Second-generation racer Lizzy Musi was uninjured in an on-track incident Thursday evening when she lost control of Kye Kelley’s famed ‘Shocker’ Chevrolet Camaro at the Northstar Dragway in Denton, Texas.

Lizzy, the daughter of iconic engine builder and champion driver Pat Musi, was testing Kelley’s machine in preparation for this weekend’s Street Outlaws: No Prep Kings season opener in Topeka, Kansas when she struck the retaining wall, causing extensive damage to the familiar black, nitrous oxide-assisted Camaro.

Said Kelley following the incident:

Lizzy is fine besides her pride and feelings, which is most important. The Shocker, on the other hand, is hurt pretty bad and some way, somehow I’ll find the funds to get it fixed so we can continue to make history as a drag racing couple doing what we love to do. To make a long story short, we replaced the steering wheel yesterday because we noticed a crack in it and with that being said the transbrake button was in a different location. My reverse lights are wired to come on when my transbrake is engaged. About 1.8-seconds into the run, right before the shift change she accidentally bumped the button, locked the transmission up and the car immediately slid left and hit the wall. 

It’s a sad day for us because that car is a huge part of our life, just tough luck.

Kelley will compete at the Heartland Motorsports Park this weekend wheeling the all-new ‘Aftershock’, a late-model, fifth-generation Camaro that made its public debut last fall. He indicated that if all falls into place, Lizzy and the Shocker may return as soon as the next stop on the No Prep Kings tour in Memphis in mid-July. Lizzy will climb back behind the wheel of her Pro Nitrous machine next weekend at the PDRA’s Firecracker Nationals in Richmond, Virginia.

Lizzy Musi and Brad McCoy raced to victory Sunday for the second consecutive race at the Professional Drag Racers Association (PDRA) World Finals at Virginia Motorsports Park, winning in Switzer Dynamics Pro Nitrous presented by MoTeC and Drag 965 Pro Extreme Motorcycle, respectively. John Montecalvo won in Extreme Pro Stock during the postponed eliminations.

PRO EXTREME
Pro Extreme low qualifier Terry Leggett earned the event win Saturday night when he defeated world championship runner-up Mattias Wulcan. Leggett drove his supercharged Leggett Logging & Trucking ’71 Mustang to a 3.542-second pass at 214.45 mph to defeat the Swedish driver’s 4.672 at 91.92 in the Pro Extreme final round. It was Leggett’s second consecutive event win over Wulcan, who needed to win the race to pass points leader Mike Recchia for the world championship.

“I’ve got such a good group of people around me,” Leggett said. “I don’t really know how to put it into words. The car is great, the motor is great, the people who support me are great – not only my team, but manufacturers like Charlie Buck and Shannon Davis who come out to the races.”

Leggett, who beat Sweden’s Stefan Holmberg and Australian John Zappia before the final round, finishes the season third in points with three No. 1 qualifier awards and the two most recent event wins on tour.

“It’s a lot of icing cake. It’s a good way to go back to the house, kick your feet up over the winter and think about it all,” Leggett added.

Recchia fell in the second round, but earned the 2017 Pro Extreme world championship on the strength of his event wins in his supercharged Agrow Fresh “Chicago Muscle” ’69 Camaro at the GALOT spring race and the Mid-America Indy Showdown.

PRO BOOST 
The Andy McCoy Race Cars Pro Boost event win was awarded to 2017 world champion Jose Gonzales, who was set to face El General Racing teammate Eric Dillard in the final round. Gonzales and Dillard were unable to return for the postponed eliminations Sunday morning.

Dillon Voss went back-to-back in East Side Auto Transport Extreme Outlaw 632, winning the event and securing the world championship. Pilot Electric Outlaw 10.5 low qualifier Mike Decker Jr. also raced to victory in the class’s lone appearance on the PDRA 2017 tour.

