Drag Racing Online - Race Results

HIGH SCHOOL SENIOR KICKS VETERANS' BUTTS AT MILLENNIUM MILLION

18-year-old Jonathan Clay won the Millennium Million Bracket Race.

Photo by Leigh Simmons, Team Photo Finish.

ROCKINGHAM, N.C. - Talk about your great graduation presents! Jonathan Clay, an 18-year-old high school senior, beat drag racing world champions in consecutive rounds to claim the $130,000 top prize in the rain-delayed conclusion of the inaugural Holley Performance Millennium Million bracket race at Rockingham Dragway.

The class valedictorian from West Hamlin, West Virginia drove his Cressman dragster to a final round time of 5.037 seconds at 136.54 mph to upset five-time NHRA World Champion Scott Richardson of Goodlettsville, Tenn.

Jonathan Clay (far lane) beat Scott Richardson in the final.

Photo by Leigh Simmons, Team Photo Finish.

Although both drivers ran under their dial-ins, Clay was closer to his target time and therefore got the victory. Richardson was clocked at 5.082/134.44 mph for the eighth-mile.

The winner's payday was based on the total number of participants in the event which required a $2,000 entry fee. The remainder of the purse, including the $50,000 runner-up prize, was guaranteed. It would have taken 500 entrants to activate the $1 million cash payout. For this inaugural events there were 140 entrants from 20 states and Canada. The race was presented by RaceTech for the benefit of the Richmond County Hospice.

In perhaps the best race of the event, Scott Richardson beat his older brother, Edmond, in the quarter-finals by .003 of a second with a 5.145 on a 5.140 dial against Edmond's 5.037 on a 5.030 dial-in.

In Saturday's preliminary race, Bennie Ulmer of Orangeburg, SC won the $20,000 top prize by stopping "Hollywood Don" Urban of Pittsboro, NC in the final.

Scott Richardson came back to the winner's circle in the final event of the Memorial Day weekend, however. He picked up $20,000 for the victory over Billy Blackman of Sanford, NC who was disqualified when he went under his 5.660 target by a scant .005 of a second.

Coupled with his earnings as runner-up in the Millennium Million and the value of the RaceTech dragster he claimed as winner of a special Saturday race for drivers pre-entered in the event, the younger Richardson brother left Rockingham with more than $75,000.