$20K Main Event

In September, Raleigh's Richard Alford, Jr. earned his second IHRA Div. 9 Modified ET title at the Bracket Finals. While primarily known for his footbrake prowess, Alford's results quickly reminded everyone that his skills are that of a pure bracket racer, not locked into any one style of racing. His list of accomplishments is long and varied, including a win and a runner-up in back-to-back $20K's in his dragster.

He put an exclamation point on his resume with not only a decisive victory in the $20K Main Event, but also a semifinal appearance in the BRODIX Legendary 64 Shootout, first place in Sunday's Dash for Cash, and also a runner-up in Sunday's $5K Finale -- a laundry list accomplished while driving not one, but two borrowed cars! His familiar Chevelle was down for the count, but he piloted a Camaro for Ronnie Roberts Racing, and a Mach 1 Mustang for Danny Lawson.

"The way I've started coming off the button, it works the same in all three cars. They all have the same GT steering wheel, and Shawn Carpenter loaned me a button like I have in the Chevelle."

The big win came behind the wheel of Wesley Roberts' Camaro. Alford set the tone for the day with a perfect .000 reaction time in the opening frame, and only had two lights worse than an .017 in the eight round race. His miss was an .031 in the quarterfinals, in which he still had the tree, and he ran dead-on to advance.

Notably, Joe Passero kept the Canadian invasion alive with two entries, until dropping both in the quarterfinals.

In the semifinals, Alford carded an .017 light and a 6.000 (6.01) after Randy Sessoms hung an -.011 red light to discard a 6.820 (6.83) effort. Greensboro, N.C.'s T.G. Paschal similarly benefited from a semifinal redlight from William Roberts, whose -.009 foul negated a 5.990 (5.96). Paschal won the round with a .009-initiated 5.626 (5.61), but broke the rear end in the process. That left Alford to take a competition single for the final round victory, the Iron Tree trophy, the big check, and a custom helmet paint job from Phillips Auto Body.

" I didn't know he (Paschal) was broke until someone told me," admitted Alford. "That's a bad way to go, when you can't get back to a final.

"It was a great first race. As it goes on, I know it'll get even better. You wouldn't believe how much the sponsors mean to people," said Alford, who had his own list of people to thank. "I need to thank Ronnie and the whole crew at Ronnie Roberts Racing, Larry, Shawn, Wesley and his wife: they all worked hard. I give Michael and Anthony props for putting on a great race, and the Fayetteville staff for working their tails off!"