As usual, Shannon “The Iceman” Jenkins had the car to beat in ADRL Pro Nitrous action, as he qualified number one for both races and made it to the final round each time, too.
“The track was really hot and it was a little greasy, but we were making good laps,” Jenkins said. “The track held together real well, but the conditions, it was the weather that would just wear you out.”
Like Lynam, Jenkins also qualified in the number-one position for eliminations in the Valdosta portion of the event, which paired him up against Jerry Bridgforth in
hisoutstanding 1966 Mustang GT350H. After easily handling Bridgforth, who was way late off the start, Jenkins faced off once more with Baker in the semis, this time going 4.089 to Baker’s off-the-pace 4.400 to reach his second final of the day.
On the other side of the ladder, Dan Parker, who qualified his Automotive Technicians ’63 Corvette in the number-three position with a 4.197-secs pass, picked up the pace to 4.165 seconds in getting past a redlighting Rex Kelley in round one. Meanwhile, number-two qualifier Pilcher overcame a holeshot by Doug Patton to make up the other half of the semi against Parker.
Pilcher got treed again in the semis, but this time couldn’t make the comeback. Parker left with a .028 holeshot, and again sped up to a 4.140 at 177.42 that was just enough to stave off Pilcher’s 4.154 at 175.75-mph effort.
Native Georgian Dan Parker gave the partisan crowd plenty to cheer about when he strapped a holeshot win on Alabama’s Shannon Jenkins in the Pro Nitrous final at Valdosta. |
“Dan did a good job,” Pilcher conceded. “He got me on the tree, but I went back by him in the 60 foot and it felt good at the 330, but I got out of the groove a little bit and he came back by.” The Chancellor, AL-based racer also said that though the track was hot, “it didn’t really give me a whole lot of problems. I believe I could’ve leaned on it a little bit more, put a little more power to it, we were thinking about turning the third stage [of nitrous] on, but I was just going to try doing a driving job and I just came up a little bit short there.”
In the final round, Parker nailed another holeshot, leaving with a .025 light to Jenkins’ .078 and he needed nearly every millisecond of it to hold on for the win by less than half a car length after going 4.175 at 175.94 against the quicker 4.152/179.42 combo put together by Jenkins.
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