A Yankee takes top money

Results courtesy Rockingham Dragway
Photos by Gary Rowe and Chuck Brooks

Dean Marinis

Dean Marinis used a .078 starting line advantage to offset Barry Mitchell’s slight edge in on-track performance Sunday, April 1, and win the Baer Brakes $7,000 at the 17th annual Holcomb Spring Civil Wars at Rockingham Dragway.

In a showdown between the No. 1 and No. 2 qualifiers, Marinis drove his 2000 Ford Mustang through the eighth-mile timers in 4.817 seconds at 153.16 mph to beat Mitchell’s slightly quicker 4.798 at 154.69 mph for the featured X275 Drag Radial title.

Other winners included Tony Ridenour of Largo, Fla., who beat many-time Rockingham winner Keith Szabo of Gainesville, Ga., in Outlaw Drag Radial; Bill Kother of Lincolnton in SR275 Drag Radial; and Marty Stinnett in X Radial.

Brandon Williams of Eagle Springs, Charlotte’s Kenny Floyd and Todd Robinson of Cherryville split the 6.0 and 7.0 Index titles and Michael Presnall won the Open Comp class. 

Although Marinis drove his Whitestone, N.Y.-based Mustang to the No. 1 qualifying position at 4.811 seconds, Mitchell was close behind in his Davidson-based 1989 Mustang at 4.820. Mitchell saved the best run of the weekend for the final but wasted it with a .129 of a second reaction time (to Marinis’s .051).

In Outlaw, No. 1 qualifier Steve Jackson of Martinez, Ga., was upset in the semifinals by Szabo who then lost to Ridenour when his 1993 Mustang suffered mechanical problems and slowed to 8.218 seconds.