attracted a
record-setting
crowd to Knoll Gas
Motorsports Park,
continuing its trend
at every track visited
this year, but the stands
were too often empty due
to recurrent bad weather in
the Western Michigan region.
Photos courtesy of ADRL Communications
6/19/2008
s the old saying suggests, when given lemons, make lemonade. That certainly describes the effort June 6-7, of the American Drag Racing League (ADRL) and series president Kenny Nowling at the 4th annual ADRL Pizza Hut Summer 
Drags at Knoll Gas Motorsports Park in Martin, MI.
After battling electrical storms all weekend that eventually took out the track’s scoreboards and starting-line tree and postponed eliminations to Sunday, Nowling took the bold step of using hand signals to start each pair of competitors in both the quarter-finals and semis for all four ADRL pro classes before rain finally put an end to the event. The finals will now be run—complete with arm-drop starts—at the ADRL’s next event, July 4-5, at Radford, VA.
With the purse and points divided equally between the eight racers remaining in each class (Extreme 10.5 qualified only an eight car field in Michigan), those still in the hunt were racing only for bragging rights and the National Guard Minuteman trophy presented to each ADRL national event winner.
Heading to Virginia, points leader Joshua Hernandez and Bob Mandell Jr. remain in contention for the Pro Extreme win, while teammates Billy
Harper and Dennis Radford will settle the Pro Nitrous final. Import drivers Gary White in the Team Titan Scion and Brent Rau with his 122 c.i., turbocharged ‘99 Eclipse will race in the Extreme 10.5 final and riders T.T. Jones and Scott Gray will each go after their first Pro Extreme Motorcycle win.
PRO EXTREME
Bubba Stanton’s Roger Henson-led team took advantage of the rain delay Friday afternoon to make an engine change in their 1963 “Widowmaker” Corvette (right) and it paid off with a number-one 3.80-seconds elapsed time in the opening round of qualifying. After winning their first-round pairing against Hugh Scott, the Stanton crew left Saturday night, not realizing the event would continue on Sunday with the human Christmas tree.
In the competition debut of his Garret Race Cars-built ’06 Stratus, Jason Scruggs (left) proved the car has plenty of potential in replacing his trusty ’63 Corvette. The reigning Pro Extreme champ laid down a 3.83-seconds pass at 200.89 mph in round one of eliminations, making him not only the lone doorslammer driver to exceed 200 mph in the eighth mile, but he’s now turned the trick in two very different rides.
In a related note, his father and crew chief, Mitchell Scruggs (behind car), was involved in a scary staging-lanes accident during the second round of Extreme 10.5 eliminations. During his burnout, the lower pulley broke off the front of the engine in Bob Mandell III’s ’92 Cutlass and was slung back like a missile when the spinning slick passed over it. After bouncing off the front of a golf cart about 100 feet back, the pulley shaft struck Mitchell in the upper chest, temporarily knocking the wind out of him and forcing a trip to the hospital for several stitches to close a deep cut. Fortunately, Scruggs was okay, but the incident served as a somber reminder to everyone in attendance of the need for extreme vigilance at all times.