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'Run/Tuff' in jeopardy
Words and photo
by Dale Wilson
1/18/04
 he
heads-up, no-breakout "Run/Tuff" eliminator,
designed to bring bracket racing to a higher
level, may be killed even before the 2004 season
begins. "Drag News Magazine" editor Todd Silvey,
who first thought of the idea of a heads-up
eliminator for bracket racing-type cars six
years ago, said he would make a final decision
on pursuing it after his "Drag Expo" exposition
in Chicago at the end of January 2004.
Laurie and Todd Silvey
pose by their legal Run/Tuff
dragster, which runs 5.50s in the eighth-mile.
It seemed like a good idea to some, and in fact, Silvey held
three such races last year, at Indianapolis Raceway Park,
Cordova Dragway and Wabash Valley Dragway. But only a handful
of racers with cars eligible for the Run/Tuff Eliminator
showed up, and at the recent Drag Expo show at Atlanta, held
in early January, Silvey said he came to the conclusion that
the idea of heads-up drag racing with cars carrying a minimum
weight limit and a limit on engine sizes coupled with a
"claimer" engine-size bounty might not be every bracket
racerıs cup of tea.
"Iıll give it the old college try, through this show (the Atlanta Drag Expo)
and the one in Chicago (scheduled for late January
2004), but after that, I donıt know," Silvey
told Drag
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Racing
Online. "Iım seriously thinking of refunding
all the sponsorsı money and calling it a day."
That would be a serious blow to his idea of
Run/Tuff, a form of heads-up/first-to-the-finish-line-wins-type
of drag racing that is, in Silveyıs words, "not
ruined by exclusive technology or the unlimited
wallet." For 2004, Silvey had planned a 10-race
series to be held in conjunction with the "Bracket
All Star Organization" at tracks throughout
the Midwest and South, including IRP, Kansas
City Intıl Raceway, Memphis Motorsports Park,
Mid-Michigan Motorplex, National Trail Raceway,
Gateway Intıl Dragway, Cordova Dragway, Bluegrass
Raceway, Milan Dragway and Byron Dragway.
Silvey even had his own car built exclusively
for the Run/Tuff series, a beautiful Gebhardtıs
Pro Cars rear-engine dragster with a PER Race
Engines of Chicago small-block (its cost: $3,195)
that fit the eliminator rules to the letter.
At each of the Run/Tuff races last year, his
was one of not more than five that showed up
to do battle, and Silvey was usually busy checking
other entrants for the correct cubic inch engines
and thus didnıt race. His car has gone a best
of 5.51 at 130 mph, a "normal" elapsed time
for the Run/Tuff class.
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