5 Seconds in Darlington

Words by Jeff Burk
Photos by Ian Tocher
2/13/03

other Nature sent a special Valentine to Mitch Stott on February 14, 2003. For a brief moment of time, the weather was perfect for his supercharged Corvette to run the quickest quarter-mile in doorslammer history. Then it was all over, as the biggest ice and snow storm to hit the mid-Atlantic states in six years put an end to the competition.

A cold, gray, windy day at a South Carolina drag strip, hard by one of NASCAR's legendary speedways isn't exactly the setting that most drag racing fans would envision when thinking about where one of the last great barriers would be broken, but for the second time in the last 15 years, historic Darlington International Dragway has been the site of a historic doorslammer "barrier" being shattered.

North Carolinian driver Mitch Stott and his engine builder/tuner and IHRA World Champion Funny Car driver Jimmy Rector shattered the five-second barrier at 1:59 PM on Friday, February 14 during the Radiac Abrasives Darlington WinterNationals. The Darlington track was also the location of the first doorslammer over 200 mph in the quarter-mile, which Missouri's Bill Kuhlmann accomplished in March of 1987. Interestingly, both racers are professional Pro Modified racers but neither broke the record driving a Pro Mod. Kuhlmann accomplished his feat driving an IHRA Top Sportsman car and Stott got his record in a Pro Modified car that was about 150 lbs under the legal weight for the class.

Stott and Rector had tested their Radiac Abrasives-backed '63 'Vette a year ago this month at Darlington under similar conditions (and not at legal weight for the class) and made a 1000-ft pass that indicated a possible 6.07 e.t. if they had completed that pass. But on Friday Stott, Rector and their crew put the coulda, woulda, shoulda talk to rest.

They brought their Hemi-powered 'Vette to the starting line at around 12:30 and, with the air temp hovering around 55 degrees, the air density at about 150 ft below sea level and a track temp of approximately 80 degrees, the supercharged 'Vette ripped off a 6.020/231.54 lap. On that lap the car moved around a little for the first 300 feet and a plume of oil came out of the "puke-tube" for about the same distance but then dried up as the car went down track. A .963 60-foot time combined with an e.t. of 3.92 and a speed of 186.33 to the eighth-mile let the 200 or so people present at the open test session that a five was certainly possible. Rector immediately started urging his crew to service the car as quickly as they could.

"I knew the conditions were perfect and I wanted to get the car back to the track as soon as possible," Rector said, "I didn't want to give the weather a chance to change before we could make another lap."