Tight Finals, Personal Bests Cap Racing At Fourth Annual Fall Brawl

There likely has never been better weather for heads-up small tire racing than what greeted racers and fans at this weekends fourth iteration of Holly Springs Motorsports’ Fall Brawl. Daily temperatures in the low 70’s gave way to mid 40’s at night. The track itself was as sticky as fresh flypaper, and the cars were oozing horsepower from the seams, ready to throw all they had at the tacky north Mississippi concrete. When it was all said and done, there was a long list of personal bests and some absolutely jaw-dropping side-by-side passes to conclude the weekend’s racing.

In the always hotly-contested X275 class, the two most recent world record holders squared off in the final round in a Goliath versus Goliath matchup. Rich Bruder and his bright blue fox body hatch made the long haul from New Jersey, where he plowed through eliminations, taking out Jeff Colletta in the quarterfinals and Shannon Renfro in the semis to earn his spot in the finals. Alongside Bruder in the final frame, Jared Johnston in his white CVM-sponsored Fox body coupe.

Johnston faced off with No. 1 qualifier Charles Hull in the quarters and resurgent Louisiana native DJ Loiacano in the semis before going toe-to-toe with Bruder. The two entered the finals as the only two X275 cars to have ever put up sub-4.40 elapsed times and everybody expected a slugfest between the two quickest X275 cars on the planet. The scoreboard would show the quickest side-by-side race in class history with Bruder once again dipping into the 4.30’s with a 4.389 while Johnston was only the smallest of margins slower with a 4.401. However, the scoreboard didn’t really matter, as Johnston had turned on the dreaded redlight, handing the Bruder Brothers team the “W”.

Radial Wars, the quickest and fastest class on the playbill, boasted an even closer final round slugfest between two teams who found their groove after recent struggles. Daniel Pharris made his return to competition in his car after suffering a fire in pre-No Mercy testing. The fire damage was mostly restricted to the underhood area and some cosmetic body damage, but still required a lot of new wiring and plumbing, as well as cleaning up the damaged areas. Less than a month after the blaze, the team rolled into Holly Springs ready to do battle, and battle they did! Pharris would qualify the twin turbo ‘Stang in the No. 3 spot with a 4.09 and better that ET in each round of eliminations.

After a 4.06 in a first round bye, Pharris used a 4.06 to power past Scott Lowery’s ultra-cool Cadiallac XLR when the Caddy exploded the powerplant around the 500-foot mark (Lowery was unhurt, but the car suffered heavy damage in the explosion). In the semifinals, Pharris lined up alongside Eddie Harrison’s swoopy fourth-gen Camaro, but the expected close race failed to materialize when Harrison slowed to a 9.54 while Pharris ran another 4.0, this time a 4.08 at 200 mph, earning him a spot in the final round.

On the other side of the Radial Wars ladder, Mark “Woody” Woodruff was also putting together a string of 4.0 passes as he fought his way to the finals. Following a first round bye which saw tirespin just after the launch, Woodruff laid down a 4.09 in the quarterfinals to punch his ticket to the semis, where he faced Kevin Mullins.

Before their race, Mullins appeared to be destined to withdraw from the race with a broken header, but Woodruff’s crew would have none of it, halting their between-rounds maintenance to weld up Mullins’ exhaust to ensure the two could race for a spot in the final round. Mullins went on to turn on the winlight, but in the process, something in his Mustang’s powertrain let go and, in a true act of selflessness, Mullins bypassed the scales, which disqualified him and reinstated Woody.

Woodruff and Pharris returned to the line for the finale and delivered one of the closest races of the weekend. Pharris left first by only five ten-thousandths of a second, and the pair remained welded door-to-door for the entire 660-feet. When the dust settled and the scoreboards told the tale, both cars laid down the quickest ET they had ever run: almost identical 4.02’s. The computer had to compute out to the thousandths place to determine that Woody’s 4.026 just nosed out Daniel’s 4.029 elapsed time.

Races like this, with acts of true sportsmanship and matter-of-inches final rounds, are the reason radial racing is one of the most popular niches in motorsports. These teams gain lifelong fans and form bonds of friendship, as well as fierce rivalries. This, folks, is what drag racing is all about!