In the PDRA’s sportsman classes, Henry Underwood won in MagnaFuel Top Sportsman Elite 16, Louis Ouimette won in Top Sportsman 32, and Matt Cooke earned the Lucas Oil Top Dragster victory. Tyler Rudolph won on a double breakout in the Campers Inn RV Pro Junior Dragster final round, running 7.877 to Dalton Hayes’s 7.871, both on a 7.90 dial-in. The MegaCorp Top Junior Dragster win went to Kaylee Love, who defeated 2017 world champion Brayden Davis, 7.915 on a 7.90 dial to Davis’s 8.947 on an 8.96 dial. Mandy Teets-Seal won the eight-round Edelbrock Bracket Bash competition.

PRO NITROUS
Lizzy Musi used a holeshot advantage to defeat two-time Pro Nitrous world champion Tommy Franklin for the second consecutive final round. Musi in Frank Brandao’s “King Kong 6” ’15 Dodge Dart ran a 3.686-second pass at 206.13 mph alongside Franklin’s Musi-powered “Jungle Rat” ’69 Camaro running 3.657 at 204.91.

“I knew I had to do my job against Tommy,” Musi said. “He’s been running so well this weekend. I wasn’t shocked when he ran a 3.65 in the final because I knew it was coming from him. It felt good to be able to get the win on a holeshot. I just breathed a sigh of relief when I saw the win light come on.”

Musi qualified No. 2 and defeated Randy Weatherford, Jim Sackuvich and John Hall on her way to the final round. The Pat Musi Racing Engines president recorded three of the fastest passes in Pro Nitrous history, tying her own national record with a 206.54 blast against Hall. Franklin was the low qualifier with his national-record 3.653, followed by a barrage of 3.6-second passes to take out James Hancock, Jason Harris and Jay Cox.

EXTREME PRO STOCK
A perfect .000-second reaction time was all John Montecalvo needed to drive around recently crowned Extreme Pro Stock world champion Cary Goforth in the final round. Coming off a record-setting 4.020 in the semifinals, Montecalvo drove his Haas-built ’17 Camaro to a 4.052 at 179.33 over Goforth’s 4.023 at 177.95 in his Dean’s Casing Service/Dewayne Higgins Trucking ’15 Camaro.

“What a perfect ending to the season,” Montecalvo said. “As a driver, I’m overjoyed to win on a holeshot. They’re telling me now it was a .0000 light – that’s really cutting it close. I felt good in the car. We made some changes to the clutch linkage for the final round. Man, it certainly reacted. Winning on a holeshot in the final round? That’s the way to do it.”

A two-time winner on the season, Montecalvo raced out of the No. 3 spot and raced past John Konigshofer, Elijah Morton and Chris Powers. Goforth, who secured his second PDRA world championship at the GALOT fall race, qualified No. 1 and bested mountain motor Pro Stock veterans Lester Cooper, John Bartunek and Jeff Dobbins on the way to his fifth final of the season.

PRO EXTREME MOTORCYCLE
Cleveland, North Carolina’s Brad McCoy earned his second consecutive Pro Extreme Motorcycle victory when he rode his Q80 Racing ’15 Hayabusa to a 4.041 at 175.37 over Terry Schweigert’s 4.062 at 163.97.

“To come out at the end of the year and win two in a row, it doesn’t get any better than that,” McCoy said. “We worked hard all year and made a lot of changes. We struggled in qualifying and started finding our problem first and second round. We just kept working at it and it paid off in the final.”

McCoy, who celebrated his 38th birthday along with the win, qualified fourth before beating Shane Eperjesi, Spencer Allen and No. 1 qualifier Chris Garner-Jones. Schweigert, a Canadian dairy farmer, rode out of the No. 3 spot and charged to round wins over Terry Wynn, three-time PDRA world champion Eric McKinney and T.T. Jones.

EXTREME OUTLAW 632

Racing in just the second event with a new Voss Racing Engines ’17 Corvette, Dillon Voss qualified No. 1 and won his second consecutive race in Extreme Outlaw 632. He left first on No. 2 qualifier Ken Quartuccio and streaked to a 4.319 at 166.09 to defeat Quartuccio’s 4.308 at 169.25 in his ’69 Camaro. Voss previously defeated Rocky Raynor and John Lassiter, while Quartuccio bested Robert Sellers and Dominic Augustine before a bye into the final round.

