Keith Berry said during testing for Holly Springs’ third annual Fall Brawl that his sleek ProLine-powered Corvette was more than capable of running mid-4.0’s. Saturday night during the fourth qualifying session, Berry and his twin-turbo LSX-powered C5 blistered the North Mississippi traction mecca to the tune of a 4.040 at 185 MPH, returning him to the top of the premier radial class, Radial vs the World (contested at Holly Springs under the Radial Wars moniker).
Nipping hot on Berry’s heels with a nitrous-powered record of 4.063 is the radial world’s black sheep, Jamie Hancock. Hancock, you may remember, shook up the radial ranks when he strapped a pair of 315 Mickey Thompson Radials to his ADRL Pro Nitrous-champion Corvette and began his assault on the radial world in grand fashion, earning the first 4.0 pass on radials earlier this year at Shadyside Dragway. Hancock tightened his grip on the class when he took home the win at Duck X Productions’ No Mercy event a few weeks back.
Striking a blow for the stock-suspension stalwarts, Brad Edwards also laid down a number in the third session, launching his Mustang into the 4.0-range with a 4.080 pass at just over 190MPH, earning him the distinction of the first stock-suspension car to join the 4.0 club. Also joining the rare air of the 4.0 club was longtime radial front runner Kevin Mullins, who ran a 4.097 in the third session to announce his return to the upper echelon of radial competitors after struggling to return his Hemi-powered ‘Stang to form when he hurt the engine at Holly Springs’ Spring race.
With this weekends’ new records and additions to the 4.0 club, Holly Springs has returned itself to the forefront of radial facilities, a title manager Terry “Jabbo” Forsyth works hard to earn for his track. With eliminations coming up on Sunday, we will have to see if the racers are going to continue to take shots at the records, or if they will back off a bit in the name of going from A to B consistently.