The weather reports called for rain pretty much all day. The thunder and lightning rolling in the distance minutes before the gates at Beech Bend Raceway Park didn’t help any fears about day’s weather. And when the skies opened up shortly before nine in the morning, it almost looked like the racing program of ChallengerFest 8 was done before it even had a chance to start. With some cars lined up in the staging lanes and others still out in the pits, people were ready to run, but with the far end of the track disappearing in the precipitation shaft of the little weather cell that was tracking directly overhead, the situation didn’t look great.
In the timing tower, Speedy and track owner Dallas Jones were trying to decide on a plan of action. Ultimately, it was Dallas who made the call to wait for a bit to see if a clearing would open up, and sure enough, once the rain cell had passed and the track crew had dried the surface, the race was on. Unlike past events, there was no major test and tune time…from the A2Speed/B&G Performance bracket classes to The Driveshaft Shop Six-speed Shootout, it all had to go down in one day, since the weather looked even more uncooperative the next day.
The numbers might have been down compared to past ChallengerFest outings, but the good stuff was out in force: Hellcats far and wide in various states of tune, a swapped Road Runner that just flat stomped, a V6-powered 300 that was called into action after a swapped ‘Cuda wound up stuck in paint jail, and a Ram truck that had one of the most suspicious-sounding exhaust notes we’ve heard out of a “stock” truck in quite some time is just a snapshot of what came out to play. Click on a photo below for our first look at the modern Mopar throwdown!
On my bucket list.Kick Alan Pederson in the nuts.Tell him its from me.LOL