Words by John DiBartolomeo and Kay Burk
Photos by Chris Haverly

By any standards, the Third Annual K&N Spring Fling 20s
presented by Sparco was a success at Bristol Dragway.

FRIDAY, May 18

Day Two went off without a hitch after Mother Nature somewhat ruined Warm-Up Thursday. With 18 cars left to run second round on Thursday night, an unexpected shower moved through the Bristol area curtailing activities for the night.

On Friday morning, those 18 cars completed round two with 100 cars left for the third round. Promoters Peter Biondo and Kyle Seipel then split the remaining purse among those left in order to move ahead with the planned $20,000-to-win features for Nitroplate Friday, JEGS Saturday and JEGS Sunday.

The official Thursday race car count was exactly 400 cars, while Friday another 38 came through the gate. With that many cars, an almost four-hour time trial session was in order with the highlight being Mitch Cleary of OK Motorsports putting up $500 cash to the first and second triple-zero reaction time. The lucky winners were Matt Hopkins and Jake Woodring.

After a long day of racing that started at 9 o’clock in the morning, it was 11 p.m. before the four semifinalists did battle for a place in the final round. All four semifinalists were no strangers to big money race wins. Marty Dabney of Troy, Va., faced Cameron Manual from Winston-Salem, NC, and Dabney used a .019 reaction time to score a double-breakout win. In the other pair, Steven McGrory from Taylorsville, Ga., faced Kevin Romeo from Pittsburgh, Pa. McGrory left the starting line .018 seconds after the green light lit and held on for the win.

The final was anticlimactic as Dabney (shown above) left late in the reaction time department at .052 seconds, but McGrory left the line with an uncharacteristic .143 RT, which gave Dabney plenty of room at the finish line to get the win and $20,000.