D.I. COLUMNIST
On the Road
with Van Abernethy
I
see some improbable and
downright amazing things
transpire in my racing travels,
but what I witnessed at Huntsville
Dragway during Radial Fest on
April 28 is something I won’t soon
forget!
Deda Ford Minor is a well-known
personality in racing, although she
doesn’t actually race...or at least she
didn’t until making her debut at the
aforementioned event last month.
Since then, “racing” is pretty much
all that the 36-year-old registered
nurse from Muscle Shoals, Alabama,
wants to do. Deda is, of course, the
daughter of Kenny and LaGail Ford,
who own and operate Performance
Torque Converters (PTC), a busi-
ness Kenny founded in 1996. Deda
not only grew up at the
track, she also has keen
insight regarding the
business end of rac-
ing. She’s worked at
the PTC shop since it
was first opened, han-
dling the shipping of
parts, inventory and
sometimes inspecting
repairs as they come
in. Racing is so much
a part of her life, she
even named her son
“Race”!
That’s what makes
her Huntsville debut
last month so intrigu-
ing. That, and the fact
that she wound up win-
ning the event! Over
the years, I’ve seen
several folks place run-
ner-up in their racing
debut, but never have
I personally been on hand to watch
someone win during their very first
at-bat! So what was Deda’s reaction
to this amazing feat? Uncontrol-
lable laughter mainly. “Honestly, I
got every lucky break anyone could
imagine. It was meant to be, because
nobody gets as much luck in a race
as I did,” she chuckled. Actually, one
of her “lucky breaks” was one that
you really couldn’t have imagined...
but we’ll talk more about that in a
minute.
During her debut race at Hunts-
ville, Deda was driving her daddy’s
1967 Camaro, one of many that he
has collected over multi-
ple decades. She was com-
peting in the 7.00 index
class, which featured a
32-car field. She qualified
second and was awarded
a bye-run in the opening
round. “After getting past
round one I was satisfied;
it didn’t matter what happened from
there on out,” she said with assur-
ance. In round two, she was paired
with a racer she knew very well, an
accomplished driver with tons of ex-
perience. As they crept into the stag-
ing beams, Deda staged first, while
her competitor rocked through the
beams and fouled at the start, which
handed the round to Deda. In round
three, her competition staged prop- and marched toward the
finals.
Approaching 11:00
p.m., it was time for the
last run of the night, as
Deda would face Spencer
Smith, who had earlier
outran Deda’s dad, Kenny,
as well as Ed Bendall, an-
other accomplished racer who also
works at the PTC shop. Staged and
ready, it was a green-light start, with
both drivers streaking across the fin-
ish line door handle-to-door handle.
As Deda sped past the scoreboard
she glanced up in time to see 6.99
flash across her lane and realized
she had ran quicker than the 7.00
index and most certainly lost the
race if Spencer had run the number.
erly, but straight up red-lit, so once
again the rookie driver advanced to
the semi-finals...and that’s where
the most bizarre lucky break of the
evening took place.
While Deda and her competition
sat in the staging lanes just prior to
the semis, a track official noticed
a strong odor of alcohol permeat-
ing from her competitor’s race car...
and just to be clear, we’re not talking
about alcohol of the racing fuel va-
riety! After being deemed “too tipsy
to race” he was disqualified from
eliminations, so yet again Deda won
the round on a competition single When she pulled up to the ticket
booth, the attendant gave her a
thumb up and handed her the time
slip. “Did I win!?” she asked curi-
ously. “Yep, it was a double break
out. He ran 6.97...you’re the win-
ner!” he replied. That’s when the
uncontrollable laughter started. “I
just couldn’t believe it – it was awe-
some!” she beamed.
Back at the starting line, a large
cheering section of friends, family
and PTC employees had gathered
to watch the final run. Obviously,
they knew the outcome long before
Deda did. When her win light came
on, a Super Bowl-style celebration
erupted, and when she drove to the
winner’s circle, her daddy was the
first person she saw upon exiting the
race car. “He gave me a big ol’ hug
and we both started laughing,” she
grinned. Her kids. Alex and Race,
were amazed too, but mainly at the
size of the check she’d won, and not
just the dollar amount, but rather,
the literal dimensions of the check.
“Papaw has never won a check this
big!” they exclaimed with excite-
ment.
Amazingly, it was her son, Race,
who gave her some memorable ad-
vice before the event. “I told Race
that I didn’t sleep well the night
before, and I explained that I was
kinda nervous about competing
in my first event. He
says to me, ‘M