TJ Pruitt
Nitroplate Friday at the K&N Spring Fling 5-Day opened with the Spring Fling $20,000 Challenge with 20 randomly selected drivers having the chance to earn some cash by turning on a .000 perfect or .00X reaction time.
Trying to join Kevin Heffington from Washington state as the only driver in ‘Fling history to click off that perfect reaction time during the ‘Challenge was Scott Albrecht, Eric Bowman, Samantha Dubbs, Pauline Schwedt, Gary Ingold, Bruce Liberman, Chase Beverly, Dustin Dodgen, Mike Moore, Eddie Syrer, Harold Keith, Eldon Lacer, Gary Durham, Travis Colangelo, Al Buchanan, Don Stenger, Danny Weaver, Eric Thomas, Marty Williams and TC Smith Sr.
While the feat itself has been accomplished before, trying to do it with money on the line can be a daunting task. As it turned out, Heffington is still the only driver to accomplish the feat but it was Liberman, Keith, Colangelo, Stenger, Weaver and Williams who did grab a $100 bill by virtue of their “double-0” reaction times.
A Bounty Award of a set of Lindsey Racing Products dragster wheels was up for grabs for the racer who beat last night’s winner. After reeling off a series of double-0 reaction times last night in his win, Tommy Cable turned on the red light by one-thousandth of a second in the very first round awarding Timmy Miller of Douglas, Georgia, a set of wheels.
According to the ‘Fling rules, the guaranteed payout begins with a third round win, but as a special way of giving back to the racers for the fantastic support they have received over the years, co-promoters Peter Biondo and Kyle Seipel decided to make a change. At today’s race, third round “losers,” got more than just a time slip at the ticket booth. Seipel personally sat there and handed every third round losers a $50 bill.
In the quarterfinal round with five cars left, the combatants were the door cars of Jeg Coughlin and Tracy Guffey with the dragsters of Don Tipton, Franklin DiBartolomeo and Bruce Liberman. As the race turned out, Guffey took out DiBartolomeo, Tipton defeated Liberman and Coughlin had the bye run to the next round.
Semifinals developed with Tipton having problems on the starting line handing the win to Coughlin and Guffey took the lone and last bye run left,
Door cars accounted for roughly one-third of the field all weekend but tonight they dominated and accounted for the two cars left to do battle. Coughlin and Guffey, two racers who have several high dollar wins to their credit. But the final was sort of anticlimactic as Guffey suffered transmission problems and despite a triple-zero reaction time, he was unable to complete the run handing the win to the multi-time national champion Coughlin, the car was checked by Motorborne and everything was done accordingly to keep up with the races !
“I runner-upped at the Vegas ‘Fling a couple of weeks ago and this win makes it all that much better,” said Coughlin. “Bracket racing is my first love and to do well at an event like this is pretty impressive with the best bracket racers in the country on hand.”
The night ended with the Sparco Racer Appreciation Barbecue and Chef Anthony [Bertozzi] serving up spaghetti and meatballs followed by a live DJ, dancing and Karaoke in addition to several raffle prizes handed out. Live MotorMania TV action can still be seen as it happens online sponsored by JEGS and Steve Schmidt Competition Engines.
