“I wanted to make a big money series for the regular guy who bracket races,” he said. “It has been awesome. We’re still doing it, even in these bad economic times. Last year at the season finale we had 280 entries in Super Pro alone.”

The quarter-mile track, with bracket races held on the eighth-mile, now flies the IHRA flag, and will host the Division 2 bracket finals on October 8-10. It recently hosted a quarter-mile Pro-Am divisional and will also host a 2011 Pro-Am race plus another bracket Super 7 Series.

In the finals of Friday’s race, famed Southern bracketeer Peabody Harrell (left), from Lyons, Georgia, beat another old hand, Cliff Shipp of Dallas, Georgia. Both were in dragsters.

“I’ve been getting down to three or four cars all year,” Harrell said.

“I had trans problems, so I built another one and came here. My car was 5.04 all day. It was scary how good it was.”

Runner-up Shipp had help from friends throughout the race --- his legs were bummed out, and he didn’t get out of his dragster all day.

Then came Saturday and the making of a bit of bracket racing history. Ashe, driving friend Bob Savage’s ’05 Miller dragster, won over McCrory, driving famed bracket racer Troy Williams Jr.’s Race Tech dragster. The latter red-lighted by .098.

A.J. Ashe

“I had some luck in this race,” Ashe said. “You have to have some luck in these big races.” Ashe also raced his own ’90 Grand Am, a car that he says has won him more than a quarter-million dollars over the years.

In the second Saturday race, Troy Williams Jr. of Bradenton, Florida --- the same --- beat friend Greg Samuels of Deland, Florida, in his ’03 Mullis dragster. Williams, racing a brand-new Phantom digger with a 614 Steve Schmidt engine and FTI transmission, had an easy go when Samuels red-lighted with a .094. Williams was racing with a broken left hand.

Then came Sunday’s race, when McCrory won over Ashe in the finals. Everything was unreal. A.J. drove his familiar and dependable ’90 Grand Am while Stephen was in Troy Williams Jr.’s ’08 Mullis dragster; he also raced friend Mitch Cleary’s ’10 Phantom dragster, and went out at 28 cars.

Stephen McCrory

McCrory beat Ashe with a two-high 4.78 and a perfect reaction time, while A.J. was three high with a 5.67 and a .002 tree. McCrory, whose racing family includes dad Stephen, uncle Stanley, and Richard, another family member, says he actually set up for the .000 reaction time. “I had a .003 the round before, so I pulled .003 out of my box and had the .000,” he says.

In Footbrake, Rich Justice of Wetunpka, Alabama, beat Barry Allen of Panama, Florida, while in Jr. Dragster, Hayden Smith of Brookwood, Alabama won over Taylor Ramsey of Commerce, Georgia, and Troy Williams Jr. won the scooter/golf cart/four-wheeler race, which paid $200 to the winner.

So many hitters, so many Super 7 Series winners … can anybody top the July 4th race?