Neal Nicks Watkins for SOT Win
Florida’s Michael Neal edged Dwayne Watkins on June 22, to earn the Outlaw Pro Mod win when George Howard’s Southern Outlaw Tour (SOT) made its first of three visits this season to run the eighth mile at Montgomery (AL) Motorsports Park.
“I was watching his front fender when I was supposed to be looking where I was going! It was very close,” Neal said after going 4.14 to Watkins’ 4.18 in the final round.
“Yeah, I thought I was going to catch him,” said Watkins.
“I’m just glad we were only racing an eighth mile,” Neal answered.
In Outlaw Pro Nitrous, Alabama’s own Keith Baker made a solo pass to the race title after Tim Savell’s Camaro broke a fuel line on start-up in the staging lanes and experienced a small underhood fire. Baker made a clean 4.16-seconds pass to cap off his day.
“I hated to see him (Savell) have trouble like that, but we’ll take the win,” Baker said in victory lane. “They’re all good wins.”
The SOT returns to action July 4-6, at Huntsville Dragway.
OUTLAW PRO MOD
Michael Neal performed the trademark burnouts that make him a crowd favorite wherever he races. Neal started from the sixth position on the qualifying list and made three strong passes en route to the $5,000 SOT Outlaw Pro Mod win at Montgomery.
ADRL Pro Extreme regular Dwayne Watkins put his Rosemark, TN-based ’57 Chevy on the Outlaw Pro Mod pole with a 3.93-second pass at 186.18 mph in the third and final qualifying session on Saturday night.
Still carrying much of a borrowed ’53 Studebaker body from fellow team owner Don Stroud, Bil Clanton’s “Big Money” entry was the early leader in qualifying with a 3.97 at 189.07 from the first session. Clanton experienced trouble in round one of eliminations, however, and fell to Bennie McDonald.