Former NHRA Pro Stock World Champions Greg Anderson and Jason Line and six-time former IHRA Pro Stock champ Rickie Smith were among six pro drivers taking advantage of a break in the schedule to test their Pro Stock and Pro Modifed races cars this week on Rockingham Dragway’s high traction racing surface.
 
Anderson, who has finished first or second in NHRA Pro Stock points for seven straight seasons, was sorting out his Summit Racing Pontiac GXP in anticipation of another title run during the NHRA’s Countdown to 1 playoffs that begin Labor Day weekend at Indianapolis, Ind.
 


Former NHRA Pro Stock World Champions Greg Anderson and Jason Line and six-time former IHRA Pro Stock champ Rickie Smith were among six pro drivers taking advantage of a break in the schedule to test their Pro Stock and Pro Modifed races cars this week on Rockingham Dragway’s high traction racing surface.
 
Anderson, who has finished first or second in NHRA Pro Stock points for seven straight seasons, was sorting out his Summit Racing Pontiac GXP in anticipation of another title run during the NHRA’s Countdown to 1 playoffs that begin Labor Day weekend at Indianapolis, Ind.
 
The Mooresville driver, who won consecutive titles in 2003, 2004 and 2005, has won twice this season – at Norwalk, Ohio, and Seattle, Wash., and will start from fourth place in the Countdown.  Teammate Line, a Troutman resident who won the NHRA title in 2007, will start his Summit Pontiac from No. 6 in the Countdown.
 
Smith, one of the few Pro Stock drivers to have enjoyed success on both the NHRA and IHRA pro tours, has confined his recent racing to the Pro Modified division.  The King resident, is the father of former NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle champion Matt Smith.   
 
Tutterow, too, was testing his Al-Anabi Pro Extreme Camaro in anticipation of the American Drag Racing League Dragstock event that returns top The Rock in three weeks.  Also a former IHRA Pro Stock driver, Tutterow presently is eighth in the ADRL standings, on the bubble insofar as earning a spot in the organization’s Battle for the Belts championship.
 
The sixth driver in the mix was Justin Humphreys of Bethesda, Md., who turned heads while sorting out the new Race Redi Racing Ford Mustang he is set to debut before season’s end.  Humphreys won the 2008 Carolina Nationals in a Pontiac.