- Race Coverage
- The Rest of the Story
By Ian Tocher
5/9/2007
It was standing room only at the ADRL Camp Motorsport Georgia Drags May 4-5, at South Georgia Motorsports Park.
In front of absolutely packed grandstands at South Georgia Motorsports Park (SGMP), the American Drag Racing League’s (ADRL’s) Camp Motorsport Georgia Drags went off May 4-5, with champions crowned in four classes led by Joe Baker in Pro Extreme and Johnny Pilcher in the Pro Nitrous category. Georgia’s own Mike Hill prevailed in his Extreme 10.5 debut and Steve Drake took the first-ever Pro Extreme Motorcycle title home to Ohio. Joshua Hernandez and Terry Housley also left as event winners after waiting seven months to complete the final rounds of Pro Extreme and Pro Nitrous, respectively, of the oft-delayed World Finals from last fall at Kennedale, TX.
Attendance estimates for Friday night’s qualifying session reached over 10,000 fans, with Saturday’s crowd said to be three times that at its peak. SGMP owner Shad Dean said it “easily” was the largest crowd in SGMP history, with spectator cars filling more than 20 acres of parking.
“I always knew this would be big, but I really thought it would take a few years,” an obviously thrilled ADRL president and co-founder Kenny Nowling said after the show. “But this is incredible. I have to give credit to our racers, though, for putting on such a great show. I don’t think there was a person here who didn’t go home happy with what they saw.”
PRO EXTREME
 On Friday night Jason Scruggs set the SGMP crowd on fire with this stellar qualifying run, the quickest and fastest in ADRL history, but the Mississippi Missile missed backing it up for an official record. |
In addition to two final-round winners, what they saw in Pro Extreme was the quickest and fastest 1/8-mile doorslammer pass in history as Jason Scruggs flirted with picking up a $10,000 bonus from series sponsor Flowmaster for the first 200-mph lap. Scruggs, from Saltillo, MS, qualified his ’63 Vette number one with an outstanding 3.804-seconds pass at 198.67 mph on Friday night, but never was able to back it up within the required one percent for an official ADRL record before being ousted in round two of eliminations by eventual race winner Baker.
Starting second was Hernandez in Tommy Lipar’s ’57 Chevy, who ran 3.917 at 193.38 straight off the trailer in Saturday’s first qualifying session. Hernandez missed Friday’s opening qualifying round because he was in St. Louis qualifying Lipar’s ’68 Camaro for NHRA Pro Mod action. After placing second on the NHRA list, Hernandez, Lipar, crew chief Howard Moon and a couple of crew members jetted down to Valdosta, GA, in order to qualify the ’57 and complete the Kennedale final round against Dwayne Watkins and his flamed ’57 Chevy.