CLOSE-UP
Mountain Motor
Meltdown
line duel in the ADRL in 2013, again a nod to his stubborn roots.
Both laugh at the notion that this could have possibly been staged.
Rather, it was two drivers sticking to their guns. Dobbins relented after
the four-minute mark as a round win finally took precedent, but he was
more than willing to put on a show even as it took a toll on his body.
“It was pretty cool,” Dobbins admits. “Our racing is so technical, this
is something the fans can get involved in. The starter wanted us to go a
couple times, but I said no way. I’m glad (PDRA) let it play out. But those
clutch pedals are hard to hold down for that long. My leg was going numb.”
Dobbins initially thought the burndown lasted around two minutes –
a sign he was locked in on the moment – before he was told otherwise,
while Pluchino knew he was in unprecedented territory. His body agreed
with him. “It feels like an eternity in there,” says Pluchino, who won the
opening PDRA race of the season. “My son was yelling at me on the radio
and I’m sitting in the car with my foot on the clutch. It’s boiling hot in
there and it’s not easy, but I wasn’t going in.”
Pluchino figured after the race at GALOT that Dobbins would have
something in store for him, though neither expected it to reach the levels
it did in Virginia. But it turned into an entertaining four-minute clash,
there were no hard feelings afterwards and neither car was damaged. It
was the perfect scenario for Pluchino – almost.
“It gets the fans involved and gets them upbeat and excited,” Pluchino
believes. “In the car you can’t hear anything, but after the fact I was told
the fans were going nuts. I know they love that kind of stuff every once in
a while. But it’s all good fun. It would have just been better if I won.”
That ultimately gave Dobbins the last laugh in a memorable matchup
that will be replayed for years to come. He wasn’t planning it that way, but
Dobbins will gladly take the piece of history with him. “I needed a round
win and that’s what it took,” Dobbins says. “But that was crazy.”
DI DI DI
- J OS H HACHAT
DI DI DI DI
DI DI DI
P H O T O G R A P H
July 2019
B Y
T A R A
B O W K E R
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