The folks at the Holly Springs Motorsports Park in Mississippi promised that their annual Fall Brawl heads-up doorslammer race would be one of the season’s big events, and thanks to the racing surface they provided and the competitors that turned out to tear it up at a record-breaking pace, the Fall Brawl easily surpassed the hype.
This year’s Fall Brawl featured X275, Outlaw 275, Leaf Spring, 6.0 Index, and 7.0 Index, but it was the True 10.5/Outlaw Drag Radial class that made headlines when a number of entered racers punched their way into the 4.20’s during qualifying and eliminations. At the completion of qualifying, four racers were in the 20’s (Kyle Huettel at 4.213, Kenny Hubbard at 4.224, Steve Jackson 4.272, and Kevin Fiscus 4.283). Huettel’s 4.21 from his nitrous-assisted, 894 cubic inch “Bad 9er” Camaro marked the quickest run in the history of radial tire racing, outpacing the field and the 4.26 record that Hubbard has clocked previously in his screw-blown, Hemi-powered Camaro.
When the dust settled, the only two cars remaining both hailed from the state of Texas — Nos. 1 and 2 qualifiers Huettel and Hubbard, in a pair of race cars with vastly opposing engine combinations.
The final round was everything one could hope for and then some. Huettel gained a slight edge out of the gate, and although Hubbard was quicker on the race track, it was the reaction time that made the difference for the Bad 9er in the quickest side-by-side Outlaw Drag Radial race in the history of the sport. The scoreboards tell the tale: Huettel’s 4.229 just edged out Hubbard’s 4.222.