PHOTOS: CHRIS SEARS, JT HUDSON, JOHN FORE III
Keith Haney’s Radical
Radial Arrival
All eyes were on PDRA
Pro Nitrous competitor Keith
Haney when he made his
highly anticipated Radial
vs. World debut at Valdosta.
Rather than mounting a set
of radials on his Pro Nitrous
car, Haney had Larry Jeffers
construct a nearly identical
2015 Chevy Camaro specifically to run a handful of radial races. He talked a big game
online in the weeks leading
up to the event, going back
and forth with critics who expected the RVW veterans to
crush this newcomer. Haney
certainly backed up his talk
once it came time to hit the track.
The Brandon Pesz and Brandon
Switzer-tuned “Enigma” entry
laid down a shocking 3.894-second elapsed time in the opening
qualifying session, giving Haney
the quickest nitrous-equipped
radial car title and the provisional
number one qualifying position.
May 2016
Enigma smacked the wall in the
second session, leaving his KHR
team to work through the night
to make the necessary repairs for
final qualifying. Haney’s comeback story continued in eliminations when he beat Steven Fereday
and Shawn Ayers in the first two
rounds, but a hole shot loss to
Daniel Pharris sent Haney back to
Oklahoma.
“It was truly a storybook
weekend,” Haney begins. “To do
what we did and to accomplish
what we accomplished – earning
the respect of the drag radial
world – it just doesn’t happen like
that very often. I hate that I let
my guys down, but I think we’re
all still on cloud nine. I’ve never
lost on a hole shot in my life, and
I’ve been racing a long time. Truly,
I’ve never, ever been beaten on a
hole shot. Pharris is a good driver,
though, and he did his job better
than I did mine. That’s all there
is to it.”
DragIllustrated.com
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