Champions Crowned At SEGA Shadyside Showdown

Championship seasons are built on moments, and at Shadyside Dragway, the Southeast Gassers Association (SEGA) wrapped up its 2025 campaign with a few that fans won’t forget anytime soon. The Championship Finals presented by Robbins Repairables had it all: door-to-door racing,

The tightest points battle in SEGA came down to A/Gas, where Chase Howard in his USA-1 ’67 Chevelle entered the weekend with a slim five-point edge over defending champ Leslie Horne in the crowd-favorite Chick Magnet ’55 Chevy. With each round win worth five points, the math pointed toward a potential winner-take-all showdown. But drag racing has a way of rewriting the script.

Qualifying saw former champ Gabriel Burrell return with his Southern Flyer Ford and take the top spot with a 5.17, followed closely by Chase at 5.18. Leslie sat fourth at 5.23, setting the stage for a high-stakes eliminator. Both drivers advanced cleanly through round one, but round two changed everything.

Launching hard against Alan Pittman, Horne carried the Chick Magnet into a massive wheelstand, shifted to second mid-air, and veered straight into the Shadyside wall. The impact ended his day, and with it, his title hopes.

Horne was thankfully unhurt, but his misfortune handed Chase Howard the 2025 A/Gas Championship in dramatic fashion. Howard wasn’t done, though, he capped his title run with a heads-up final win over Burrell, taking the stripe 5.23 to 5.24. His season ends with three wins and a new A/Gas ET record at 5.14.

In B/Gas, Ken Rainwater and his Renegade Chevy II had a commanding lead going into the Finals, but Ted McKee in the Rocky Top Missile Chevy II still had a mathematical shot. Rainwater erased any doubt early, qualifying number one with a 5.56 and driving through to the second round, clinching the championship.

The final round came down to the two heavyweights of B/Gas: Rainwater and McKee. Ted went red trying to grab a holeshot edge, handing the win and a near-perfect season, to Ken Rainwater, who also reset the B/Gas record at 5.54. Rainwater closed out 2025 with four wins and the class title firmly in his hands.

The biggest field of the weekend belonged to C/Gas, where 18 racers lined up to close the season. The 2025 champion, Jerren Perdue, had already clinched the title early in his Ghost of Fulton’s Past Chevy II Wagon, thanks to four wins and a 5.95 class record. But that didn’t stop the rest of the field from coming after him.

Perdue qualified number one, but Heath Adams and his Rusty Bullet ’53 Chevy were right there with matching 5.99s. When the two met in the semis, Adams stole the win on a holeshot and advanced to the final to face Tony Tagenhorst in Wasted Wages. Adams sealed the deal, earning his first-ever SEGA win, and signaling that he’s one to watch for 2026.

When it comes to Super Stock, Jerry Dean and his Last Rebel II were untouchable. Dean had already locked up the championship three races early and rolled into Shadyside looking to put an exclamation point on the season.

He qualified number one, won his eighth event of the year, and ran 6.38 in the final against Kenny Phillips, a fitting finish for a driver who made every final round in 2025 and reset the class ET record to 6.30.

Two of SEGA’s newest classes wrapped their first full championship seasons. In A/FX, Todd Wimberly and the Southern Comfort Ford Falcon swept to the inaugural title, and even added one more win at Shadyside to end the season with five total victories.

In H/Gas, Larry Noel and his Crazy Pony Anglia emerged as the top dog, winning three events and taking home the first-ever championship in the class designed for smaller engines and nostalgic powerplants.

By the time the final win light dropped at Shadyside, one thing was clear: SEGA remains one of drag racing’s purest forms of competition. Fans filled the stands and the hillside, watching as drivers rowed gears, carried the front wheels sky-high, and kept the sport’s most authentic traditions alive.