ADRL Dragpalooza DVD and Video by Scott Caudill
Review by Marvin T. Smith
Scott Caudill has produced a wonderful visual record of the first American Drag Racing League (ADRL) Dragpalooza race at South Georgia Motorsports Park in May of this year. If you love Pro Mods, then this disc/tape is for you. There are lots of Georgia connections: Georgia cars, Georgia track, Georgia sunshine, Georgia winner! You get the idea.
Scott works hard to document the ADRL series and other independent Pro Mod races in the South. These are not events you will ever see on ESPN2, but Scott does a great job of capturing the excitement of the races and recording the history of our sport. He uses many camera angles to track the action, and the quality of the film is first rate. I met Scott for the first time at Dragpalooza, and he was excited by the high quality of the South Georgia Motorsports Park lighting system. Sure enough, his night footage is so good you would think it was taken in daylight. Scott does not add voiceovers, but simply records the engine sounds, the announcers, and the crowd for a real feeling of being there. If you are one of the fans who tires of the talking heads on TV, this is the tape for you! The track announcer is usually easy to hear, and Scott also zooms in one the top end lights so elapsed times and speeds are easily seen.
Scott sent along the DVD version to review. It consists of two DVDs and although I didn't time it, there must be at least four to five hours of coverage. One DVD contains the Friday time trials and the Sunday team challenge event, while the other contains the Saturday qualifying and quick eight races. The American Drag Racing League has two pro mod classes: Pro Extreme is an open field in which blown, turbo, and nitrous cars compete heads up, and Pro Nitrous is limited to nitrous oxide assisted vehicles. Scott took an unusual editing route, and separated the classes, so it is like seeing two completely different races on the Saturday disc. First up is the Pro Nitrous field. After three rounds of qualifying, there are three rounds of eliminations for the eight car field. Shannon Jenkins dominates running as quick as 4.00 on the eighth mile, although Alabamians Johnny Pilcher and Keith Baker make strong showings each holding the ADRL record at one point during qualifying. Following the nitrous cars, there are three rounds of Pro Extreme qualifying and three rounds of racing for the eight qualified cars. If you like three second time slips, this is the race for you! Half of the field qualified in the threes, and several ran threes in the eliminations. Georgian Eddie Ware set the ADRL record at 3.97, later to be eclipsed by Bil Clanton during eliminations. The bump spot for the eight car field was an ADRL record 4.030. I attended this event in person to cover it for GeorgiaDragRacing.com and National Dragster, and I wondered how Scott would handle the troubled Saturday night finals. There were problems with the tree, and it was declared a non-race. An eleven o'clock curfew prevented the final round from being rerun on Saturday, and it was run during the first round of Sunday’s team challenge event. Since Scott doesn't use a voiceover, it would have been impossible to understand what happened, so Scott took the logical course of action and simply deleted the Saturday non-final, and only showed the final on Sunday. Georgian Bil Clanton took the win over Texan Josh Hernandez. This method of showing the final works out great for Clanton fans, as they get to see Bil whip Josh again during the Sunday Team event on the other disc!
The other disc has the Friday and Sunday racing. Friday warm-up action includes some great runs. The event opens with the first car out, Georgian Bennie McDonald in his beautiful 53 Corvette. Unfortunately, Bennie gets out of shape and tried to climb the safety wall in a very scary accident. Bennie was OK, but the car was damaged and won't race again at this event. Other highlights include some very quick runs by Shannon Jenkins and Todd Bauknecht, who scored the first three second run of the event.
Sunday's event is a team challenge format. The quickest 11 cars from the outlaw team race the quickest 11 cars that have raced in the NHRA/AMS Pro Mod events in three rounds of action. Outlaw qualifier no. 1 races AMS no. 1, Outlaw no. 2 races AMS no. 2, etc. For the second round, the cars are matched up by first round times. The same procedure is used for round three. One point was given for a win, one point for top speed of each round, and one point for low elapsed time of each round. The first team to win 20 points is declared the team winner. The Outlaws took this event by storm, actually securing the win during round 2 although the third round was run for the fans. The final score after three rounds was Outlaws 31 to AMS Allstars 8. Highlights of the team event were some awesome runs by John Lynam, the best being a new track record 3.939 at over 185 and a great 3.942/185.92 pass. Unfortunately for Lynam, official ADRL records could only be set during the Saturday portion of the show, but he did leave with both ends of the SGMP track record.
