FREDERICKSBURG, Va. (Dec. 3, 2024) – Iowa's Brunson Grothus is an accomplished competitor in numerous motorcycle drag racing classes and organizations, but a world championship in the Red Line Oil PDRA Drag Racing Series eluded him until this season. Racing on two wheels in Drag 965 Pro Extreme Motorcycle, Grothus competed against past world champions to win three of the five races that included the class on the eight-race PDRA schedule. He's now just the fifth different Pro Extreme Motorcycle world champion in the 11-year history of the series.
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Grothus, who previously rode his family's nitrous-assisted Indocil Art/Grothus Drag Bikes Hayabusa, started the season riding Robert Varela's turbocharged Excel Glass Systems/Dallas Flat Glass Distributors Hayabusa. He lost in the first round at the season opener, then won the American Doorslammer Challenge at Summit Motorsports Park. Grothus qualified No. 1 for the second time in his career at the North vs. South Shootout at Maryland International Raceway. He qualified No. 1 and won the inaugural Thunder Valley Throwdown at Bristol Dragway, then repeated the sweep at the Brian Olson Memorial World Finals at Virginia Motorsports Park. He clinched the title when he defeated two-time and outgoing world champion Chris Garner-Jones in the semifinals.
"It's the absolute highlight of my career," Grothus said. "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."
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Grothus is now in an exclusive group of just five riders who've claimed PDRA Pro Extreme Motorcycle world championships, joining three-timer Eric McKinney, four-timer Travis Davis, 2018 champion Ronnie Smith, and two-time champion Chris Garner-Jones.
"It was absolutely pressure-packed, which makes it even more rewarding," Grothus said of securing the championship in the final hours of the season. "People might think it's easy and they see the big speeds with the turbo, but we had to battle Chris, we had to battle Brayden [Davis, son of Travis], McKinney, [Ashley] Owens, and more. To even think about some of the people that we had to beat and some of the names that we get to join now, it's absolutely crazy. It's so hard to do. You've got to have luck. You have to let go of the button on time. It is so hard to do it and we're so fortunate."
One of the first people Grothus thanked is motorcycle owner Robert Varela.
"PDRA allowed turbos back in, then Robert Varela gave us a chance to race his motorcycle," said Grothus, who noted that the bike is for sale. "I thought after the 2019 or 2020 season of racing nitrous in the PDRA that we were probably done and this was something that was going to kind of hang over my head forever. Robert trusted us, said, 'Come pick up my bike, put my other spare motor together, go race, and do us proud,' so I hope we did Robert proud."
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Grothus also went on to thank his family-based team and those that support the Grothus Dragbikes team.
"I really have to thank my dad [Ed], Dan Wagner with DTM, and Tom Klemme with Klemme Performance Motorcycle," Grothus said. "He put the spare motor together and we had to have it. We hurt the other motor [Saturday] after we won the first round, and if we didn't get that motor back together, then we're not standing here right now. Big thanks also to my brother [Bradley] and my wife, Madeline. There's so many people involved, but those are some of the big ones."
Garner-Jones, a perennial top two finisher, ended up second with runner-up finishes at four of the five events. He also qualified No. 1 once on his nitrous-fed T.T. Jones Racing Hayabusa. Brayden Davis, the 2023 Pro Jr. Dragster world champion, finished third with one win and one No. 1 qualifier aboard the Davis family's nitrous-assisted Timblin Chassis Hayabusa.
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.
Photos by Tara Bowker and Gary Rowe
