It's dragsters vs. door cars in this special racing series

5/7/03

Dale Wilson is a bracket racing "retiree" who was editor of Bracket Racing USA from 1991 to its demise in 1998. His latest dream is to return to racing in either a front-engine dragster, a slow motorcycle or the family Mazda wagon. Everything else he has is for sale.

ow here's another twist in the ol' bracket racing game: Chris Phillips, an Atlanta racer and part-owner of Montgomery (Alabama) Motorsports Park, has come up with a series of five bracket races which feature a special runoff between a dragster and a door car. Understand, with Phillips' series, which was begun last year, dragsters race dragsters and door cars race door cars, both for a set purse of $3,000 to both winners. Then the dragster guy goes off against the door car winner for an extra $1,000.

The race series is called the Super Eliminator Series. It's déjà vu all over again. Remember in the late 1950s through the middle 1960s, when a AA/Fuel Dragster would run, say, a AA/Gas Dragster for Top Eliminator? Or a certain Ohio-based, robin's-egg-blue '33 Willys (George Montgomery's, of course) would race, say, a blown A/Competition coupe (Raymond Godman's) for Middle Eliminator? Same idea, only this time, it's door car vs. dragster for Super Eliminator.

Why the series? Phillips tells us, "Because when I went to the bigger races like the B&M (Racer Appreciation Series) and other big money races, a lot of the locals didn't show up, especially the door car drivers, because they felt the odds were against them because the better drivers had dragsters, which have better visibility. They felt like they didn't have a chance to get into the deep rounds and win enough money to make it worth it for them to show up," he says. "So I decided to separate the eliminators into two, door cars against door cars and dragsters against dragsters, and do the door car-dragster split in the final. That way, a door car guy has already won $3,000 before he even has to run the first dragster."

The final win is worth an extra $1,000 to whoever crosses the last stripe.

Phillips' races are a modification, he says, of the Top Eliminator races that many eighth-mile tracks have in south Georgia, but in those races, Phillips adds, the Footbrake winner goes off against the Pro, or electronics-equipped-car, winner, usually for a very small purse. The bonus there is a very large payout up to the final round, Phillips says.

Traditional Footbrake vs. Pro car tracks are those like Macon International Dragway, Phenix City Dragway, U.S. 19 Dragway at Albany, and at Southern Dragway in Douglas in the off-season.

"A lot of places run them over the winter months when they're not going to have a big car count," Phillips says. "But I modified my races to make the two purses that you win on each side larger, and the bonus smaller," he said. That way, both finalists are guaranteed a good payday at the track regardless of whether they win the final round or not.

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