Mattera swept the season with victories at the 2025 WDRA Summit Bracket Finals and World Championships.
MONTGOMERY, AL: A common theme throughout drag racing is how often fellow competitors become like family through their shared passion for the sport. For the newly named 2025 WDRA Summit No Box World Champion, Bobby Mattera, his biological family is also ingrained throughout the staging lanes. Mattera became casually involved in drag racing shortly after graduating high school, thanks to the introduction from his oldest brother, Joey.
After a few years of racing, including a Super Pro Track Championship in 1991, Mattera hung up his helmet in 2001 when his twin daughters, Allyson and Megan, were born prematurely. He admits he never planned on getting back behind the wheel, but in 2013, he was offered an opportunity to drive a Buick Opel, which eventually found its way into the most prestigious winner’s circle a dozen years later.
He explained, “My youngest brother, Danny, was driving the Opel for a friend of his named Joe Brown. They were going to buy a 1968 Camaro, so they asked if I would have any interest in driving the Opel, and I said, ‘Sure, why not?’ They were going to pay for everything, and we would split whatever I won. I drove it for two years for them, and in 2015, I ended up buying the car.”
That first year back on track, Mattera led the points chase all season but lost the track championship by one point on the last race. Those winning ways would continue, eventually earning four track championships and six invitations to the world championship-crowning events between the WDRA and IHRA. Due to issues with the motorhome, he was unable to make the trip last year; therefore, this was his first experience at the WDRA Summit World Championships presented by SunCoast Performance.
However, Mattera is no stranger to impressive final-round appearances, having earned three bracket finals main event victories within the last four seasons (IHRA in 2022, WDRA in 2024, and 2025). Last year, he cemented his Maryland International Raceway (MIR) track championship by claiming both the Race of Champions and main event wins at the WDRA Summit Eastern Bracket Finals. When asked how it felt to continue claiming such extraordinary victories, Mattera quipped, “It feels just as good. It never gets boring to win!”
This season, he finished third in the MIR No Box points but was the WDRA Summit Sportsman Drag Racing Series representative for the track alongside his second consecutive WDRA Summit Eastern Bracket Finals championship, skillfully earning his invitation to Montgomery International Dragway. Mattera reveals he wasn’t entirely convinced to make the journey from Maryland to Alabama until his brother qualified by winning the MIR Box track championship. He explained, “I knew that Joey was going to go if he won the track championship, so then it was no doubt that we had to go. It’s the first time that two of us have gone down together and been in the world finals. My brother, Tony, has been in the world finals a couple of times in Mod, but we’ve never qualified the same year.”
That decision turned out to be a profitable one for both brothers, as Joey won the Advanced Product Design free-entry Friday $5,000 Box victory and finished fifth in the national top ten standings, following a quarterfinal exit in the main event. Of course, Bobby edged out the awards for the weekend by coming home with the number one spot in the No Box standings and a hefty $20,000 cash payout.
On his way to the winner’s circle, Mattera would face off with Benny Combs (London Dragway), the reigning No Box World Champion; Drew Buchner (St. Thomas Dragway), Clark Doukas (I-29 Dragway), Brian Yerger Jr (WDRA Southeast Bracket Finals), and Matt Luckett (Windy Hollow Dragway) before the life-changing final round.
Mattera was four thousandths behind on the starting line but earned the .013 margin of victory over Zach Livingston (Eddyville Raceway Park) by running dead-on his dial-in for the third consecutive round. In addition to the cash and prestigious title, he earned a WDRA Champion Card and the iconic WDRA Rod Trophy.
When asked to talk through his thought process for the weekend, Mattera said, “I definitely felt like my concentration level was a lot better on Saturday than it was on Friday. I guess knowing it meant a lot more, the focus was there a little better. I [race] more kind of in the zone. You got to realize that everyone there is tough, everybody there is a champion, and anybody can win that race. Things just happened to work out good for me that day.”
Mattera’s skill certainly aided in his success, with an average reaction time of .015 throughout the six rounds of competition, and his worst light of .024 appearing in the final round. Consistently awaiting the third amber during undoubtedly one of the most pressure-inducing events of the season is likely attributed to his overall calm demeanor and experience in high-stress situations, gained throughout his twenty-two-year career with the Capitol police force. He admits that some nerves creep up, but they are quickly extinguished. “I do get a little nervous prior to going to the burnout box,” he explained,” But once we start the burnout, all that is out the window and you got to focus on what you need to do and know what you have to get done.”
When asked to share his immediate thoughts when the final win light turned on, Mattera said, “A bit of relief and lots of emotion. This is the most money I’ve ever won, and you go to big money bracket races where there’s a lot of heavy hitters, but the world finals are all champions, and so that’s definitely a big deal as well.”
A big deal is an understatement, and Mattera proficiently stamped his name into the record books by becoming the first WDRA World Champion to also secure a WDRA Bracket Finals championship in the same season. He is also the first to achieve either accolade in the Mattera family, which is full of drag racers, including his four brothers, nieces, and nephews. However, the competitive nature doesn’t bleed over from the starting line to the family get-togethers, as he acknowledges the support he received from everyone before and after his win. He said, “I believe they had more confidence in me going to the world finals than I did in myself. Like most people say, I wouldn’t go to a race if I didn’t think I could win it, but at the same time, you’ve always got to have some doubt. My brother, Johnny, was pretty confident that I was going to come back as the world champ.”
Mattera extends his gratitude to his wife, Laura, daughters, Allyson and Megan, the entire Mattera racing team, Terry Samakow Racing Engines, Alan Glatt with Interstate Racing Fuels, Matt Parlett at Computech Systems, JCR Products, Wayne Rogers Transmissions, and the WDRA.