Tension filled the air Friday night as the Extreme Pro Stock class made its way through the Virginia Motorsports Park staging lanes for the second qualifying session at the Brian Olson Memorial World Finals. With conditions that drag racing historian Bret Kepner called \u201cair of the century\u201d going into the weekend, everyone was waiting to see if the scoreboard would flash the first-ever sub-4-second elapsed time for a Mountain Motor Pro Stock car, and if it did, who would be the one to do it.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Two-time world champion Johnny Pluchino laid down a career-best 4.014 at 180.89 midway through the session. John Montecalvo, the defending event champion and 2019 world champion, recorded an excruciating 4.000 at 180.40 in the second-to-last pair. Finally, 2017 NHRA Pro Stock world champion Bo Butner and his wife, Stock Eliminator standout Randi Lyn Butner, rolled through the water box to attempt a historic pass with both Johnson\u2019s Horsepowered Garage\/Elite Motorsports Camaros set up to dip into the 3-second zone.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Tuned by former Mountain Motor Pro Stock driver turned crew chief and engine builder Frank Gugliotta, the Butners were identified as two of the drivers most likely to do it. A wheelie bar issue on the starting line for Bo took him out of contention, as he had a .994 60-foot time compared to Randi Lyn\u2019s .965. He got out of shape and ended up getting off the throttle, but Randi Lyn powered through the eighth-mile mark and lit up the scoreboard with a 3.997 at 176.37.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Back on the starting line, the crew members and crowd in the right lane erupted. Gugliotta was swarmed with congratulatory hugs, handshakes, and pats on the back before PDRA Series Director Tyler Crossnoe approached him for an interview live on the PA system. The crew hopped on the golf cart to head to the top end, and 10-15 minutes later, they came back up the return road with the record-setting car and driver in tow. On the return road, Crossnoe presented Butner, Gugliotta, and the team with a custom trophy, championship ring, and trailer check from class sponsor Liberty\u2019s Gears. The hefty trophy, built using Liberty components, has followed the PDRA tour since 2019.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n
It was a validating achievement for Butner, whose progress as a rookie driver this season hasn\u2019t always translated to on-track success as Gugliotta and the team have had to work out kinks in her car, which was previously the backup car to JR Carr\u2019s white Camaro now driven by Bo. The humble Indiana native reflected all of the credit to Gugliotta, though, as he\u2019s been pursuing the mark for more than a decade.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt really means a lot to do that for Frank,\u201d Butner said. \u201cI really did not do my best job shifting. I think it was just meant to be. It was meant to be Frank\u2019s. It was a long time and a lot of things coming together and God willed it to Frank and it\u2019s a whole lot of bookends coming together for him. I\u2019m really excited for him.\u201d<\/p>\n
When the Butners came to Virginia Motorsports Park in February so Randi Lyn could practice burnouts in a Pro Stock car, Gugliotta talked about the potential for a 3-second run later in the year. The team planned to go to the World Finals specifically to chase the first 3.99 in the class. But even Randi Lyn admitted she figured Bo would be the one to do it. His car came so close so many times while Carr owned it and drove it, and he has a wealth of experience driving a Pro Stock car.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI really thought it would be Bo,\u201d Butner reiterated. \u201cLike we all did. Bo\u2019s car is faster. Bo\u2019s car is better. We all totally thought it would be Bo. Even coming up here tonight and Montecalvo going 4.000 right in front of us, I thought, \u2018Well, you know, here\u2019s Bo\u2019s chance.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Darrel Jackson Jr. photo<\/p>\n
Butner was too busy in the car to see the 3.997 on the scoreboard, and in the chaos coming through the radio from Gugliotta on the starting line, it took Butner a minute to realize she\u2019d made Mountain Motor Pro Stock history.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was dark in my car and my mind is going a million miles an hour and Frank is yelling and screaming and I\u2019m looking for my \u2018chute button and I\u2019m never quite grabbing it,\u201d Butner said. \u201cThen finally, I hear him say \u20183.99\u2019 and then a lot of other things. He was going crazy, and so then I knew it had happened.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I pulled off at the end of the track, all the other drivers were just kind of standing there stunned,\u201d she continued. \u201cI think they didn\u2019t know if it happened, didn\u2019t happen, whatever. But I think that they might have started to hear Frank screaming from the starting line and then they knew.\u201d<\/p>\n
