First Extreme 8 Decided By Lane Choice
Words and photos by Matt Rowland
8/1/06
Randy Weatherford (below) has the honor of being the first Extreme 8 winner of Motor Mile Dragway's Mean 16 competition, besting Todd Tutterow by a tenth in the final round (Weatherford, .4304/4.1507 @ 173.01; Tutterow, .3963 / 4.2524 @ 168.22).
It was a fantastic night for heads-up drag racing, with mother nature providing crystal clear conditions and a full field of Extreme 8 and Mean 16 drivers providing tight, aggressive competition.
Mize, Varner, Bishop, and Smith would go home with $1,000 after first round eliminations, moving Weatherford, Hagan, Tutterow, and Houck to the semifinals. All four first-round winners ran between 4.161 and 4.186, demonstrating the razor-thin margins separating these talented drivers.
Hagan and Houck would struggled in the semis, slowing to 4.226 and 5.909, respectively. Weatherford and Tutterow advanced to the final showdown, Hagan and Houck would go home with $1250 for their trouble.
Weatherford, who had lane preference, chose the right lane where earlier in the night Tutterow had put oil down while trying to qualify his blower? nitrous? car for the Mean 16
Commenting on the lane situation, track manager Steve Groseclose said "We learned something tonight. In the future if we have to re-prep a lane in the middle of the competition we'll do both lanes to ensure things remain as equal as possible."
The first outing for the Extreme 8 proved to be a success. The Extreme 8 division is the brainchild of track owner David Hagan, who had this to say about the night: "We were thrilled that so many great drivers showed up to participate in this. You never know if competitors are going to buy in when you try something new like this, but I think we've got a winner on our hands."
10 drivers registered for the Extreme 8 field, including Todd Tutterow, Rickie Smith, Matt Hagan, Buzz Varner, Rod Houck, and Randy Weatherford. After 3 rounds of qualifying the ladder looked like this:
Extreme 8 Final Qualifying Order
QP / Car# / Driver / Qual E.T @ MPH
1. 1903 / Randy Weatherford / 4.1246 @ 169.68
2. 1 / Todd Tutterow / 4.1411 @ 174.69
3. 43 / Rickie Smith / 4.1843 @ 174.08
4. 2814 / Matt Hagan / 4.1859 @ 172.68
5. 1807 / Buzz Varner / 4.2059 @ 172.74
6. 1808 / Rod Houck / 4.2167 @ 169.43
7. 111 / Wayne Bishop / 4.3179 @ 162.51
8. 3009 / Freal Mize / 4.4853 @ 154.69
A1. 9379 / Jeff Lambert / 4.5270 @ 151.31
A2. 1963 / Ken Regenthal / 4.8163 @ 155.39
In Mean 16 competition, David Lambert defeated Mark Jones for the Mean 16 win. The Extreme 8 and Mean 16 divisions return to Motor Mile Dragway on August 12, 2006. Logo on to www.MotorMileDragway.com for more information!
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