“The Carolina Race”—The race that wouldn’t end!
There were actually two races finished at Huntsville; Obviously, the scheduled race, but we also ran the final rounds of the twice-delayed Carolina race that was started all the way back in April, at the Carolina Dragway in Aiken, South Carolina.
In Aiken, all the drivers got through Test & Tune and qualifying before the wind picked up and ended the race. There’s something about 30- and 40mph wind gusts and race cars being on their back bumpers that doesn’t mix well, so the finals were rescheduled.
Well, the rescheduling came, and due to weather, we got in a full round of test & tune before going on hold for a several hours until the weather decided what it was going to do. It never rained hard enough to call the race, but it wasn’t dry either. Finally, about 8pm the weather cleared, the track was dried and the racing started. Until the noise police showed up and shut the race down in the wee hours of the morning, right before the last round for all the classes could be run. Talk about a hang fire!
So, with the qualifying done one weekend, the race run through the semi-finals at the other, the final rounds were FINALLY run at Huntsville on Saturday, September 22.
Winners in the Street classes were Darren Hoyle in Limited Street, Ryan Rakestras in Modified Street, and Shane Stack in EZ Street. The index class winners were Ed Bendal in 7.0, LeBron Hill in 6.0, Bill Bickerstaf in 5.30 and Tim Lynch in Outlaw.