On Saturday, a rare car took the Footbrake trophy --- a ’77
Dodge Aspen R/T raced by Anthony Cain of Woodville, Alabama,
who bought the car just four months previous. He beat Friday’s
runner-up, Jeremy Ellis in his Camaro with a .0014 margin
of victory. “Now I’m a believer. This is my first
footbrake car, and my first win, period. Everything works
on it, the headlights, taillights … all I have to do
to put it back on the street is put street tires on. I just
got these Weld Wheels three weeks ago,” Cain said.
And in Pro action, it was two Richardsons in the final.
No, not Scotty and his brother Edmond, but Scotty and Bradley
Richardson of Culleoka, Tennessee, no relation. It was Bradley
who won over the great Scotty Richardson and his dragster,
driving a Chevy II coupe that he has raced for the past
nine years. Margin of victory was .005 to Bradley’s
favor.
“I wasn’t nervous about racing him,”
Bradley Richardson said. “I’d already put out
(bracket greats) Stephen Hughes and George Rupert, and my
car was deadly all day.” He was also racing his own
dragster. As for Scotty, he missed Friday’s race to
be with his cheerleader-daughters Lauran, 15, and Kelsey,
12, at their school’s big football game that night.
“They won,” Richardson said of their team.
Sunday’s Footbrake race featured a win for a man
in a borrowed car. Jeff Ryan of Baileyton, Alabama, was
victorious over Todd Berry of Tuscumbia, Alabama, in his
show-truck-quality ’55 Chevy pickup in a battle of
breakouts. Ryan broke out less.
Jeff Ryan of Baileyton, Alabama,
borrowed a friend’s Vega at his urging and won Footbrake
on Saturday. Friend Buck Lowe of Blountsville was called
to rescue duty for Hurricane Katrina floods in Mobile and
in Mississippi.
“This car (a ’72 Vega) belongs to a friend
of mine, Buck Lowe of Blountsville, who got called up with
his National Guard unit to go to the storm in Mobile and
in Mississippi,” Ryan said. “He begged me to
go to this race, and finally gave me $100 to enter. I’ve
been calling him on the cell phone every round except the
semis and now the final. And I won in this car at Baileyton
(Good Time Drag Strip, an hour south of Huntsville) two
months ago.” He didn’t race the car on Saturday
because of a broken rocker stud.
And the win in Sunday’s Pro program was just “fine”
for Bob Fine, III, of Dober, Tennessee, who was victorious
over Kendall Johnston of Dalton, Georgia, in a battle of
dragsters. Fine has been track champ at Northwest Tennessee
Motorsports Park two years in a row, and got a runner-up
at Huntsville’s Rocket City Nats this year. “This
car (his ’04 M&M dragster) likes this track,”
Fine said.
Bracket and class racing great Scotty Richardson of Goodlettsville,
Tennessee, was all smiles as he got runner-up in Pro brackets
on Saturday at George Howard’s 7th annual U.S. Nationals
of Bracket Racing at Huntsville (Alabama) Dragway. Richardson
missed Friday’s race to be with his two cheer-leading
daughters at their local high school football game.
