GAME, SET, MATCH TO PILCHER

Billed as an Alabama vs. Georgia Pro Mod Showdown, Johnny Pilcher and Dan Parker faced off Aug. 14, at Reynolds, GA. In true best-two-out-of-three match race fashion, with wins in rounds one and three on the 1/8-mile at Silver Dollar Raceway, Pilcher took the honors home to ‘Bama.

Round one saw the closest finish after both drivers left with nearly identical reaction times, but Pilcher’s black ‘63 ‘Vette went 4.163 at 175.05 mph to edge the 4.229/173.41 by Parker in Mike Hill’s similar split-window car. Undaunted, Parker said he simply underestimated what the track would hold and declared, “we got plenty left in it.”

He backed that up with a round-two win despite having to pedal it about half-track to control tire shake, as Pilcher drifted out of the groove and had to abort his pass. “It actually

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surprised me,” Pilcher said. “Usually if I’m expecting that I can drive through it, but it was headed to the wall pretty fast.”

The crowd was loving it when the two sleek Corvettes lined up late at night for the deciding pass. At the green, Pilcher left first, then streaked to a 4.149 at 175.64 mph, almost exactly what he’d predicted to the Agent beforehand. Parker finished with a 4.263 at 168.28-mph pass after again having to pedal twice to keep it off the wall. Pilcher said he “didn’t change a thing all day long” and revealed, “I thought the track would’ve been more aggressive than what I normally run on, so the tires we put on it have about 70 passes on them.” (Ian Tocher photos)  [8-17-2004]