An unpredictable day of Pro Nitrous eliminations at the PDRA North vs. South Shootout presented by Performance Polish at Maryland International Raceway ended with a final-round bye run for three-time and reigning world champion Tommy Franklin. He was set to face Billy Albert in the final round, but Albert couldn\u2019t get his car started for his semifinal bye run. <\/p>\n
Franklin staged his Musi-powered \u201cJungle Rat\u201d \u201969 Camaro and recorded a 3.645-second pass at 207.66 MPH to secure the first end of a Franklin family double-up. His daughter, past Pro 632 world champion Amber Franklin, later won her final round to lock up the father-daughter duo\u2019s third double-up since she made her Pro 632 debut in late 2021. This most recent edition meant a little more since it fell on Father\u2019s Day weekend.<\/p>\n
Tara Bowker photo<\/p>\n
\u201cFirst and foremost, I dedicate this to my dad,\u201d said Franklin, referencing his late father, Roger, who passed in 2022. \u201cHe\u2019s the one that got me into this [drag racing] mess. I don\u2019t regret one bit of it and I\u2019m passing it right down to my daughters. Both of them are out here racing really good and I\u2019m just proud of them.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cMy team is working hard,\u201d added Franklin, who credited engine builder Pat Musi, Jerry Bickel Race Cars, Mark Menscer of Menscer Motorsports, and Red Line Oil. \u201cIt\u2019s just a great program. Our car\u2019s great. Jeff Pierce is awesome on the keyboard. It\u2019s my whole crew, every single one of them. I don\u2019t want to miss one of them, but they\u2019re all awesome. They worked a lot on Friday. We changed some stuff around, trying to make strides, and that\u2019s what we did. This is what we needed.\u201d<\/p>\n
Franklin faced fellow Virginian Dane Wood in the first round, where the two drivers left the starting line together, but Wood slowed to a 5.548 while Franklin set low E.T. of the round with his 3.685 at 207.08. It was an all-Virginia matchup in the next round, as Franklin paired up with past Elite Top Sportsman world champion Buddy Perkinson. Franklin used a 3.679 at 207.62 to drive around Perkinson, who was quicker off the starting line and raced to a 3.732. The Fredericksburg-based driver then fired off low E.T. of the event, a 3.632 at 208.49, to eliminate defending event winner Marcus Butner and his 3.679 in the semifinals.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Tara Bowker photo<\/p>\n
In Pro 632, Amber had to strap into her Musi-powered \u201cOG Jungle Rat\u201d \u201969 Camaro just a few pairs of cars after watching her father solidify his first Pro Nitrous win of the season. The past Pro Jr. Dragster world champion stayed cool under pressure, leaving first by .002 seconds in her third final round of the season and running a 4.128 at 171.69 to beat Walter Lannigan Jr. and his 4.141 at 171.01. The performance stood for low E.T. of the event.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe say it all the time, but doing this as a family is what we do,\u201d Franklin said. \u201cIt\u2019s what we go for, but it\u2019s a lot harder than it looks to park more than one car in the winner\u2019s circle. It means a lot, especially on Father\u2019s Day, to do this with my dad. Thank you to Red Line Oil, Pat Musi Racing Engines, Hoosier Racing Tire, Jerry Bickel Race Cars, Menscer Motorsports, Jeff Pierce, my family, Blake [Denton, fianc\u00e9], and all of our crew. There\u2019s not enough thank-yous to the people that put into this program.\u201d<\/p>\n
As the No. 1 qualifier, Franklin earned a first-round bye run, which she used to record a 4.201 at 170.23. In the second round, she drove around Andy House\u2019s .001 reaction time with a 4.178 at 170.26 to House\u2019s 4.221. Franklin repeated with a 4.178 at 170.41 in the semifinals to eliminate Jayme Thompson and his 4.262.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Tommy moved into the points lead with his win, while Amber extended her points lead when she won. <\/p>\n
This story was originally published on June 16, 2024. <\/p>\n
The post Tommy, Amber Franklin Dish on Third Pro Nitrous, Pro 632 Double-Up on Father\u2019s Day Weekend<\/a> first appeared on Drag Illustrated<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" An unpredictable day of Pro Nitrous eliminations at the PDRA North vs. South Shootout presented by Performance Polish at Maryland International Raceway ended with a final-round bye run for three-time and reigning world champion Tommy Franklin. He was set to face Billy Albert in the final round, but Albert couldn\u2019t get his car started for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-94070","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94070","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=94070"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94070\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94070"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94070"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94070"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}