FREDERICKSBURG, Va. — The MagnaFuel Top Sportsman presented by Corbin’s RV world championship typically comes down to the wire in the Red Line Oil PDRA Drag Racing Series, but this season, newly crowned world champion Mark Reese simply had to qualify at the season finale to secure his title.
Facing tough competition with razor-thin margins of victory all season, Reese won two events in three final-round appearances to claim his first world championship in the series.
Reese’s championship hopes began in late May when he drove his nitrous-assisted, PAR Racing Engines-powered ’08 Mustang to a runner-up finish at the American Doorslammer Challenge at Summit Motorsports Park. Two races later, he won the Northern Nationals at U.S. 131 Motorsports Park. He backed that up with a second consecutive win at the inaugural Thunder Valley Throwdown at Bristol Dragway.
Those performances gave Reese enough of a lead that he merely had to qualify at the Brian Olson Memorial World Finals at Virginia Motorsports Park to clinch the championship. Reese, who doesn’t live far from VMP in North Dinwiddie, Virginia, qualified No. 22 in the Top Sportsman 48 field.
“This is probably the biggest accomplishment I’ve ever done in my racing career,” said Reese, who thanked his wife, as well as tuner Buddy Perkinson. “I’ve won four championships at VMP before with index racing driving for Keith Cox. It just all came together towards the end of the season. Winning Michigan and Bristol and runner-up at Ohio gave me enough confidence thinking I could compete with these guys out here.”