With rainy weather forecast all weekend, the National Street Car Association (NSCA) suffered a poor car turnout Apr. 29-May 30, for its Jim Wittenberg Memorial Southern Nationals. Just 84 entries made it to Atlanta Dragway to contest 14 classes.

“I think a lot of our regulars, especially from up north, just decided to save the gas money for their tow rigs,” NSCA General Manager Patrick Budd said as the final rounds were set to start. “I think a lot of them are going to wish they’d come now.”

Haynes says he purchased his 2002 Corvette two years ago from car builder Pat Bennett and runs a 706 c.i. Fulton in it with three stages of nitrous, “but I only use two.”

As it happened, a Saturday morning storm did blow through, but Mother Nature turned out to be not quite as harsh as predicted and the fields were set after a late start to qualifying. Raceday dawned dry, warm, and clear, with eliminations conducted under bright blue skies.

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The weather was the least of concerns, though, for eventual Pro Outlaw winner Randall Haynes, who fragged the driveshaft in his tow vehicle on the way south from his home near Richmond, VA, leaving him stranded Thursday night alongside the Interstate in North Carolina. Fortunately, friend, rival, and fellow Virginian Pat Bennett was leaving for the track on Friday and was able to pick up Haynes, his crew, and car at the transmission shop they’d been towed to the night before.

That would’ve been enough of a setback, but 80 miles into the renewed trip, the hitch on Bennett’s rig broke, forcing him to drop the trailer along the roadside near Charlotte and head for a nearby shop and emergency welding repairs. The combined crews finally rolled into “Georgia’s House of Speed” about 6 p.m. Friday night, hoping their troubles were over.