Drag Illustrated Issue 117, January 2017 | Page 94

THE CHAMPIONS ISSUE

PDRA Pro Extreme Motorcycle

Eric McKinney

Looking at the last three championships in PDRA ’ s Drag965 Pro Extreme Motorcycle , one would assume that Eric McKinney has had complete and total domination . But that is only part of the story . While he walked away with the championships in ‘ 14 and ‘ 15 , this year almost didn ’ t happen .

McKinney ’ s season started off well , with two final round appearances early in the year . But then , McKinney says , “ We got a little sidetracked .” Chris Garner-Jones took over McKinney ’ s familiar number one place in points and stayed there for much of the year . “ We ’ re always trying to be faster and progress the class ,” McKinney explained . “ We got behind and it was a struggle . It was quite challenging .”
Going into the final race , McKinney was still over two rounds behind Garner-Jones . “ We drew it out on a piece of paper before the last race and said , ‘ We have to do this to win the championship ’,” McKinney added . “ After the makeup race in Bradenton we were 206 points behind Chris . He had to go out first round and I had to win the race .”
And that ’ s exactly what happened . Garner-Jones made an uncharacteristic first round exit and McKinney went on to win the event , resetting the PXM national ET record in the process - twice . Thanks to McKinney ’ s final round effort , the record now stands at a 3.986 .
“ This is by far the most satisfying season we ’ ve had . It was a struggle being down . You feel like you just lost your touch . But to come back in that way at the last race and to win was very rewarding
and almost unbelievable . We were pretty fortunate to pull it off . It ’ s all my team . I can ’ t take any credit .”
After two previous PXM championships (‘ 12 and ‘ 13 ) and the AMA Dragbike championship in ‘ 09 McKinney ’ s total is up to six .
“ It ’ s a pretty amazing feeling ,” McKinney said , searching for words to describe the enormity of his feats . “ To be so dominant like we have been , it ’ s pretty amazing . To able to do five in a row is unbelievable . I ’ ve got a good crew behind me . We keep plugging away . We work hard at everything we do , whether it ’ s work or drag racing . We give everything 150 percent . I ’ ve told people , never give up . We wanted to give up a couple of times this year , but we didn ’ t and we pulled it off . I ’ m still kinda ’ speechless about it . This champion-
PHOTO : COLE ROKOSKY
NMCA STREET OUTLAW JACKY McCARTY // NMCA STOCK GLENN PUSHIS // NMCA NOSTALGIA SUPER STOCK DW HOPKINS
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