July 4th at Eddyville

Halladay plows new ground at Eddyville

Words by Jeff Burk
Photos by Mike Garland

Eddyville (Iowa) Dragway has a tradition of holding a drag racing extravaganza on each 4th of July and this year’s race was filled with thrills, spills and cars going over the hills.

Track operator Scott Gardner booked in a veritable plethora of nitro floppers, jet cars, fuel altereds and everything in between. In addition to the booked-in show cars, a near record number of sportsman racers (288) showed, so there wasn’t a time during the entire two days that a race car, track vehicle, or rescue truck wasn’t on the track.

The main attraction for the spectators was, of course, the exhibition cars and fireworks, and for the racers it was the bracket racing.

Among the exhibition cars were Iowa’s only active Nitro Funny Car racer, Jack Wyatt; Springfield, Ill., racer Tim Wilkerson; the Nostalgia floppers belonging to Troy Martin and Kyle Wurtzel and the DragRacingOnline.com AA/FC Challenge racers Minnesota’s “Doc” Halladay and Illinois racer John Dunn in the Dunn & Gone car.

Halladay gave the fans their money’s worth as he not only drove the wheels off of his ’77 Arrow but also managed to drive it to a stellar 3.90/200-mph eighth-mile lap and then, being late on the chute by just a little, into a farmer’s corn row.

Halladay emerged from the car unhurt, unscathed, and determined to make another pass in the true tradition of the barnstorming AA/FC racers. He cleaned the mud and other brown substances off of the car and retuned to the track for his second attempt.
 
Gardner said of Halladay after the race, “After that excursion through the mud and corn most guys would have folded their tent and left. Those guys (Halladay, tuner Jerry Newman and the crew) cleaned up and fixed the car and came back for their second lap. That’s what kind of guys they are.”

Jack Wyatt is a former NHRA series regular and is currently between sponsorships so he is on the mach-racing circuit for at least this year. He too made a small trip into the cornfield after his Dodge made a 3.50-second pass and had a bit of a chute malfunction, but he was able to get the car stopped just with the nose in the cornfield.