Dirt
Carolina Xtreme Pro Mod
Series Bursts into 2017
By Van Abernethy
W
Tylor Miller (left, with trophy) celebrates being crowed
the inaugural points champion of the Carolina Xtreme
Pro Mod series, which he clinched in 2016. He was
presented with the championship trophy at the 2017
season opener in Darlington. The Miller family also owns
Darlington Dragway. Dan Ferguson (above and below)
stands with crewman, Wayne Hawkins, at Darlington.
Ferguson won the 2017 season opener, getting past
Charles Carpenter (bottom left) in the finals.
fact, out of eight events last season, only Tylor
Miller won more than one event, propelling him
to claim the first series championship.
For 2017, the Carolina Xtreme Pro Mod series
kicked off the new season in Darlington March
25-26, with yet another first-time winner in Dan
Ferguson, who got past Charles Carpenter in the
thrilling, all-nitrous final round. “This is a cool
series and there’s a lot of good guys here,” said
Ferguson, who was participating in his first-ever
Carolina Xtreme Pro Mod event.
The club has a busy year planned with events
slated for Shadyside and Farmington, as well
as a return to Darlington later in the year. Ad-
ditionally, the series has attracted the attention
of IHRA, who has invited the club to run in con-
junction with every Summit Sportsman National
Championship event held in the Carolinas in
2018. For Vanbeek and Wilson, it still comes as
a surprise when they reflect on the success of
their unplanned race series. “It’s hard to even
speculate on where we’d like to see it go from here,
because it’s already exceeded our expectations!”
concluded Vanbeek.
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Issue 120
hen the Carolina Xtreme Pro
Mod series quietly burst onto the
scene at Shadyside Dragway on a
crisp, fall day in November 2015,
the organizers of this series weren’t exactly ex-
pecting such a rousing response, but they quickly
realized they may have underestimated the mar-
ket. In reality, the whole thing started as a one-
time race at Shadyside, just to finish the 2015
season with a bang, only it turned out to be such
a spirited success that nobody wanted it to end.
Nathan Vanbeek and Tony Wilson, who or-
ganized the event, admitted they were merely
hoping for 8-10 cars to show up for their spur-
of-the-moment gathering, so you can imagine
their surprise when 18 Pro Mods came through
the gate. “We basically just put it out there on
Facebook that we were having a race at Shady-
side, and we told everybody that
we’d gather together on Saturday
night and come up with some rules,”
laughed Vanbeek, as he recalled just
how haphazardly the whole thing
came together.
In fact, they conjured up the
name “Carolina Xtreme Pro Mod”
just so they’d have something
to put on the flier for what they
thought would be a one-off event.
The catchy name stuck and all in-
volved believed it should become
a touring series for the following
year, continuing to gather at local
tracks in the Carolinas. Since Wil-
son is busy campaigning his own
Pro Nitrous car, it was Vanbeek who
was nominated to be the president
of the newly founded series.
Shadyside immediately booked
the Carolina Xtreme Pro Mods for
three race dates in 2016, two of
which yielded more than 20 cars
entering the contest. Other tracks
who booked races for the club’s
inaugural season included Farm-
ington Dragway in North Carolina,
as well as Darlington and Union County, both
located in South Carolina. “We actually had 26
cars on the grounds of one of our Darlington
events last year...and that’s a lot for local Pro Mod
racing!” commented Vanbeek.
In addition to attracting standout stars of the
division such as Tommy Mauney, Jay Cox, Charles
Carpenter and others, the club has enjoyed many
unique winners who use a variety of power plants.
“Last season we saw racers win while using twin
turbos, a blower and several nitrous car victories,
so the parity is definitely there,” said Vanbeek. In