A by-product of the Big Dog Shootout was that it created local heroes out of “regular Joes." News of the Big Dog shootout spread throughout the Internet and on some dedicated racing message forums, trash talking was the order of the day stating the local Big Dogs couldn’t run with the “real” Big Dogs (those of the NMCA like Musi, Dantoni, Christian, etc).

In an almost P.T. Barnum like move, in 2003 Harris issued a $50,000 challenge to the North (squarely aimed at Musi) to bring their eight best cars and put them up against the best the South had to offer. Pat Musi, never one to back down from a challenge, brought the North team loaded with a howitzer canon. The likes of Tony Christian, Marc Dantoni, Tony Gentile and Musi himself were among the headliners. Between them were countless “Fastest Street Car” championships, wins, and world records. You could see from the beginning it was going to be a war.

In the end, last year Marc Dantoni from Team North ended up taking home the Big Dog Trophy and the $50,000 check with a win over Todd Tutterow by just mere thousandths of a second in the finals.

In 2004 the challenge for a rematch was issued by Bob Harris for the North to again bring their best eight to compete with the South for the $50,000 prize, the Big Dog trophy and bragging rights for another year.

THURSDAY QUALIFYING

On the cool Thursday evening of October 9, Team South had the honors of qualifying first. Excitement was built up and the HUGE crowd of over 6000 was buzzing. Unfortunately, an early end to Ricky Young and JJ Smiths’ bid to garner a spot on team South came when Young, in the right lane, left early with Smith following behind and less than 60 feet out something apparently broke on Young’s truck (photo below) and it made a hard left across the track directly in front of Smith’s car. The two vehicles collided and the ensuing crash was both spectacular and horrific with Smith’s right front end solidly impacting Young’s truck near the driver's side door and sending Smith’s car flying in the air sideways and bouncing off the wall before coming to a stop with right side up again. Neither driver was seriously injured but the same couldn’t be said for their race cars and Young was EXTREMELY lucky to escape without any serious injuries as the main door bars were broken and shoved very close to the seat in which he was sitting.

Team South struggled to get down the track with many aborted runs. Then the shot the North didn’t want to see was when Tutterow landed his Mustang in the #1 spot with a (then) track record 4.22.

Pat Musi fired the first shot from the north with a 4.28 pass and after one round of qualifying Tutterow and Musi were on top of their respective fields.

In the second round of qualifying last year's winner, Marc Dantoni, ran an out-of-shape 4.33, still managing to hang on to the No. 2 spot. Musi drove through the clutch and shut his car off well before the finish line.

When it was Team South’s turn at bat, Tutterow unloaded a 4.19 to the screams of the packed crowd. The last round of qualifying Thursday night was uneventful as Tutterow shut off early and coasted down the track and Musi scattered engine parts on the track during his last attempt. Thursday ended with Tutterow and Musi (below) at the top of their respective classes.