Dragstock at Jackson, SC Words and photos by Ian Tocher 10/13/04

As it turned out, a driver who had entered only one previous Pro Mod race secured the team victory for the AMS All-Stars at the inaugural Dragstock, an impressive festival of speed and music staged Oct. 8-10, at Carolina Dragway. Unexpectedly subbing for his famous father, who was nursing a back injury, Scott Cannon Jr. entered the final round of racing just needing a win over number-one qualifier John Lynam to seal victory for the All-Stars.

Pro Mod legend Scotty Cannon directs the staging efforts of his son Scott just before he ripped off a 4.074 qualifying effort over the 1/8 mile at Carolina Dragway.

At the green, Cannon left first with a .091 holeshot over Lynam's .171 reaction, his worst of the weekend, then tripped the lights in 4.178 seconds to Lynam's quicker, but losing 4.026-second pass. That made the final score 21-18 in favor of the AMS gang, earning each member a $2,500 payday, while each member of the Flowmaster Outlaws took $1,000 home for their efforts.

Although the rules for Dragstock allowed the AMS drivers to run very liberal outlaw set-ups, Cannon Sr. said he was just running his car's blower at 25 percent overdrive (20 percent is legal in NHRA-sanctioned AMS action) and he'd taken "all the weight out," leaving the 1953 Studebaker about 2,650 pounds on the scales.

In the final pairing, John Lynam needed not only to win the round, but also earn the bonus points available for setting low e.t. and top speed marks of the session for the Outlaws to pull off the team victory at Dragstock.

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Dragstock's unique raceday format featured three sessions of 11 pairings each, with team members from the All-Stars and Outlaws repeatedly racing each other. No one was eliminated by a loss, but the winner of each race received one point for his or her team, plus one point was awarded for both low e.t. and top speed following each session, making a total of 39 points available.