Owner of Piedmont Dragway, Gilmer Hinshaw's Cobalt was involved in a crash that sent Hinshaw to the hospital.

Gilmer Hinshaw’s unfortunate crash came on Saturday while competing against the Travis Blalock Top Alcohol Dragster. Both cars were destroyed. Travis was OK but Gilmer is still recuperating.  Before discussing the competition for the event, we must say a HUGE “JOB WELL DONE” to Tommy Mauney, Russ Farmer, Jeffers Race Cars, RJ Race Cars, and anyone else that puts the “SAFETY” in SAFETY EQUIPMENT.  Without the constant R&D from all of these folks, we wouldn’t be able to have a happy ending to this 10 days of destruction of some of the fastest, most exciting cars in all of drag racing.

To the competition though. Todd Tutterow showed up with his Camaro to do battle in his home area and immediately went 3.97 for a number 2 qualifying spot. On the pole was Edward Wilson at a 3.94.Next came Ed Hoover at 3.972 with Chris Rini at 3.982. Fifth was Todd Howard in at 3.992 with Matt Giangrande’s ever improving Corvette at 4.003 for the 6th spot. Seventh was Andy Beal’s Corvette at 4.020 and 8th went to the Warbird of Jason Harris at 4.051. What a field. 

With 16 total cars on the property, including Chris Cline, Rocky Raynor, Travis Harvey, Bubba Turner, Brian Teachman, Rich Moore, RB Smith and Charles Terrell, driving Gilmer Hinshaw’s Cobalt.  In the consulation race, Bubba Turner and Rocky Raynor remained but were called due to curfew.  Also called were the 4.90 Extreme Class, as well as, the other four eliminator brackets. 

Competiton in Big Dog eliminations went as follows: Chris Rini got to the final by defeating Todd Howard with a 4.05 to Todd’s 4.89 and Ed Hoover defeated Matt Giangrande with a 3.99 to Matt’s 4.89. Matt, unfortunately had a .010 light, but still not enough.

Rini defeated Jason Harris in the semis and Ed Hoover defeated Todd Tutterow with a 3.94 to Todd’s out of shape 6.35. Finals were called due to curfew with points and purse divided accordingly.

Finally, just a thought. Before every  Big Dog Shootout, we will have the National Anthem with an invocation. This night, Kevin Shipman, gave a very important one asking for safety for all that were in competition. Thanks Kevin, for this is a dangerous sport that we are a part of. Whether a fan, competitor or a part of the media, as I am always honored to be, it never hurts to ask for that little angel to be on our shoulder.