Justin “Big Chief” Shearer scored a popular victory in his first no-prep appearance of the season at Brown County Dragway’s “War In The Woods” event Sunday afternoon. Shearer, driving his familiar 1970 Pontiac GTO, the “Crow,” outlasted a host of big-tire challengers over the course of two days of rain-hampered eliminations, ultimately defeating Tim Bailey and his “Krusty” turbocharged C-10 pickup in the final. Shearer had been eyeing and preparing for War In The Woods, put on annually by Jeff Thomas, for weeks leading up to the event at the small, timeless Indiana 1/8-mile.
Shearer and girlfriend, Jackie Braasch, were doing what they do, which was competing at one of the nation’s smallest, trickiest, least-known drag strips, meeting and greeting fans that would otherwise never have the opportunity to see an A-list racer in their own backyard, signing autographs for hours on end…and winning.
Thomas (Small Tire) and Ryan Betz (Hard Tire) joined Shearer as victors of the sixth edition of War In The Woods.
Video credit: Spoold Media