Georgia Drag Racing News

Information about Georgia drag racing history, personalities, activities and events from GeorgiaDragRacing.com.

Saturday, May 24, 2008

All Mopar Southern Nationals at South Georgia Motorsports Park



Memorial Day weekend saw a huge influx of Mopars at SGMP. Two days of bracket racing, a funny car match race, a Slant Six event, a heads-up Barracuda Shootout, a car show, venders, and even exhibition runs by a front-engined dragster and a fuel altered made this a special event.

Saturday highlights included a three round match between the alky funny cars of Mark Billington and Monty Todd. Billington’s Mopar-bodied machine took three straight from Todd’s Camaro much to the delight of the partisan crowd. Billington ran a best of 5.811 247.43 mph. The Slant Six Racing News Shootout was run on Satuday. Logan Foster ran 11.78, 11.78, 11.81, and 11.78 on his 11.77 or .78 dials to handily win. In Dodge of Valdosta Street, Joe Britton beat Jeff Davis in the six round event when Davis broke out by .001. After seven rounds of Jones Chrysler Dodge Pro, Mike Clifford of Deland, FL beat Danny Crawford of Pearl River, LA in a double break-out thriller. In Mopars by Crane Super Pro, the six remaining cars decided to split the purse due to the recent economic downturn, so no winner was declared. In the special Mopar Muscle Magazine Young Guns race, Justin Liberty beat James Guy when Guy broke out.

On Sunday, the main event was the heads-up Pro Lite Buildings Barracuda Shootout. The eight car field consisted of a wide range of cars including a super-charged cuda, a heavily-sprayed cuda, a SS/AH style cuda, and others. The final round came down to Dave Young’s supercharged cuda and Darren Tedder’s nitrous car. Young took the win with an 8.15 167 to Tedder’s game 8.28 at 170.84. Darrell Brantly won the Marsh Performance Quick 16 race over Marcus Crews when Crews went red. John Tillman won the special Fast 16 race (10.50 index) over Brad Cleveram with a near perfect 10.502 to Cleveram’s breaking-out 10.46. The 28 car Mopars by Crane Super Pro race came down to Ken Grant beating Mike Bessent’s seven second ride. Forty-five cars answered the call for Jones Chrysler Dodge Pro on Sunday. Kenny McCoy of Lakeland, FL took the reaction time advantage and ran 10.396 on his 10.39 dial to beat Danny Crawford’s 9.55 on his 9.50 dial. Crawford thus was runner-up on both days of the event. In Dodge of Valdosta Street, it was red hot Ken Grant again. This time he beat Joe Britton in another double break out race to take his second win of the day.

Marvin T. Smith

Click here for Marv's Mopar photos.