For the second year in a row, Orland Park, Illinois resident Larry Jeleniewski has taken his 1969 Barracuda to the top of the heap at Byron Dragway‘s World Power Wheelstanding Championships, winning the event this past weekend. Each year Byron Dragway in Illinois puts on this event, and it usually provides great video and photography of some awesome cars owned by racers who seem to have no shame in their game – doing whatever it takes to try to win this event. We can only imagine some of the things that the “competitors” do to prepare their cars for the once-a-year bash; we’d be willing to bet that the local sporting-goods store is all out of weight plates and shot for a while leading up to it.

The event always packs the stands full and Jeleniewski has been putting on a show recently. The gorgeous car does one of the most unassuming bumper-draggers in recent memory, launching smoothly before shifting to a nose-up attitude and riding high through the eighth-mile. Jeleniewski seems to have an easy time of driving it, as you can hear at least one gear-change with a minimum of muss and fuss before he calmly sets the car down on the big end of the track. Wheelstands are one of those things that everyone loves to see at the dragstrip. Although they do not always have a positive outcome for the car owner (we’ve seen cars crash numerous times when a wheelstand has gotten out of control) they certainly do put on a great show for the fans.  There are plenty of videos of past Byron Dragway Wheelstand events on YouTube and we guarantee you’ll close your browser with a smile on your face.