Mountain Motor Pro Stock rookie and seasoned sportsman drag racer Randi Lyn Butner made history Friday evening at the Brian Olson Memorial PDRA World Finals at Virginia Motorsports Park in Dinwiddie, Virginia, by recording the class’ first-ever official three-second 1/8-mile pass. Randi Lyn, a seven-time winner in NHRA Stock Eliminator competition and a former NHRA division champion, clocked a 3.997 at 176.37 mph in the second session of Extreme Pro Stock qualifying, to pace the raceday field, but more importantly, bring to a close one of the most long-awaited milestone chases in the sport’s history.
Driving her Johnson’s Horsepowered Garage/Elite Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro, tuned by mountain-motor veteran Frank Gugliotta, and racing in the lane opposite her many-time NHRA world champion husband and teammate Bo Butner, Randi Lyn powered to a .965 short time and a 2.619 to the 330-foot clocks on her way to history.
Photo courtesy Bo Butner Racing
More than 12 years ago, John DeFlorian put the naturally-aspirated, 800-plus-cubic-inch class on the cusp of the milestone three-second barrier with a 4.01 second lap at an ADRL event, but in the years since, the class had pressed forward little more than one hundredth of a second — prior to Friday night’s magical session at VMP, DeFlorian himself held the official mark at 4.000 seconds, set at the very same racetrack in the fall of 2021. Two other drivers had been sub-4.01, and five additional drivers quicker than 4.02 — all scattered throughout the last 12-plus years.
In the fall of 2018, also at Virginia, Jeff Dobbins clocked a 3.988, but did so in pre-race testing, making the seemingly barrier-breaking run an unofficial one. Little did anyone know it would take six more years to accomplish the feat.
“It really means a lot to do that for Frank,” said Butner, who backed up the record with her earlier 4.012 in the first qualifying session. “This Mountain Motor racing was never my idea. I was perfectly happy in Stock Eliminator. This was all a big collaboration between Bo [Butner, husband], Richard [Freeman, Elite Motorsports team owner], Frank, and our sponsor. They totally thought I could do it and wanted to see what I was made of. I just kind of lucked into this position that so many racers would die to have.”
Photo courtesy Bo Butner Racing
“I really did not do my best job shifting,” Butner added. “I think it was just meant to be. It was meant to be…
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