Following a weekend on NASCAR racing on the high-banks, Thunder Valley returned to action at Bristol Dragway with the Fun Ford Series and Mopar Thunder shows this past weekend. Snead Racing was on hand to compete against the region’s best Ford and Mopar racers. Friday evening started with a Gambler’s race open to all makes and models of cars.
With no practice runs allowed, both Larry and Clinton would be making their first passes of the weekend in Round 1. The round started off well enough. Larry decided to dial the team’s dragster in at 4.84 seconds, and he was nearly spot on. By starting with a 0.014 reaction time, Snead crossed the finish line first by 0.0025 seconds, running 4.853, for the round win. Next up, Clinton would try his hand in the team’s Ford EXP. With a 5.20 dial in, Clinton left the starting line with a 0.022 reaction time before trouble stuck. A mechanical failure with the engine forced an early end to his day. During the second round, Larry got off to a great start once again with another 0.014 reaction time, but unfortunately was not able to get to his 4.84 dial in, and gave up the round win, ending the team’s chances at a win on Friday.
Saturday was a new day with new opportunities. With the EXP still out of commission, it was decided that Clinton would pilot the dragster. In the two time runs, Clinton recorded 0.008 and 0.016 reaction times along with 4.800 and 4.806 Elapsed Times respectively. Snead then set his sights on the Ford vs. Mopar Gambler’s race, the first of two events that day. Clinton marched his way through 6 tough rounds of competition, making his way to the finals, which resulted in a bout of Snead’s Ford against Brandon Goble’s Mopar. Clinton used a 0.021 reaction time to gain the starting line advantage and drove past Goble at the finish line to capture his first win of the season!
With no time to celebrate, Bristol Dragway immediately began the Ford Super Pro race, where Clinton looked to pick up where he left off. In this event, Clinton drove his way through another 4 rounds of tough competition and earned a bye run into the finals in round 5, which resulted in his 12th consecutive round win. In the finals, Snead lined up against fellow DER Racing Series regular Dennis Shuler in his Ford-powered roadster. Shuler gained the starting line advantage with a 0.018 reaction time compared to Snead’s 0.022. Unfortunately, Snead did not have enough speed to get around Shuler, and could only manage a 4.825 second run, handing the win to Shuler by two hundredths of a second.
Altogether, Snead Racing had a great show during the Fun Ford Weekend. Between both drivers, they won 13 of 16 rounds of racing which is nearly 82%! Out of Clinton’s 14 elimination rounds he had the quicker reaction time 11 times, or nearly 79%! When looking at Snead’s opponents on Saturday, there was no one that turned on the red light, and only 3 drivers broke out! Also, this gives the team 2 wins and 1 runner-up in the past 4 races they have competed in!
Next weekend, Larry will be back at Bristol Dragway competing in the final DER Racing Series events of the season, and Clinton will be heading to Darlington Raceway in an effort to help Toyota Racing Development and Joe Gibbs Racing earn another NASCAR Sprint Cup Series win. Be sure to like Snead Racing on Facebook, follow @SneadRacing on Twitter, and follow @csnead on Instagram!