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Pro Dragster honors went to Glenn Somers in
the Smokey Mountain Express, from Weaverville, NC. The original 1969
T-bar Top Fuel car was updated to current specs in 1996, and previously
campaigned with Troy Green for several years in Good Guys T/F competition.
Just five cars entered the B Altered race,
with Ronnie Howell's 1932 Bantam, from Elgin, SC, leading qualifying
with a 5.482 at 123.98 mph. Howell went on to beat the 1965 slingshot
dragster of Bedford VA's Thomas Jackson in the final round.
Don Roddy had the only Funny Car on the grounds,
but the Georgian's day ended prematurely when he brushed the guardwall
about 100 feet out with his blown Chevy-powered '93 Corvette. Roddy
said he was "going for a number" on this pass, hoping for a 3.90 when
the car suddenly broke loose to the right.
The Hartsoe Brothers' original 1948 Anglia,
still with its 1969 paint job, made it all the way to the A/Gasser final
with Heath Daniel (front) at the wheel. The car is now owned by Lynda
and Mack Pressley (left), and was built by Gwyn Hartsoe (right) and
his deceased brother Elmer, both of whom were inducted in 1997 to the
North Carolina Drag Racing Hall of Fame, in Mooresville, NC. It once
held several IHRA records in the early-'70s when it competed in BB/Altered.
After a frantic thrash to repair a broken
lifter and pushrod from an earlier attempt, Jim Dickey ran a career-best
4.012 at 174.75 mph late on Saturday afternoon. "It would've been a
three if it had stayed in the groove," he said. Dickey, a Delta Air
Lines flight simulator instructor and the four-time defending Southern
Fuel Coupes champion, credited crew members Frank and Dan Pettinato,
Jimmy Cooper, and Bill Wampler for giving him "my best ride yet."
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