After several seasons of chasing a Pro Extreme Motorcycle world championship on a nitrous-assisted entry, Brunson Grothus wasn’t sure he’d ever win a title in the class. But everything came together for the Iowa native this season, and more specifically, on Sunday at the PDRA Pro Line Racing Brian Olson Memorial World Finals presented by ProCharger at Virginia Motorsport Park.
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Riding Robert Varela’s turbocharged Dallas Flat Glass Distributors Hayabusa, Grothus qualified No. 1, set a new E.T. national record, clinched the world championship, and won the race as a bonus. Final-round opponent Meshal Al-Saber went red by .005 seconds on a 4.017-second, 177.54 MPH pass, giving Grothus the win. Grothus eased off the throttle to post a 4.169 at 142.82.
“This is the absolute highlight of my career,” said Grothus of the championship, adding thanks to his team led by father Ed Grothus and brother Bradley Grothus, motorcycle owner Robert Varela, Dan Wagner, Tom Klemme, and his wife and kids. He also dedicated the title to his late mother and late friend Ryan Young of Indocil Art. “I’ve won a few other Pro Mod national championships, which are awesome, and some E.T. bracket stuff, but if we’re being straight-up honest with ourselves, the PDRA Pro Extreme Motorcycle class, it’s like the baddest of the bad. If you want to be a bad dog, then you need to come here on the big stage and battle it out. I’ve been hunting this for almost 15 years now. I’ve been coming for years and years and years and we finally got it done. This is the highlight of my career. It’s the culmination of teamwork. It’s just unbelievable. It’s really hard to describe.”
After qualifying No. 1, Grothus laid down a 3.955 at 183.77 to take out Jeremy Teasley and his 4.03 in the first round. That gave him lane choice over points leader Chris Garner-Jones in the semifinals, with the winner taking the world championship. Garner-Jones grabbed a slight starting line advantage, but Grothus powered to a 3.935 at 184.45 to back up his E.T. record from qualifying, also beating Garner-Jones and his 4.046.
Al-Saber qualified No. 6 on the Brad McCoy-tuned Q80 Racing/McCoy Motorsports Hayabusa and made it through a first-round match with Paul Gast, running an off-pace 4.833 at 164.45 over Gast’s 6.364. He got back on track in the semifinals, posting a 3.984 at 179.18 to defeat Jeff House’s 4.023 for a spot in the final.
The Red Line Oil PDRA Drag Racing Series will celebrate its 2024 world champions at the annual PDRA Championship Awards Banquet on Friday, Dec. 13 in downtown Indianapolis during the Performance Racing Industry (PRI) Show weekend.
