Who knew that Evansville would become the spot on a Saturday in the middle of January to witness history? Racers from Texas, Maryland, North Carolina, and every state in the Midwest attended the 6th Annual DragstersForSale.Com Practice Tree Race, presented by Streetway Marketing and Media this past Saturday. The event has become a must-attend race during the offseason that attracts champions and is who’s who at every level of the drag racing.

The Warm-Up race offered weekend entries to some of the premier bracket races in the nation, including Triple’s at the Million Dollar event, Triples in Vegas, and The Derby City event. The Main Event of the race included big cash payouts plus the most significant prize or cash award in Practice Tree History to date, a complete Oakley Engine Performance 632 to the winner valued at over $23,000.

“I guess we are going to have to give away a complete race hauler next year,” a smiling Don O’Neal, event organizer stated. “We work hard to think up great ideas to entertain participants during the offseason for our event, the idea of doing a complete engine with Oakley Engine is going to be tough to top,” O’Neal said.

The Warm-Up saw 459 entries stage up to chase weekend race entries in the 2020 season. The first few rounds were fierce as the fingers became more comfortable letting go of the Richardson Boyz Billet Steering wheels. Brett Williamson, Cory Gulitti, Tyler Sizemore, and Dan West all made it to the final four. Brett Williamson chose the Derby entry, Gulitti chose the Vegas Triple, Sizemore grabbed the Triple for the Million Weekend in Montgomery, and Mr. West grabbed the cash.

The Main Event combined many competitive top bulb racers with a slice of the best bottom bulb racers in the country. The event started with 580 entries trying to pick up the $4000 purse, but with the number of entries going over 500 it was announced that the purse would be increased at every payout position. The structure of the event allowed the racers hitting the bottom bulb to match up against each other until only one was left. Local racer Brad Paul faced Clayton Clark to see who the last bottom bulb competitor would be and the winner would receive $300. In a sportsmanlike gesture, they agreed to split the winnings with $200 to the winner and $100 to the runner-up. Clark was able to secure the win so he moved on to compete against the top bulb racers in the Main Event.

“I believe that it’s the right thing to have the bottom bulb racers match up until they no one is left. We want all racers to come to our event and finding ways to make it a level field for the competition is imperative,” O’Neal says.

The Main Event allowed competitors to have four entries and buyback once, giving for numerous opportunities to get comfortable with letting go of the button. The money round started with Miles, English, Fulcher, Dustin, Garner in the running for the top prize. In years past, competitors have had multiple entries left in the late rounds, this year Holden English was the only person left with more than one. Clayton Clark carried the torch for the bottom bulb community bowing out in the eights. English also lost one of his entries in the round of eight leaving him against Steve Maas, Tyler Jarrell, Stevie Dustin, Miles, Garner, and Fulcher.

It was during the semi-final round when Miles, English, Fulcher, and Garner talked splitting a $7,500 purse. English came with what he was willing to do, as the semifinalists were going to receive $1,000 in this round, leaving $5,500 to talk about later. “I wanted the semi-round to have more cash in it, but I also wanted the final round to mean something. I was in a comfortable zone and being consistent, so it was time to bet on myself,” English said.

English did well in the late rounds, in his 17 attempts English was no worse than .012. The final would see Brad Miles and Holden English square off for $5,500 in cash. When it came time to talk about a split the pair decided that $3,500 would go to the winner and $2,000 would go to the runner-up. The final did not disappoint as Miles went .009 to English’s .003.

Originally, English wasn’t even planning on coming to this event but in the end, he’s glad he made the decision to make the trip.

“I wasn’t going to come to the event, I wanted to save some money during the offseason, guess I have a little extra now. I made it to the finals a few weeks ago at another event and completely waited until the last minute, but glad I did, maybe I will see if I can keep my streak alive,” English said.

A new addition to the DragstersForSale.Com Practice Tree Race was the Oakley Engine Performance 632 Engine Event. Phillip Oakley and his team stepped up with a complete 632 Sniper Head Engine with products from the best in the business as a price. Over 100 racers had two chances to roll into 2020 with a new powerplant to improve their operation if they won, with the runner-up received a weekend entry for “The Million Dollar Race.”

“You could tell there was a lot of excitement around this part of the event. The room got quiet, and reaction times relaxed a little because people recognized the moment, it was awesome. It came down to David Davis from Ohio and Darren Douglass from Kentucky, when Davis’ light blinked with the win the Ohio Racers erupted,” O’Neal said.

“We came to win the engine. Winning the engine race for me was huge, drag racing is a very humbling sport and to accomplish a win like this is awesome. I cannot thank the entire DragstersForSale Team and Phillip and Jay Oakley. This is changing my 2020 Season, we will be back next year,” Davis explained

One long day with a great staff, 40 pizzas, 30 cases of beverages, and thousands hits at the Christmas Tree. The bright LED lights from Porta Tree once again will wait for the cold winter months of January 2021 to see who will emerge with entries to the most significant bracket racing events in the country and cold hard cash.