This post contains an excerpt from roadkill.com posted 7/18/17. Written by Povi Pullinen with photos from Povi Pullinen, Elana Scherr, and Wes Allison. The full article is available here: http://www.roadkill.com/gallery-of-winners-from-zip-tie-drags-memphis-powered-by-dodge/
Fans vs Freiburger And Finnegan Sponsored by Holley
10 lucky racing participants put their names in the lottery box, and were chosen by our Make-A-Wish guest, James Torraville. They got to race Frei and Fin until those two predictably got themselves eliminated, and then they finished it up amongst themselves. Here’s how that went down.
Stephen Benn – 10 Chevy Camaro, stock V8
Jacob Riba – 69 Mustang Mach 1, 390 FE
Zack Tilley – 14 Hyundai Sonata, 2.0L Turbo four
Jeffrey Crowley – 11 Toyota Camry, 2.4L four
Jeff Shavers – 94 Chevy Cheyenne, LT1
Joseph Hayden – 83 Ford Mustang, 351 windsor
Benjamin Johnson – 06 Toyota Tundra, 4.7L V8
Donovan Leln – 12 Honda Civic SI, 2.4L four
George Sawtelle – 66 Chevy II, 194 six
Dillon Sawtelle – 72 Chevy C10, 350
Mike Finnegan flexed before the Fans vs. Frieburger and Finnegan challenge even began in the afternoon, when he ran his fastest ever pass in Blasphemi to kick things off. Much to everyone’s surprise, not only did it go in a relatively straight line and not scatter the trans across half of Memphis, but it pulled a wheelstand off the lights.
Despite Freiburger’s competition looking like a cakewalk, he had to roll the Nascarlo dice if he was going to make it out of the first round and thankfully the Roadkill gods smiled on the Monte Carlo and it worked just well enough to take out Donovan Leln’s stocker 2012 Civic by a hair under two seconds.
Finnegan then made short work of Benjamin Johnson’s ’06 Tundra in a truck vs. truck battle against the Muscle Truck.
Glad he’d made it through the first round this time, Freiburger then confidently jumped in the Impala to take on Stephen Benn in his eye-searingly yellow 2010 Camaro V8. Although he looked good and sounded good for the first 330ft, the Impala embarrassingly ran out of fuel halfway and was stuck with only coasting power and Dave’s prayers to take home the W… which he didn’t. Stephen edged through 0.4sec ahead.
Spying a threat to the Disgustang’s fame, Mike immediately took out its doppelganger in Jacob Riba’s ’69 Mach 1 with the mighty General Mayhem, ensuring RK’s latest junker Pony stays free from unwanted imitations and copycats!
Fearing another elimination in the FvFF challenge at the hands of the Ramp Truck, Mike then eyed down George Sawtelle who’d brought out his ’66 Chevy II to play. Even though it was powered by a breathless 194-cube straight six, it still had Mike worried. The Ramp Truck, however, lit up a huge burnout which shocked pretty much everyone, and then proceeded to launch nicely, drive nicely, and take home a 19.5-second win, nicely.
All this time however, Stephen Benn in his new Camaro, and despite claims of never having done this before, had been quietly taking down late model opponents like Zack Tilley in his 2014 Hyundai Sonata and Jeffrey Crowley in his 2011 Toyota Camry and was now facing his fate at the hands of General Maintenance. Doing his best John Force impression to intimidate Stephen, Finn laid down a huge smoker and double-bulbed to put the pressure on. Maybe a little too cocky as the christmas tree fell, Mike not only red-lit but smoked up the first 60ft and Stephen won by default!
Despite being the tidiest and brightest car in the field, no one had given much attention to the Camaro, but now it was game on for the rest of the Fans to stamp it out and take home the victory and the complete nitrous kit from sponsor Holley.
“He’s on a roll! I think it’s the red calipers” cried Joe Sebergandio from the announcer’s mic as the ‘Maro took down Jeff Shavers in his LT1-powered ’94 Cheyenne then immediately after that crossed Dillon Sawtelle’s ’72 C10 off the list.
It was down to the last race.
Stephen Benn… in the stock Camaro.
Joseph Hayden… in the ’83 Fox-body with a 351 Windsor pulled out of a boat (there’s a sentence you don’t hear often).
And Stephen takes the win by over a second!
It seems like there’s a formula here folks – if you want to win the Fans vs Freiburger and Finnegan challenge, bring a citrous-colored Camaro! All three winners have pedaled the esteemed badge to victory, and it doesn’t matter which generation, 2nd, 3rd and 5th have all taken home top spot. All have been either yellow or orange though. Meaningful? Must be.
After driving the six hours out from Moss Point, MS, Stephen was already stoked to be at the race when he drove through the gate, let alone racing against Finn and Fri and then somehow managing to take home the trophy. The first time he’d ever drag raced was only last weekend so maybe we can put it down to beginner’s luck? Or maybe there’s a bright (bright-yellow, that is) young star in the making? Is he hooked on drag racing now? “Man, I was hooked on my first run last weekend, this is just crazy!”
