HINSON WINS BIG

William Roberts got the Footbrake win on Monday.

Results and photos courtesy Rockingham Dragway

In a Top Eliminator category dominated by dragsters, Monroe’s Joel Hinson drove his vintage 1988 Dodge Daytona to the biggest share of the holiday purse at the 15th annual Memorial Weekend Ironman Challenge at Steve Earwood’s Rockingham Dragway.

Nick Womack of Lillington and Jerry Brewer of Lumberton, the Saturday and Monday winners in Top Eliminator, respectively, earned $5,000. They too left with Ironman trophies.

Hinson used a .026 package including a dead-on 5.630 elapsed time against a 5.630 target time to best the dragster of A.J. Currie of Godwin in the final round. 

The Monroe driver also turned back big challenges in both the sixth and seventh rounds of the eight-round tournament. In both of those rounds, his performance package was identical to that of his opponent. On both occasions, his big Dodge got the nod by less than .001 of a second.

In addition to Aman, the Footbrake winners included Bill Clardy of Loris, S.C., on Saturday and William Roberts of Benson on Monday. Jr. Dragster champions were Toni Lyn Salsgiver of Orangeburg, S.C., Ryan Crews of Advance and Ricky Hebert of Evans, Ga.