Nice While It Lasted
Although he held neither Low ET nor Top Speed, Joshua Hernandez was positively brutal at MMP. Electing to sit in the pits until the second round of the ‘06 World Finals rerun, crew chief Howard Moon produced an out-of-the-box 3.879, complete with a career-best 2.56 330-foot ET, at 191.65 mph for a win over Texan Bobby Booth’s ‘53 ‘Vette. Moon tempered his rage in the semi-finals of the WF, backing off to a 3.94/188.71 over Brandon Pesz in Steve Engel’s team ‘63 Stingray. (Bret Kepner photo)
While even ADRL President Kenny Nowling now refers to the event as “the Race That Never Happened,” the ill-fated inaugural SHELOR.com Motor Mile Winter/Spring Drags managed to produce one glorious day and night of drag racing at George Howard’s Montgomery Motorsports Park. Although tornado sirens and torrential rains wiped out Saturday’s official qualifying and the approaching cold front turned Sunday’s eliminations into a repeat of the wintry weather which forced the postponement of the event’s original
February date, an ADRL record of 91 vehicles in four different categories thrilled a capacity crowd on Friday, the thirteenth of April.
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The American Drag Racing League’s traditional eight-hour Friday testing day would’ve made for impressive fields had qualifying been in force; 32 Pro Extreme (supercharged, turbocharged or nitrous oxide-injected) entries would have produced a 4.097-second 16- car bump spot, 33 Pro Nitrous (nitrous-injected only) competitors would have put up a 4.189-second “bubble” and the top four of nine Extreme 10.5 cars were spread between 4.42 and 4.46!
The attempted continuation of the rained-out eliminations from the 2006 ADRL World Finals in Kennedale, Texas, managed to inch closer to a conclusion. The final rounds have now been moved to the next 2007 ADRL event at Valdosta, Georgia’s South Georgia Motorsports Park and, if finally finished, will have required nearly seven months and almost exactly one thousand road miles to complete.
Although the Montgomery event was not completed, it gave us an opportunity to see some terrific Chevy Pro Mods and 10.5 cars.