OUTLAW 10.5
Baltimore, Maryland’s Mike Decker Jr. was the man to beat in Outlaw 10.5, a class added to the World Finals lineup in the weeks leading up to the event. Decker qualified his supercharged Decker Salvage C7 Corvette in the No. 1 spot and defeated John Carinci’s aborted 13-second run with a 4.158 at 191.05 in the final round. He received a bye run in the opening round, then drove to round wins over Ron Green and son Mike Decker III. Carinci raced around Brian Chin and Dale Collins Jr.

TOP SPORTSMAN

Better at both ends of the track, Top Sportsman Elite 16 driver Henry Underwood ran 4.114 on a 4.01 dial-in to upset low qualifier Matt Smith in Henry Dogay’s “Cajun Nightmare” ’68 Camaro, who slowed to a 4.077 on a 3.80 dial-in. Underwood earned round wins over Cam Clark, Jordan Wood and Billy Albert before facing the two-time NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle world champion. Smith’s route to the final round included round wins over Tim Lawrence, Scott Duggins and Barry Daniluk.

With nearly 100 Top Sportsman cars on the final qualifying order, a 32-car Top Sportsman race was added to compliment the Elite 16 field. Canadian driver Louis Ouimette secured the Top Sportsman 32 event win when final round opponent David Weedon red-lighted.

TOP DRAGSTER

Newly crowned Top Dragster world champion Matt Cooke capped off his season with a second event win in his fifth consecutive final round. Racing from the No. 8 spot, Cooke used a .003 reaction time and 3.968 pass on a 3.93 dial-in to beat Chase Beverly’s 3.924 on a 3.91 dial-in. Cooke in his ProCharger-boosted dragster began eliminations with a bye run before taking out Jimmy Sackuvich and Michael Galafaro. Beverly qualified seventh and defeated Bubba Turner, Chaz Silance and Randy Whitlock on his way to the final.

The 2018 PDRA Tour will begin at GALOT Motorsports Park in Benson, North Carolina, with the PDRA East Coast Spring Nationals, April 5-7.

Pro Nitrous star Lizzy Musi has rewritten the history books in more ways than one during her tenure in the Middle East for the Arabian Drag Racing League Pro Series.

In winning Round 4 of the series at Qatar Racing Club in Doha, Qatar, she became the first female driver to win a race in the series’ history. At the previous event, Round 3 at Bahrain International Circuit in Sakhir, Bahrain, she recorded what was, at the time, the quickest elapsed time in Pro Nitrous history with a 3.663-second blast in her Jerry Bickel-built, Frank Brandao-owned 2015 Dodge Dart backed by Al-Anabi Performance (AAP).

“To get a win here, as a woman, was a big deal and I’m honored to be a part of this team,” said Musi. “I hope it can serve as inspiration for other women out there.”

Though the team is clearly headed in the right direction, getting to this point wasn’t easy.

“This car has always been fast and we felt confident coming overseas with it, but when we got here it was just tire shake, tire shake, tire shake,” Musi admitted. “But working with Justin Elkes from Modern Racing and Adam Lambert of Precision Racing Suspension, along with my dad (Pat) and our crew, we got it sorted out and this car is just consistent and quick every time now. It’s a dream to drive now.

“The facility here in Doha is unbelievable, and everyone treats us like family. The way the track is prepped over here, it’s just unreal. It’s so tight and you can really pour the coals to it,” Musi continued. “The consistency and just making lap after lap has helped not only our team, but my confidence as a driver. We don’t do a ton of testing back home and I really don’t have a lot of laps in this car if you really think about it, so this has been very beneficial for us and it’s what set up our win and the record run.”

Musi knows things will be a bit different when she returns home to Mooresville, North Carolina, and begins preparation for the upcoming Professional Drag Racers Association (PDRA) season. Conditions will change, but the information and experience gathered over the winter in the Arabian Pro Series will be invaluable. Plus, she’ll be returning with the same car, engine, crew, and sponsor.

