RADIAL FEST
Racing, TRE Racing Engines and Bryson Motors-
ports. In the final qualifying session, Mitchell was
on another stellar run when the engine expired,
ending his chance at the $10,000 top prize.
As eliminations began, local Alabama runner
Jamie Hancock figured out his driveline issues
and cracked off his first full run of the weekend a 3.86. Mills took a 3.88 on to the semis while
Woodruff and Micke landed a 3.91 and 3.94 on
the board, respectively. Hancock and Mills moved
on to the finals but the Oklahoma-based Golden
Gorilla was plagued with breakage. Hancock laid
down low elapsed time of the meet with a 3.859
in the finals to put the nitrous oxide-assisted
entry into the winner’s circle after two runner-up
finishes at previous Radial Fest events.
with a win over Tommy Rainer. DeWayne Mills,
Chris Daniel, Mark Woodruff, Mark Micke, Tim
Kincaid and Norman Bryson all moved on as well.
As the second round ended, all seven competitors
ran in the 3-second zone with Hancock taking a
competition bye and going low for the round with Limited Drag Radial has quickly become one
of the most hyped and talked-about categories
in the outlaw drag racing world with its close
competition from event to event. Shawn Ayers
wheeled the Fletcher Cox-owned, single turbo-
charged, small block-powered Ford Mustang,
better known as Golddust, to the number-one
qualifying position and laid down the national
elapsed time record in the process, 4.126 at 178.93
mph. Ayers carried his performance to the semifi-
nals before the car rolled the beams, handing the
automatic victory over to Jack Greene’s nitrous-
huffing Chevrolet Nova as Jeff Kyle moved on over
Jason Rueckert on the other half of the ladder.
Kyle’s small block, twin turbocharged powerplant
was unable to fire in the staging lanes in the final
round. Greene was handed the competition bye in
the final and took full advantage of that, running
his career best, a 4.219 at 176 mph.
X275 had the best car count of the top three
heads-up classes as 21 cars made qualifying at-
tempts. Cecil Whitaker from Dexter, Missouri,
stood atop the field with a 4.50 but could not
make the call for eliminations due to breakage.
After fighting through tough competitors all day,
Ken Johnson, Earl Stanley, Phil Hines and Sean
Lyon were left standing rolling into the semifinals.
Hines and Stanley both emerged victorious in the
semis with both cars running a 4.525 et going
into the final round. Sadly, Huntsville Dragway
has a strict curfew and they were not able to turn
the cars around in time to make the final round.
Mikie Smith (Mean Street), Tyree Smith (King
of the Streets), Derek Fuller (6.00 Index) and
Deda Ford Minor (7.00 Index) all claimed vic-
tories as well in the remaining
categories. Deda, well-known
daughter of Kenny Ford, owner
of PTC, won 7.00 Index in her
first-ever competition event
and only second time in the
race car usually piloted by
her father.
“This was one of the largest
Radial Fest events that we’ve
had yet,” said promoter Zach
Jones. “The quality of cars
was top tier and the spectator
count was more than ever be-
fore, nearly filling up all of our
spectator parking lots, includ-
ing the west side parking lot.”
With a few months of downtime until the
next event, September 14-16th, Jones and the
Huntsville Dragway crew are looking to make
improvements to make everyone’s time at the
event as smooth and safe as possible.
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DI DI DI DI
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40 | D r a g
I l l u s t r a t e d | DragIllustrated.com
Issue 121
Dirt