Drag Illustrated Issue 153, February 2020 | Page 64

Todd “King Tut” Tutterow
goes down the track, a tradition that he dearly
appreciates. For all the championships Tutterow
has won – and it’s almost too numerous to list –
it’s moments like this the veteran treasures.
“He’s been with me the last 24 years at the track,”
Tutterow says. “He does all the transmission work
in my car and he’s sort of followed in my footsteps.
He’s just a good kid and you can’t ask for anything
more than that.”
On this day, the teacher proves he’s still got it –
no surprise considering the 2019 season Tutterow
just enjoyed on the NHRA Pro Mod circuit.
Father and son met up in the semifinals in
Qatar after Ty qualified No. 1 with a run of 3.741
seconds at 199.94 mph. Ty runs quicker – another
3.741 to his dad’s 3.749 – but Todd was quicker
off the line in eliminations, delivering a trade-
mark performance of one of the sport’s greatest
drivers. “The old guy’s still got it,” Tutterow says
with a chuckle.
He followed that up by beating Mike Castellana
in the final round, adding another victory a week
later during the second race of the Arabian series.
The North Carolina native lowered the boom with
a stout 3.701 at 202.33 in testing just days after
that, his best run since he’s been in Qatar this year.
If anything, it’s a momentum-building start
to what Tutterow hopes is a year that includes
his crowning achievement: a NHRA Pro Mod
world championship.
He finished a career-best second in 2019 to
Stevie “Fast” Jackson, winning the 50th annual
Gatornationals to pick up his first career NHRA
Pro Mod victory along the way.
This year, though, second place won’t do. For
a man who has done it all and done it across the
world, this is the only thing left to accomplish
and Tutterow is leaving nothing to chance. He
estimates he’ll make close to 60 runs overseas in
his blown Al-Anabi Performance Camaro before
returning home, testing everything from engine
oil to converters to ignition systems to engines
to camshafts, and everything else in between.
But there’s only one goal in mind in 2020 and
Tutterow is not holding back.
“I’ve won 19 championships in different orga-
nizations, but I’ve never won an NHRA champi-
onship. That’s my goal,” Tutterow says. “Winning
races in NHRA is big, but winning a champion-
ship in NHRA, that would be the icing on the
cake. The championship, that’s what I’m going
for, dude. I’m going wide open.”
T
he way Tutterow figures, the
chance to win a championship was
there a year ago. He started with the
Gainesville win, beating Jackson in
the final round on a holeshot in argu-
ably the best drag race of the entire
season, regardless of class.
Jackson returned the favor in Hous-
ton, beating Tutterow in the final round, but there
were the makings of an epic season-long duel
between the master and the master-in-training.
Jackson has long called Tutterow his idol, add-
ing another scintillating layer to the title race,
but things went awry for the veteran in Topeka.
He crashed after crossing the finish line fol-
lowing a first-round win, something Jackson
experienced the previous season in Charlotte.
With it coming in the midst of the busiest part of
the Pro Mod season, Tutterow could never quite
regain his footing to challenge Jackson.
“I think we had a car that could have won the
championship and [the crash] kind of put a damp-
ener on that,” Tutterow says. “We had a few issues,
struggled at Bristol and every car has its own per-
sonality. We had a good combination the first part
of the year and that’s what was so exciting.
It puts the onus on Tutterow, but he’s always been the first one to
bet on himself. He hopes it leads to major results in 2020.
TUTTEROW HAS CLAIMED VICTORIES AND TITLES
ALL ACROSS THE WORLD. THE ONLY THING LEFT
IS A CHAMPIONSHIP IN NHRA PRO MOD.
64 | D r a g
I l l u s t r a t e d | DragIllustrated.com
Issue 153