“This is the same Musi 959 engine that we ran so well with last season, and we just keep refining it and making it better,” Musi said. “The same engine is in Mahana Al-Naemi’s car, and he and I keep trading records back and forth right now. We’re so fortunate to have the support of Sheikh Khalid bin Hamad Al Thani and AAP, and we’re looking forward to having them on board for the 2017 PDRA season.”

As qualifying gets underway for the fifth and final race of the winter series, the 26-year-old driver is focused on backing up her performances and taking home another win and possibly the championship.

“I have to thank my dad and the crew. Tommy Franklin has helped us a lot, as well as Ronnie Viccaro, Chris Murray, Donnie, and Shorty,” Musi concluded. “It was great to get that first win over here, and it would be just as sweet to wrap up the series with another win and the championship. We have the car to do it, and I’m focused on holding up my end of the bargain as the driver.”

It’s not hard for Lizzy Musi to stand out. As the lone female competitor at PDRA Pro Nitrous events, she is easily recognized. Add to that a successful career, including recently topping the ultra-competitive field at the PDRA North-South Shootout with a number one qualifier, and Lizzy owns a unique stance in drag racing. A new partnership with Indocil Art will combine Lizzy’s interests and style with artistic design, and she’s sure to turn heads once again.

Lizzy and Indocil Art mastermind Ryan Young have teamed up to create a series of helmets uniquely themed to her interests. Musi’s artistic side complement Young’s own to form a collaboration not normally seen between a racer and helmet painter, leading to a very unique design. The first helmet is inspired by ZZ Top’s “Eliminator” hit.

“I’m an MTV kid,” confessed Young, who says he owes his current business in part to rock and roll inspirations. “Being eight years old when MTV first aired, it shaped a huge portion of my impressionable young life, and no one could hold a candle to ZZ Top. ZZ Top politely informed this nerdy kid that you, too, could have the hot babydoll girlfriend if you had the keys to the right car. I built no less than three ’33 Ford model cars of the famed ‘Eliminator’ hot rod, trying each time to make it more like the car I drooled over during those rock and roll videos growing up. ZZ Top lit the fuse of a long love affair with hot rods, custom paint and rock and roll.”

“I don’t even know where to begin to describe this helmet,” added Musi, who shares Young’s love for classic rock. “Ryan is an amazing, talented artist who is creative in ways others couldn’t even think of. Growing up all I ever listened to was classic rock, because my mom and dad always listened to it. I just loved it. ZZ Top is one of my dad’s favorites and became mine as well. My dad has always inspired me in so many ways and I based this helmet off of him and my childhood.”

Lizzy’s “Eliminator” helmet is a piece of art in addition to being highly functional with the reliability and safety innovation Simpson helmets are known for. The double “Zs” from Lizzy’s name offer the perfect tie-in to a ZZ Top design. Combining that with automotive elements in the graphics make the design distinctive to Musi and her career.

“The idea is to choose an album or a band that represents Lizzy’s current position in her professional racing career,” Young explained. “I was extremely excited when she said her first choice would be to do a ZZ Top ‘Eliminator’ helmet because it was one of her dad’s favorite albums. Being able to drive Frank Brandao’s King Kong 6 Pro Nitrous Dodge Dart at over 200 MPH in an eighth of a mile relates perfectly to the lyric we chose for the back of the helmet: ‘I’m bad… I’m nationwide.’

“This helmet means as much to me as it does Lizzy and it was one of the most fun helmets I’ve had the pleasure of painting. I thought about the frustration of trying to build the models perfectly and never thinking I had enough talent to paint something cool like the ZZ Top ‘Eliminator’ coupe.”

“This project has been really fun so far,” agreed Musi. “I can’t wait to see what we come up with for the other helmets in the series. Each of these will be something I will treasure for years to come.”

For more information on Indocil Art visit www.indocilart.com.