Later in the evening, Gugliotta reflected on the achievement from his perspective. Like Butner, he was quick to point out the others who played a role in the performance.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m very happy for my entire team, for the Butners, Elite Motorsports, Richard Freeman, the Carr family. There\u2019s so many people [involved],\u201d Gugliotta said. \u201cI\u2019m just happy we finally did it. Had to burn a motor up in the process, but I guess it is what it is. That\u2019s the only part I\u2019m not happy about, but I\u2019m really happy to have finally done it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gugliotta has been a part of PDRA Extreme Pro Stock since the series\u2019 inaugural season in 2014. He tuned Carr to numerous No. 1 qualifier awards and event wins, then when Carr sold his complete operation to Elite Motorsports team owner Richard Freeman, Gugliotta stayed on to continue running the program with its new drivers, which were originally Freeman \u2013 himself a former Mountain Motor Pro Stock driver \u2013 and six-time NHRA Pro Stock world champion Erica Enders. The Butners made a deal to field the cars in the JHG NHRA Mountain Motor Pro Stock class this season, though they\u2019ve also dabbled in PDRA Extreme Pro Stock. Without a championship battle in play, Gugliotta made the short trip down to Virginia from his Maryland shop with one specific goal in mind.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cMe and Rich Purdy [longtime crew member] were sitting here talking this morning and it was like, do this, do that, and then it was like, you know what? We came here with one goal: to run 3.99. Not to win a race, not to qualify here, not to do this, not to do that. To run 3.99. That was the goal when we left the house. So, we did it.\u201d<\/p>\n
With that goal accomplished, Gugliotta and the JHG team can now move their focus to other milestones.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re going to try to win the race now,\u201d Gugliotta said. \u201cThat wasn\u2019t the plan coming here, but the plan now is to win the race, without a doubt. I\u2019d like to get her her first win.\u201d<\/p>\n
With several NHRA national event wins in Stock Eliminator, Randi Lyn is no stranger to winning, but a Mountain Motor Pro Stock win has eluded her so far. But now that Gugliotta seems to have a handle on her car, she can go to work chasing a PDRA Extreme Pro Stock victory. She cut a .054-second reaction time on the 3.997 pass, which is a combination that should turn on win lights once eliminations begin.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cShe really has impressed me from day one,\u201d Gugliotta said. \u201cShe\u2019s a fast learner. You tell her something one time and she gets it. She\u2019s very competitive. She\u2019s very hard on herself. She\u2019s hard on me at times. She\u2019s not happy with me sometimes. I\u2019ve told people this: she\u2019s gonna be a very good driver. There\u2019s no doubt. You give her a car and she\u2019s good.\u201d<\/p>\n
Darrel Jackson Jr. photo<\/p>\n
Track owner and series owner Tommy Franklin congratulated Gugliotta on the starting line and the Butners on the return road. Later, he discussed the significance of the historic moment both personally and from the series perspective.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not sure a lot of people know, but I raced Mountain Motor Pro Stock back in \u201903, \u201904, \u201905,\u201d said Franklin, who\u2019s working to defend his third Pro Nitrous world championship. \u201cThe class has always had a special place for me. I love seeing the class do good. Frank came up to me right before that round and said, \u2018I\u2019m not going to try to do it once. I\u2019m gonna try to do it twice with both cars.\u2019 He\u2019s just such a great guy. He\u2019s put a ton of years into Mountain Motor Pro Stock, so he deserves it. I\u2019m not saying there\u2019s not many other people out there that deserve it, but he\u2019s dedicated his life to it, so it\u2019s cool to see it go to him.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cRandi Lyn and the Butners, they\u2019re great people,\u201d Franklin added. \u201cThey came here in February just to do burnouts so she could get ready. It was her first time sitting in the car and here we sit, what, eight months later and she was the first one to hit the 3.99. I\u2019m sure there\u2019s a lot of angry guys out there, but props to her. It\u2019s awesome to see her go out there and do it and show them how it\u2019s done.\u201d<\/p>\n
With similarly pristine conditions expected for Saturday\u2019s final qualifying session and first round of eliminations, Franklin predicted that we could see more 3-second passes as the weekend progresses.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a really cool class. I\u2019m glad to see that barrier finally be broken,\u201d Franklin said. \u201cIt\u2019ll be good to see it where it goes from now. It seems like once you finally break it, now everybody will break it, right?\u201d<\/p>\n\n
This story was originally published on October 19, 2024. <\/p>\n
The post Randi Lyn Butner, Crew Chief Frank Gugliotta React to Historic 3.99-Second Extreme Pro Stock Pass<\/a> first appeared on Drag Illustrated<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Tension filled the air Friday night as the Extreme Pro Stock class made its way through the Virginia Motorsports Park staging lanes for the second qualifying session at the Brian Olson Memorial World Finals. With conditions that drag racing historian Bret Kepner called \u201cair of the century\u201d going into the weekend, everyone was waiting to […]<\/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-96560","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96560","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=96560"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96560\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96560"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96560"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96560"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}