on his turbocharged entry for the semifinal as he
recorded a 3.957 at 200.68 over Joe Newsham’s
4.347 at 136.52. Carinci was unopposed again in
the final round when low qualifier Phil Sliskovic’s
Camaro left early. Carinci streaked to a 3.965 at
200.38 to take the win.
running a 4.208 on a 4.15 dial-in, while opponent
Derrick Brown left the starting line before the tree
activated. John Prime earned the Top Sportsman
32 victory over Huston Dial.
The next stop on the 2018 PDRA Tour is the
PDRA North-South Shootout at Maryland In-
ternational Raceway, May 3-5.
TOP DRAGSTER
Sportsman racing hero Kevin Brannon drove his
brand-new ProCharged ’18 Maddox dragster to a
3.785 on a 3.81 dial over Denver Maltba’s 3.808
on a 3.84 dial-in in a double breakout Elite Top
Dragster final round. Josh Duggins was the win-
ner in Top Dragster 32, scoring over Greg Slack
in the final round.
PRO JR DRAGSTER
Anthony Suppers (near) defeated Noah Cornatzer
TOP SPORTSMAN
In Elite Top Sportsman, Donny Urban parked
his ’06 Chevy Cobalt in the winner’s circle after
TOP JR DRAGSTER
A
Q&A
JAY COX
By Nate Van Wagnen
98 PDRA660.com
s a pe-
rennial
frontrun-
ner
in
Switzer
Dynamics Pro Ni-
trous presented by
MoTeC, Jay Cox was
certainly a favorite
to win the sea-
son-opening East
Coast Spring Na-
tionals at GALOT
Motorsports Park.
Cox, who won the
Southern Extreme
Nationals to kick off
the 2017 season, be-
gan his 2018 season
in a similar winning
fashion with his hometown win at GALOT.
Cox spoke with DRAG I LLUSTRATED after the race
to talk about what the win did for his early championship
hopes as he chases his first PDRA world title without a
major sponsor.
You ran strong at GALOT Motorsports Park’s Mad
Mule race in March, then you won the PDRA sea-
son-opener in April. How much does that mean to you
to start the season like that?
It means a lot to me, especially in my situation. I guess
in any situation, when you come out and you run good,
you’re happy, but when you don’t have a big, major sponsor
behind you and you’re funding the deal with one full-time
sponsor who helps out – Butner Construction, a win re-
ally means a lot. The rest of it is coming out of the people
giving me parts deals – Diamond Pistons, Mark Micke
Transmission, GRP Rods and Total Seal Piston Rings – and
coming out of mine and my pops’ pockets. When we can
come out and run that strong and run right up front, it’s
a lot of momentum for me and a lot of hope that maybe
somebody will step up and want to get the door of the car
for the rest of the year.
You’ve been in the thick of the season-ending champi-
onship battle the last few years. How important is it to
your championship chase to start the year with a win?
I always start off well. It gives me a lot of momentum
starting the season off well because it puts me in a good
lead, puts me out front a little bit. My goal this year is to
stay out front. I always have that one race that just bites
me in the tail – a part breaks or something goes wrong.
My goal is to eliminate that this year. Last year I broke a
driveshaft at the first GALOT race in the second round – I
had the whole field covered. That was the one race that
cost me. To be out front is huge, but my main focus to
win a championship is to eliminate that one race where
something breaks and costs me in the points.
How does that mindset affect your approach going
into the next race?
To be honest, I’m not in a financial position to look past
one race. My goal when I look at Maryland is I want to
go in there and test on Thursday, get a good baseline for
the track when it’s hot and when it’s cold. I can’t afford to
put a lot of runs on this thing. I just have to take it round
by round. I can’t look ahead to the next race. I gotta stay
small because when you don’t have a lot of money and
parts behind you, you can’t overlook the small things. The
small things are key to winning a race or putting you in
the position to go to the next race. When I roll in the gate,
I gotta win. I gotta bring 5-6 thousand dollars home with
me. The only place at the racetrack that pays that is first
place, you know?
Logan Westmoreland (far) defeated Chase Hancock