Few drivers have been as dominant in the Red Line Oil PDRA Drag Racing Series\u2019 sportsman classes as Steve Furr. The Harrisburg, North Carolina-based driver won the first three races of the six-race 2020 season to secure his first PDRA world championship in Laris Motorsports Insurance Top Dragster presented by Greenbrier Excavating & Paving.\u00a0<\/p>\n
[Editor\u2019s Note: This story originally appeared in DI #188, the World Series of Pro Mod Issue, in May\/June of 2024.]<\/em><\/p>\n He added another win in 2021, then two more in 2022 to finish second behind Larry Roberts in the championship hunt. Three more wins and another world championship followed in 2023, so no one was surprised when Furr won the $50,000 Intercontinental Top Dragster Championship held at the World Series of Pro Mod in early March.\u00a0<\/p>\n Furr and 2022 PDRA Top Dragster world champion Tisha Wilson were the last two Top Dragster racers standing after outlasting a field full of PDRA Elite Top Dragster and Top Dragster competitors. Similarly, Intercontinental Top Sportsman Championship winner Tim Molnar and runner-up Ronnie Proctor both represented Team PDRA.\u00a0<\/p>\n Furr got into drag racing right out of college in the early 1990s thanks to his late brother, John Furr, who was a three-time IHRA world champion. Steve collected three IHRA world titles of his own before his brother passed, then won another two after his passing. As IHRA changed its format, Furr started running in NHRA competition, where he still competes. He also started competing in PDRA Elite Top Dragster several years ago, attracted by the ability to run his ProCharged Right Trailers American-built dragster as fast as he wants \u2013 within his dial-in, of course.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cAt the time I started running PDRA, I\u2019d go to four or five races that were close. I got hooked on it,\u201d says Furr, who thanked longtime supporters like Hoosier Tires, VP Racing Fuels, Right Trailers, and PAR Racing Engines. \u201cIt\u2019s a great sanctioning body. They do a great job. A lot of fast cars, which I like. I like going fast. This ProCharger setup has been fun to play with. Over at NHRA, they\u2019ve got us on a limiter. We can\u2019t go but so fast. Being able to run them more open over here is a lot more fun.\u201d<\/p>\n In between rounds at the PDRA Mid-Atlantic Showdown at Virginia Motorsports Park, Drag Illustrated<\/em> sat down with Furr for a quick interview looking back on his recent success and looking ahead at what\u2019s to come this season.\u00a0<\/p>\n What did it take to win your second PDRA world championship last season?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n The year before last, I by all means should\u2019ve won it. I just screwed up at the last race. I put my dial-ins backwards in my delay box. Just totally screwed up first round and got myself beat and wound up losing the championship. Easily could\u2019ve had three in the last four years. I have been going to more and more races, I\u2019ll say that. Last year, I went to all of them because I was a little upset about the year before last. I skipped a couple then wound up going into the last race really, really close, then screwed myself over. Last year, I said I\u2019m not doing that. I had my mind set that I was going to try to finish it off last year and I did. Four finals in eight races. That was a good deal.\u00a0<\/p>\n To come off that success and win at WSOPM, how special was it to start the year like that?\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n That was awesome. Like I said down there when they interviewed me, I\u2019ve never staged for $50,000 before, so it was something I\u2019d never done. There wasn\u2019t really a whole lot of pressure. I felt like there\u2019d be all this pressure on you running for $50,000, but I didn\u2019t really feel any of that. It was just like another race and it was really cool. I won a bunch of races over years and years of doing this, and championships and stuff, so it takes a lot to get me excited, but I was excited at the end of that just because of the caliber of people I was racing against and how hard it was.<\/p>\n If you look back at the numbers involved in that race, the guy in the semis laid down a .002 package on me and I got inside it, but just lucky. I happened to make a really good run right when he made a really good run. I got on the good end of that deal. The stars lined up and I was racing really good and my car was good all on the same day. That doesn\u2019t happen every weekend, unfortunately. When it does, you like to cash in and get paid. I felt like everything lined up for me that weekend. It was an exciting win and a really cool deal. I would absolutely do it again.\u00a0<\/p>\n What can you say about the PDRA sportsman racers and why they did so well down there?\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Well, certainly at a go-fast bracket race, PDRA is going to be the people that show up at the race. That\u2019s where it\u2019s at. There\u2019s some fast cars in NHRA, don\u2019t get me wrong, but coming over here, if you can win in this bunch of people going fast, then you\u2019ve got some talent. That\u2019s why the PDRA stuff rose to the top at that race. If you go to a regular bracket race where everybody\u2019s dialed 4.60s or 4.80s, that\u2019s a different story. That\u2019s a whole different race and a whole different bunch of machinery. But if you have a fast race where this is the kind of stuff you\u2019re racing, I feel like the people at the PDRA are going to rise to the top of that race and that\u2019s why that happened like that. I think it\u2019ll happen again if they do it again next year. I think you\u2019ll see similar things happen.\u00a0<\/p>\n You were runner-up at the East Coast Nationals at GALOT Motorsports Park to start the year in PDRA Elite Top Dragster competition. How motivated are you to keep that momentum going this season?\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n I\u2019m very motivated. I won that 50-grander, then the next week I went to the Gatornationals and wound up red-lighting in the semis. I absolutely should\u2019ve won that race, so that would\u2019ve been two in a row. At GALOT, I absolutely should\u2019ve won that race. Totally driver error in the final. I had the race won and just gave that away.\u00a0<\/p>\n I\u2019m a little disappointed in myself because I had a really good streak going right there. If I\u2019d just stayed level-headed and kept my mind right, I probably could\u2019ve won three in a row. That\u2019s how you start out. That puts fear in people, right? You won\u2019t be nearly as good as they think you are. You just string together some stuff like that, then you get on a roll. I\u2019m streaky like that. I had an opportunity to get on a really good streak. I kind of dampened myself. But I feel like it\u2019s very important to stay on a streak like that. If you can get that going, that\u2019s the key to being able to do well.<\/p>\n This story was originally published on July 26, 2024. <\/p>\n The post Reigning PDRA Elite Top Dragster World Champion Steve Furr Reflects on Hot to Start 2024<\/a> first appeared on Drag Illustrated<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Few drivers have been as dominant in the Red Line Oil PDRA Drag Racing Series\u2019 sportsman classes as Steve Furr. The Harrisburg, North Carolina-based driver won the first three races of the six-race 2020 season to secure his first PDRA world championship in Laris Motorsports Insurance Top Dragster presented by Greenbrier Excavating & Paving.\u00a0 [Editor\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-95056","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95056","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=95056"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95056\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95056"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95056"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95056"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}