Steve Jackson’s “Shadow” Downs “Jekyll” In Texas Outlaw Grudge Match

One of the biggest lock-in outlaw grudge matches in the southwest went down this past weekend at North Star Dragway in Denton, Texas. Fans were treated to a matchup between two of the fastest grudge cars in the country as Phil Shuler’s South Carolina based “Shadow” 1993 nitrous assisted Mustang, driven by Stevie “Fast” Jackson, took on the “Jekyll” nitrous assisted 2000 Camaro bodied entry driven by Jeff Sitton of the Jekyll and Hyde Racing Team from Dallas, Texas. This feature match-up headlined the Fall Grudge Nationals event which also included the final event of the year for the Texas King of the Hill series, a Pro Mod Bike shootout, big money 7.00 index race presented by Small Town Auto and several other locked in grudge races on tap.

Hype of this matchup had been brewing for months on message boards as the teams poked at each other with plenty of smack talk and antics prior to the big race.  Both teams spent several days at North Star Dragway in private test sessions preparing for the Saturday night bout and both were ready for the challenge when the call went out to bring them to the lanes. Despite scattered showers across North Texas on race day, the race facility stayed dry and many racers and fans packed the pits to see who would take home the prize as the baddest backhalf of the night. 

The cars were given the signal to fire up and they rolled through the water box followed by side by side long smoky burnouts. As they returned to the line the teams went to work adjusting wheelie bar height, drivers clearing out their engines, purging their numerous nitrous systems and the crew chiefs guided their drivers carefully into the beams.  Both cars pulled into the pre-stage bulb quickly, but neither driver wanted to stage first. 

As the staging duel continued, the crowd was getting restless with anticipation. It took over a full minute for both drivers to pull into the stage beam and as the ambers dropped they were off the line hard with flames belching from the pipes.  “Shadow” pulled ahead by half a car length early but “Jekyll” was not falling far behind as they were still within a car length at half-track.  At the stripe, Jackson in the “Shadow” took the win light. Jackson wheeled his Mustang back up the strip in a classic celebratory trip back towards the starting line purging nitrous high into the air with the chutes in full bloom behind the car.  A great race, a great celebration and a great match-up concluded for the grudge racing fans of North Texas.

With a handful of unexpected oil downs and a one car incident at the top end during King of the Hill competition, the drivers still in class racing rounds decided to split, as the nighttime dew began to set in. James LaFitte qualified number one with a 4.57 at 157 mph in his Chevy Nova with Greg Green qualified number two with a 4.58 at 151 mph.  LaFitte and Green were set to battle in the final round of Texas King of the Hill and split the final monies as the dew coming in created a safety issue that couldn’t be ignored. Green’s solid outing clinched him and his team the 2013 KOTH Championship in his black Chevy II.  Several local heavy hitting grudge racers were there as “Glassman”, “Terminator”, “Silver Bullet”, “Nightmare”, “Debo” and “Tha Undertaker” all got in on racing action among others.

North Star Dragway will host a handful of outlaw grudge events in 2014 which will bring the top names on the scene to the fastest track in North Texas.  The next feature lock-in was just announced, pitting “Birdman” from Houston in his turbo charged Camaro against the nitrous assisted Camaro “Hyde”, driven by Matt Jones, of the Jekyll and Hyde Racing Team.  This matchup will go down Saturday, November 16th at NSD and the winner will then own the Texas backhalf belt!

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