PDRA Pro Nitrous Wheelman Marcus Butner Ready To Take on DI Winter Series
After making his Drag Illustrated World Series of Pro Mod debut earlier this year, Marcus Butner is upping the ante by accepting his invitation to compete in the inaugural Drag Illustrated Winter Series at Bradenton Motorsports Park. Though he’ll miss the Snowbird Outlaw Nationals in two weeks, the North Carolina native will join the action at the U.S. Street Nationals in January and the World Series of Pro Mod in March. Plus, the family business, Butner Construction signed on as an associate sponsor of the Winter Series.
Butner recently finished his first full eight-race PDRA Pro Nitrous season with a fourth-place finish in the championship points standings. He previously ran three partial seasons, including a 2023 campaign that saw him reach his first final round before earning his first career win. He’s proven himself as a driver, and tuner Jay Cox has a strong reputation of his own in the nitrous Pro Mod world. Together, the Butner Motorsports team is ready for the challenge of competing against the toughest teams in Pro Modified at the Winter Series.
“I’m expecting the baddest Pro Mod racing there is,” Butner said. “Our confidence is high. We have high hopes, obviously, but it’s the toughest thing you can ever show up to.”
Armed with a Musi 973-cubic-inch engine under the hood scoop in his “Heartbreaker” ’69 Camaro, Butner has dipped well into the low 3.60s. He’ll need that and more to contend with a field full of boosted entries, and he realizes that.
“I feel like it’s a little bit of a knife to a gunfight with the nitrous combination right now,” Butner said. “I wouldn’t want anybody to slow down to make it fair, but we’ve just got to figure out how to get enough weight out of the car to be competitive at World Series. We’re working very hard on that right now.”
Luke Nieuwhof photo
Butner had the third-quickest nitrous car in the 2024 WSOPM field, ending up No. 22 out of the 65 drivers that attempted to qualify for the 32-car field. He joined eventual runner-up Jim Halsey as the only two nitrous cars to advance to the third round, where he fell to eventual winner Derek Ward. Butner is determined to go two rounds further at the 2025 World Series.
“We’ve got everything fresh, we’re getting everything light, and we’re gonna swing through the fence and basically try to build our whole platform for the year off of it,” Butner said. “We’re coming for ’em, man. We’re gonna bring this little nitrous car out there and show them what we can do.”
Butner’s experience at the 2024 WSOPM inspired him to get involved as a sponsor for the inaugural DI Winter Series, which includes the historic Snowbird Outlaw Nationals presented by Motion Raceworks on Dec. 6-8, 2024; the U.S. Street Nationals presented by M&M Transmission on Jan. 24-26, 2025; and the World Series of Pro Mod on Feb. 27 to March 1, 2025. Butner Construction, based in Tobaccoville, North Carolina, will serve as an associate sponsor of the three-race series, which will pay out more than $300,000 to its winners and series champion.
“I just want to see it thrive,” Butner said. “I think it’s the coolest little race series there is on the planet. We couldn’t do a whole lot, but what we could do, we wanted to do.”
Tickets for all three races of the DI Winter Series are now on sale at www.TheWinterSeries.com.
This story was originally published on November 21, 2024.
The post PDRA Pro Nitrous Wheelman Marcus Butner Ready To Take on DI Winter Series first appeared on Drag Illustrated.
