The qualifying leader list of PDRA’s Thunder Valley Throwdown read like an old IHRA national event lineup as a trio of racers who headlined back in the day. 

Instead of Jim Halsey running his former Castrol GTX Corvette in Pro Modified, he drove his Camaro to the Pro Nitrous pole. Likewise, Todd Tutterow was not in a nitrous-injected Corvette Stingray but, instead, a supercharged 1969 Camaro as he topped the Pro Boost field. And instead of the Charlie Hunt Ford he drove back in the day, Tommy Lee wheeled Curt Steinbach’s ’22 Camaro to the top in the mountain motor Pro Stock division. 

There were all kinds of memory-lane moments as the PDRA made its debut in Bristol. It was the first time a doorslammer-oriented series raced at the track carved out of the picturesque mountains of Eastern Tennessee since the ill-fated Xtreme Drag Racing League raced there in 2014.

Halsey ran to the top of the field in three sessions on Friday, posting a 3.692-second blast to qualify as No. 1 in Pro Nitrous. He opened the single qualifying day with a pace-setting 3.713 to take the provisional No. 1 spot. His best run came in the final session. 
 
“We’ve always had good luck here,” Halsey said. “We’ve always ran good here, but the transformation from the last time I was here to now is just unbelievable. The facility is so awesome. It’s pretty cool. The altitude here and the surface here make it very challenging. Especially to run like two or three hundredths faster than the No. 2 guy, we’re very, very happy with that. Everything’s in one piece. We’ll try hard tomorrow.”

Tutterow’s 3.63-second pass set the pace in Pro Boost. Coupled with a 207.69 mph pass in challenging atmospheric conditions, he delivered his second consecutive Pro Boost No. 1 qualifier.  
 
“We’ve done good up here before,” Tutterow said. “We’ve come up here about every five years and always run good, whether it’s NHRA or outlaw stuff, too. My stuff normally runs really good in high altitude. I’m very excited about this weekend. Both me and Kurt have been down the racetrack every time we’ve been to the starting line, other than mine on one run and I was trying to reset the record out there. We’ve got good, good plans for this weekend. I was No. 1 qualifier at the last race and didn’t get to go down [the track]. But we’ve got Melanie first round, and it’d be nice to get it done.”

Lee ran a 4.136 at 174.73 to qualify No. 1 over fellow 3V-powered driver Jeremy Huffman, who ran the same elapsed time but lost the tiebreaker on speed. 
 
“Oh, man, it feels awesome,” Lee said of his first No. 1 qualifier award in the series. “We’ve been working some issues out in the car, and we’re slowly getting them better. But to be able to come out here and run with these guys that’ve been running good all year, yeah, it feels great. We’ve got a fast hot rod. I’ve just got to do my job on the starting line.”

Headlining PDRA’s other heads-up professional classes were Jeff Melnick (Pro 632), Brunson Grothus (Pro Extreme Motorcycle), Bill Riddle (Pro Street), and Connor McGee (Super Street).
 
The PDRA’s sportsman categories also wrapped up three qualifying sessions, with No. 1 qualifier awards going to Glenn Butcher (Elite Top Sportsman),  KC Ingram (Elite Top Dragster), Dan Ferguson (Top Sportsman) and Mike Kopko (Top Dragster) as leaders in their divisions.