s top young guns: Austin Vincent and Connor McGee. McGee entered the PDRA Thunder Valley Throwdown leading the points with two event wins on the season, but it was Vincent who took home his second trophy of the year and left Bristol Dragway on top of the standings.
In the final round, Vincent unleashed a 4.583-second pass in his Vincent Performance ‘88 Mustang to easily defeat Amelia, Virginia’s Troy Hill, who was forced to shut his ’00 Mustang off early to a 6.484 at 73.95.
“It’s definitely a big move for us,” Vincent said in the winner’s circle. “They [McGee] did that big wheelie and lost second round, and we were able to capitalize on it. Now we’re 98 points ahead, a little less than a round. This should definitely make for an interesting rest of the season, that’s for sure.”
Despite recent rule changes to both Vincent and McGee’s combinations, including added weight and nitrous adjustments, it didn’t seem to faze either driver. They clocked identical 4.628-second elapsed times in qualifying, with Vincent snagging the No. 1 position based on mph (157.98 to 150.78).
In the first round, Vincent’s opponent, Eric Osteen, was unable to make the call, giving Vincent a bye run. In round two, he used a 4.618 at 151.29 mph to defeat Alabama’s Jackson Henderson, making his PDRA Super Street debut in his ’87 Buick Grand National, who made his best pass of the weekend at 4.722. The win gave Vincent a competition bye into the finals.
“A lot of testing,” said Vincent when asked about adjusting to the rule revisions. “We’ve tested a couple times since Maryland, just trying to find every little thing we can. We showed up here on Thursday and struggled a little bit in testing, but we were able to figure it out between rounds. All the other combos are right there with us, so it’s looking like it’s gonna be a pretty cool end of the season.”
McGee, the reigning Super Street world champion in his Fulton-powered Brian’s Heating & Cooling ‘90 Mustang, fell in round two after riding a massive wheelie and having to pedal the car. The mistake allowed Virginia’s Scott Marshall to take the win in his red ’88 Mustang with a 4.654 at 156.05 mph to McGee’s 4.915 at 147.44.
As Vincent noted, his points lead is still less than a round over McGee, and with just two races remaining on the schedule, the battle is guaranteed to go down to the wire. The two drivers have won every event so far in the 2026 season and are as evenly matched as any two cars in the entire sanctioning body. But at the moment, it is Vincent’s championship to lose.
“It’s just gonna take the same dedication we’ve had the whole season,” Vincent said. “Of course, none of this comes easy for anyone. Everyone works hard out here, and we just got to try to work a little bit harder and stay out front.”
The next race on the Red Line Oil PDRA Drag Racing Series tour will be Drag Wars presented by Big Stuff Total Power Management on August 27-29. It will be the PDRA’s second stop of the season at Galot Motorsports Park in Benson, North Carolina.
This story was originally published on August 12, 2026. 
The post Austin Vincent Earns Second Win of 2026, Leaves PDRA Thunder Valley Throwdown with Super Street Points Lead first appeared on Drag Illustrated.
