Drag Illustrated Issue 121, May 2017 | Page 57

DIALED IN Pro Tree Racers Association Thrives By Van Abernethy T he Pro Tree Racers Association (PTRA) was launched in 2004 at Mooresville Dragway and soon fea- tured a wide array of race cars that would gather monthly at the North Carolina eighth-mile facility. In the beginning, series founder Tony Brown simply offered 6.00 Index and 7.00 Index classes, which competed under the moniker “Heads-Up Super Series,” but when Brown partnered with a group of racers who competed in a class called Real Street, the collaboration officially spurred the birth of PTRA. The Real Street category was comprised of small-tire street cars which raced heads-up. It was an instant hit when the group began gather- ing on Friday nights at Mooresville. “We can’t take credit for inventing the class because ORSCA was May 2017 doing the same thing in places like Huntsville, Alabama, but we kinda staked our claim on it at Mooresville, because nobody else was doing it in our area at the time,” recalls Brown. The class paid $500 to win and attracted some of the most exciting cars in the area. Popularity for the PTRA brand exploded in the mid 2000s and it was soon moved from Friday night to Saturday’s main event at Mooresville. Among the popular categories within the PTRA is a class Brown called Pro Tree Eliminator, which features bracket racing on a .500 Pro tree that’s fully shielded, with no CrossTalk electronics. Many cars within the group have difficulty slowing down or speeding up to compete in the various index classes, so Pro Tree Eliminator is the perfect application for them. It soon began averaging around 50- 60 cars when the class was first introduced. The series eventu- ally expanded to nine different classes in its peak years, and by 2006 Brown be- gan touring the show when neighboring tracks started request- ing race dates. The series enjoyed a steady rise in car count and interest until the economic down- turn in 2008 and 2009 severely impacted the DragIllustrated.com | D r a g I l l u s t r a t e d | 57