ithout question, the 2004 Street Car Shootout series Gateway International Raceway in Madison, Illinois, proved diversity is alive and well at the grassroots level of heads-up drag racing.

The Street Car Shootout program, sponsored by St. Louisans Dwayne Rall and Rob Gibbons with their Southside City Speed Shop, features a simple format. Held during GIR's Tuesday Night Street Car Drags, all entries are given a permanent driver's number and a laminated driver's ID card. During the event, (an open timed trial affair for $15 entry), all drivers are automatically ranked by elapsed time using the track's CompULink timing system. When qualifying concludes at 10:00 p.m., each of the sixteen quickest qualifiers is awarded a large "Fastest Street Car Shootout Qualifier" decal and the two quickest qualifiers (or alternates, if needed) race heads-up for Winner and Runner-Up trophies.

While the decals and trophies are provided by Rall and Gibbons, it's interesting to note that both competed...and won Qualifier stickers...during 2004 in cars prepared by their own Southside City Speed Shop! With over 3,000 total entries in 21 events last year, the series could become one of the largest of its type this season.

Drag Racing Online took a keen interest in the program, and after the phenomenal success of the 2004 program, has become directly involved in 2005 by presenting trophies to the winner and runner-up in a weekly Showdown for the Front-Wheel-Drive and All-Wheel-Drive Sport Tuner contingents, (which comprised no less than thirty percent of '04 entries!). Since DRO's fearless leader Jeff Burk is a fan of current technology, the youth (and future) of the sport, and heads-up drag racing, it seemed like a natural for the Burkster to become a part of the action!

SCSS STREET CAR SHOOTOUT RESULTS -- 7/19/2005

W: Dan Shipley, Marthasville, MO; 1997 334 Mustang, 0.226, 9.691/147.75

RU: David Starns, St. Louis, MO; 1991 355 Mustang, 0.160, 10.858/124.74

Dan Shipley, whose brutally powerful twin-turbocharged Mustang had earned a runner-up on May 3, blasted to his first win in the SCSS Street Car Shootout Series title at Gateway International Raceway. After an astonishing performance at the World Ford Challenge and a recent True Street win at an NMCA event in Bowling Green, KY, the Marthasville, MO, driver came within one mile per hour of breaking Randy Christy's fifteen-month-old speed record for the SCSS series.

Typical July weather conditions, which included 90-degree air temperature and 80% humidity when qualifying began, kept most drivers from challenging their career-best numbers. Corrected elevations ranged from 2700 feet above sea level to 2100 feet during the final rounds and the track temp never fell below 96 degrees throughout the evening. Regardless, the top three qualifiers managed to record their best SCSS runs during the event.