Words and photos by John DiBartolomeo

When the gates opened up on Thursday morning before the K&N Spring Fling Bracket Race presented by Sparco on the weekend of May 19-22, promoters Peter Biondo and Kyle Seipel had well-founded concerns. However, by noon time on that first day, their concerns were all for naught as over 300 of the best bracket racers in the country trekked their way to Bristol Dragway to enjoy the great weather and the 1,000’ compromise. To appease both factions of racers who run both quarter- and eighth-mile, all weekend races were run to 1,000 feet.

“We had some apprehensions,” Seipel said, “but to see this many racers from all over the country including Canada come through the gates just proved all the work we did to make this one of the best events in the country was all worth it. We had racers from 23 states and Canada. That was impressive. We were even surprised to see how many door cars showed up and we kept them separate for three rounds of eliminations.”

Thursday’s RaceTech Race Cars warm-up race had $12,500 as the top prize and Roy St. Dennis tried valiantly to keep his ’87 T-Bird door car in the show but a .001 reaction time in the final by the night’s winner Wyatt Colbert did in St. Dennis. Colbert, from Mechanicsville, Virginia finished off his night with a .003 over his dial for the holeshot win.

Friday’s DRE $20K to win feature had a great storyline behind it as two racers who have run together since their Jr. Dragster days and still travel together squared off in the final. Kevin Brannon from Boiling Springs, South Carolina and Shane Maddox from Piedmont, South Carolina are the best of friends despite Maddox red lighting in the final to hand his best friend a cool 20 Gs.

Another great storyline unfolded in Saturday’s JEGS feature when Johnny Labbous Sr. had to face his own nemesis, his son John Labbous Jr. in the final. At last year’s K&N Spring Fling, Junior took home over $50 grand, winning three nights in a row. This year, Junior was pulling for his father to win, but not enough to just give it to him. Only three thousandths of a second separated them off the line, but Senior took a little too much win stripe to hand Junior another K&N Spring Fling trophy.

Biondo and Seipel’s decision to keep the door cars separated for the first three rounds was met with overwhelming enthusiasm as over 64 door cars participated all weekend. In Sunday’s JEGS feature final, Derek Denney was trying to win one for the door cars. However, JP Hickman from Bradenton, Florida wasn’t going to just sit back and let Denney take it. An eighteen thousands reaction time advantage was all Hickman needed to seal the deal and bring $20K back to the Sunshine State with him.

A Door Car Shootout sponsored by McCarty Auto Parts was also held for the first 32 drivers to enter. As if he hasn’t won enough here already, (and we’re sure he doesn’t think so), John Labbous Jr. pulled off the win driving Brannon Jarrell’s S-10 pick-up truck. In the final, he squared off with another junior, this time Jeg Coughlin in his Chevy II wagon. Double “0” reaction times were all about as both drivers ran under their dial-ins the same amount but Labbous’ two thousandths reaction time advantage was the key to his $5,000 victory.

As they were last year, Masters Entertainment was on hand to film the event for its own Fox Sports television show on June 8th and the 15th. Check your local listings. Biondo and Seipel also announced a two year extension with Bristol Dragway to run the K&N Spring Fling in 2012. Visit www.bracketraces.com for more details.

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