If you want to see some of the best Pro Mod racing on the best track in the South, get this tape. DVD copies are $20 and VHS are $15, including postage. If you have questions about this film or any of Scott's other excellent productions, email him at scaudill@energyunited.net. Send the money to:
Scott Caudill
PO Box 4111
Mooresville,NC 28117
Scott Caudill has produced a wonderful visual record of the first American Drag Racing League (ADRL) Dragpalooza race at South Georgia Motorsports Park in May of this year. If you love Pro Mods, then this disc/tape is for you. There are lots of Georgia connections: Georgia cars, Georgia track, Georgia sunshine, Georgia winner! You get the idea.
Scott works hard to document the ADRL series and other independent Pro Mod races in the South. These are not events you will ever see on ESPN2, but Scott does a great job of capturing the excitement of the races and recording the history of our sport. He uses many camera angles to track the action, and the quality of the film is first rate. I met Scott for the first time at Dragpalooza, and he was excited by the high quality of the South Georgia Motorsports Park lighting system. Sure enough, his night footage is so good you would think it was taken in daylight. Scott does not add voiceovers, but simply records the engine sounds, the announcers, and the crowd for a real feeling of being there. If you are one of the fans who tires of the talking heads on TV, this is the tape for you! The track announcer is usually easy to hear, and Scott also zooms in one the top end lights so elapsed times and speeds are easily seen.
Scott sent along the DVD version to review. It consists of two DVDs and although I didn't time it, there must be at least four to five hours of coverage. One DVD contains the Friday time trials and the Sunday team challenge event, while the other contains the Saturday qualifying and quick eight races. The American Drag Racing League has two pro mod classes: Pro Extreme is an open field in which blown, turbo, and nitrous cars compete heads up, and Pro Nitrous is limited to nitrous oxide assisted vehicles. Scott took an unusual editing route, and separated the classes, so it is like seeing two completely different races on the Saturday disc. First up is the Pro Nitrous field. After three rounds of qualifying, there are three rounds of eliminations for the eight car field. Shannon Jenkins dominates running as quick as 4.00 on the eighth mile, although Alabamians Johnny Pilcher and Keith Baker make strong showings each holding the ADRL record at one point during qualifying. Following the nitrous cars, there are three rounds of Pro Extreme qualifying and three rounds of racing for the eight qualified cars. If you like three second time slips, this is the race for you! Half of the field qualified in the threes, and several ran threes in the eliminations. Georgian Eddie Ware set the ADRL record at 3.97, later to be eclipsed by Bil Clanton during eliminations. The bump spot for the eight car field was an ADRL record 4.030. I attended this event in person to cover it for GeorgiaDragRacing.com and National Dragster, and I wondered how Scott would handle the troubled Saturday night finals. There were problems with the tree, and it was declared a non-race. An eleven o'clock curfew prevented the final round from being rerun on Saturday, and it was run during the first round of Sunday’s team challenge event. Since Scott doesn't use a voiceover, it would have been impossible to understand what happened, so Scott took the logical course of action and simply deleted the Saturday non-final, and only showed the final on Sunday. Georgian Bil Clanton took the win over Texan Josh Hernandez. This method of showing the final works out great for Clanton fans, as they get to see Bil whip Josh again during the Sunday Team event on the other disc!
The other disc has the Friday and Sunday racing. Friday warm-up action includes some great runs. The event opens with the first car out, Georgian Bennie McDonald in his beautiful 53 Corvette. Unfortunately, Bennie gets out of shape and tried to climb the safety wall in a very scary accident. Bennie was OK, but the car was damaged and won't race again at this event. Other highlights include some very quick runs by Shannon Jenkins and Todd Bauknecht, who scored the first three second run of the event.
Sunday's event is a team challenge format. The quickest 11 cars from the outlaw team race the quickest 11 cars that have raced in the NHRA/AMS Pro Mod events in three rounds of action. Outlaw qualifier no. 1 races AMS no. 1, Outlaw no. 2 races AMS no. 2, etc. For the second round, the cars are matched up by first round times. The same procedure is used for round three. One point was given for a win, one point for top speed of each round, and one point for low elapsed time of each round. The first team to win 20 points is declared the team winner. The Outlaws took this event by storm, actually securing the win during round 2 although the third round was run for the fans. The final score after three rounds was Outlaws 31 to AMS Allstars 8. Highlights of the team event were some awesome runs by John Lynam, the best being a new track record 3.939 at over 185 and a great 3.942/185.92 pass. Unfortunately for Lynam, official ADRL records could only be set during the Saturday portion of the show, but he did leave with both ends of the SGMP track record.
If you want to see some of the best Pro Mod racing on the best track in the South, get this tape. DVD copies are $20 and VHS are $15, including postage. If you have questions about this film or any of Scott's other excellent productions, email him at scaudill@energyunited.net. Send the money to:
Scott Caudill
PO Box 4111
Mooresville,NC 28117
posted by David @ 9:04 PM
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