DragCoverage.com Internet Magazine
Posted Apr.02



Pruitt Takes Ten To Win Drag Race At Montgomery Motorsports Park
by Goodyear Racing on April 2, 2010

When he brings his race car to Gulfport Raceway in Mississippi for the King of the Coast race April 9-10, Alabama drag racer T.J. Pruitt will have a new nickname.

They’ll call him ‘Big Money.’

Pruitt, an electrical engineer with a degree from Auburn University, lay claim to the new moniker when he won the $10,000 winner’s prize in the Super Pro class of the Super 7 Series race at Montgomery Motorsports Park in Alabama in March. It is the richest race Pruitt has ever won and he won it on Goodyear tires.

Driving a dragster on a one-eighth-mile track, Pruitt overcame a stout field and won eight elimination rounds to win the big prize. He had a set of Goodyear D2532 drive tires on his car and gave his tires much of the credit for the win.

“It is a dependable tire,” Pruitt said. “In changing conditions, the tire is there. As a bracket racer, there is a lot to concentrate on. The last thing you want to be thinking about is the rubber on the back.”

The D2532 measures 33.5 inches tall and 17 inches across the tread face. It mounts on a 16-inch rim and utilizes Goodyear’s D2A tread compound.

Pruitt, who has been around drag racing for most of his 27 years, has been a mechanic and public relations representative in previous years but his racing focus now is on his driving career.

“The D2A compound is smooth,” Pruitt said. “From the burnout, to the launch and down track it is smooth and it hooks hard.”

At Montgomery, there were three Super Pro elimination events and each had a $10,000 prize. Pruitt won the second event on Saturday and Ron Lane, racing on a set of Goodyear D2622 rear drive tires, which also includes the D2A compound, won on Sunday.

The field at Montgomery included Edmond Richardson, the NHRA’s 2009 national champion in the Stock Eliminator category. Richardson won his national title on Goodyear tires.