- Results
- Top Sportsman
- Brandon Bernstein
Words and photos by Ian Tocher
5/8/06
After 28 cars made qualifying attempts for the 2nd annual NHRA Top Sportsman Dart Dash presented by Country Motors Trailer Sales at Atlanta Dragway May 5-6, it was Earl Folse from the appropriately named Raceland, LA, who finished on top of the list with a 6.687-seconds pass at 204.66 mph in his 1968 Camaro. The winning car, originally built by Tommy Mauney as a Pro Mod entry for Steve Vick, carries a Fulton nitrous-equipped 706 c.i. Pontiac-based engine built by Folse and crewmember Steve Williams, who couldn’t make the trip to Atlanta, “but was still on the phone every step of the way making calls.”
Backing up his number-one status in eliminations held Saturday as part of the 26th annual Summit Racing Equipment Southern Nationals presented by Pontiac, Folse went on to prevail over the 2000 S-10 pick-up of Donald Troy Jr. in the final round.
“We came here with a plan to qualify number one on the first go and then back it down and race. Naturally, our plans changed,” he said. “We had trouble getting down the track early, so we decided to forget about it, but last-minute we decided, ‘What the heck’ because it’s a good weekend to show what we can do and we decided to go for it in the last session.”
Number-two qualifier Ronnie Davis went 6.698 and set top speed of the meet at 211.30 mph, but “the front half of that run was way off,” he said, due to tire spin on his ’63 Corvette off the start. Fort Smith, AR’s J. Lee Didier qualified third with his 2004 Cavalier, followed by Lake Charles, LA’s Keith Raftery in a 2003 Grand Am, and Mike Gardner in his Haymarket, VA-based ’04 Grand Am.
The Dart Dash is an invitation-only event for the top-10 2005 points finishers from the Northeast Division Foxwoods Resort Casino Top Sportsman Shootout Series, Southeast Division TracStar/Davis Inmotion Satellites Top Sportsman Series, North Central Division Dart Top Sportsman Series, and the South Central Division Sunset Racecraft Top Sportsman Series.
