Nashville’s Phillip Bullock extended his mastery at Rockingham Dragway by driving his venerable 1966 Chevy station wagon to its second Top ET victory in three years in the Original Super Chevy Show Series.

Bullock beat Raeford’s Tommy Strickland in Sunday’s final giving him bookend wins in the all-Chevy event: victories in 2015 and 2017 around a runner-up finish in 2016. Phillip Bullock, Nashville, 1966 Chevy wagon, .031, 6.031 on a 5.990, 107.59 mph, def. Tommy Strickland, Raeford, .012, 16.691 on a 4.530, 43.17 mph.

In Footbrake, Richard Alford Jr., Raleigh, .007, 6.193 on a 6.160, 101.29 mph, def. Wesley Roberts, Benson, .035, 5.778 on a 5.760, 118.04 mph.

DOT Street Tire: Ken Myrick, Julian, 1970 Chevy Nova, .006, 12.748 on a 12.770, 100.17 mph, def. Ted Carter, Ellerbe, 1967 Chevelle, .065, 10.514 breakout on a 10.540, 126.23 mph.

Trophy: Ronnie Locklear, Rowland, 2004 Buick, .246, 18.171 on a 15.600, 59.02 mph, def. John Sobczk, Kill Devil Hills, 1991 Camaro, .173, 15.199 on a 9.500, 82.58 mph.

Rockingham’s Terry Rosberg won the jet car match race with Joe Zaccaro at a best e.t. of 5.46 seconds with a speed of 290.01 mph.

Walter Reardon of Savannah, Ga., drove Scott Cozzali’s 1955 Chevy Bel Air to victory over Kip Kauffman of Elgin, S.C., in the “Clash of the Classics” shootout.  [10/03/17]

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Saturday was Day Last for the Sparco Fall Fling presented by Optima Batteries at Bristol Dragway.

First up -- and an actual first for the ‘Fling -- was the wedding of Stephen and Kimmy Marinchek with the Minister of Parking, Sally Martini, officiating right on the starting line.

Then co-promoter Peter Biondo had an announcement for the crowd. “After another very smooth event and listening to our racers’ opinions, we have come to realize that our East Coast Fling events are growing rapidly. In order for us to continue to give our racers an optimum experience, we have made the decision to limit the amount of entries for our East Coast 2018 Spring Fling at Galot, and 2018 Fall Fling at Bristol.”

All the details have been finalized yet, but the cap number will be somewhere in the 350 to 390 car count range. As a loyalty gesture, anyone that has attended any one of the previous Flings will have first priority to pre-enter both events in 2018.

As for eliminations, round seven opened with nine survivors; Shane Maddox, Mike Moore, Bradley Chartier, Ivey Brannon, Carroll Click, Jake Woodring, Cameron Manuel, Severn Johnson and Joe Gary. Winners of that round included Moore, Woodring, Brannon, Gary and Maddox taking the bye into the quarters.

For the quarterfinals, Maddox used a better reaction time than Moore to move to the semis, while Gary used a .002 reaction time to defeat Woodring, and Brannon took the odd car bye run. The ladder is reset every round to reaction time, with the exception the best driver might have already had a bye. In this case, all three drivers already had bye runs so the ladder reverts to the best reaction time, which was the newly crowned as of this point, Todd’s Extreme Paint MVP Award recipient Joe Gary. Gary would move to his second $20,000 ‘Fling final after winning on Racepak Thursday, while Maddox and Brannon would do battle.

Ironically, all of the semifinalists reside within 30 minutes of one another and it was Maddox Race Cars who built Gary’s car along with rebuilding Brannon’s dragster. With Brannon doing an admirable job all day driving, it was Maddox who laid down a .028 package making Brannon’s .032 reaction time mathematically ineligible for a win. So, with Gary taking the odd car bye, the final day of the Fall Fling will come down to two door cars.

For the final, only .05 separated them in handicap with Maddox leaving first, but Gary’s -.004 red-light ended the night and moved Maddox into his second Spring Fling final.

Next Fling event will be the K&N Spring Fling Million at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, April 16-21. Then comes the K&N Spring Fling at Galot Motorsports Park in North Carolina, May 1-5.

Lancaster (NY) National Dragway's 2017 season came to an end on Friday, Sept. 29, after the final Franco's Pizza IHRA Drag Racing event of the year was rained out. With the schedule now in the books that means the 2017 drag racing track champions have been decided, and they will be honored at the Season Awards Banquet on Friday, Nov. 10.

Dale Eckert captured his first career Mallare Enterprises Top ET championship following a run of 10 titles in 11 years while competing in Mod ET. Eckert edged Jan Winkowski by just ten points to lock up the title.

Reid Ricketson became just the third different driver in 12 years to win the McGard Mod ET championship. Ricketson and teammate Ray Thurston IV combined to win two races in 2017 to help clinch the track title one week before the season ended.

In Hebeler's Sales Bikes and Sleds, Mike Peters won his second-straight track championship. Peters won three out of the first four races of the season and then won the final race of the year to edge fellow four-time race winner Lucas Salemi for the title. He has won the Bikes & Sleds championships in three out of the last four years.

Mason Fix repeated as track champion in Tread City Tire Street ET. Fix won the final two races of the year to help propel him ahead of Eddie Semlitsch for the Street crown.

In the Tuesday night Junior Dragster program, Zac Vitez won his second track championship in three years. (Neffke Motorsports Photography)     [10/03/17]