(Words and photos by Doug Gregory) – More from the Straight-Axle Mafia cast of characters at US60 Dragway.  Leading off we have Adam Lowhorns’ Falcon which is currently on the sidelines from both SAM and SEG competition after letting the magic smoke out during the Meltdown Drags.  On the day these photos were taken the smack talk between the Lowhorns and another pair of delinquents, Mike Lewis and Ryan Pope, brought on a $100 grudge race which I’ll go into a little later.  The next one I can recall is Herman Hill and the patriotic Henry J.  This car puts out some of the most-photogenic burnouts you will ever see.  Brian Figg in the Dirty Bird Falcon has always been one I like to watch.  Somewhere I have an animated GIF I made from a launch sequence showing how well the chassis works on this ride.  She flat works.

The Lil Tzer of Royce Paynter Sr  is a lot of fun, no-nonsense ride that if unleashed would be a crazy, wheelie bar-bending, wall-banging spectacle.  Chuck Mitchell’s white Comet with the red tint represents a classic and clean look.  Falconstein is Aaron Riley’s Cragar-shod, green-glitter-roofed Falcon that is always in contention for a win.  We last showed you the ’57 Chevy of John Gillgan with our coverage from the Cincinnati Cavalcade of Customs.  John’s primered ’57 with the tilt front end also runs in SEG with the D/Gas class.  He is having a blast and knows a bad day doing this stuff is better than a good day doing most anything else.  Wade Craig’s Poncho has been seen here before and now sports additional artwork (not pictured) earning its name ‘Honcho Poncho’ on the rear fenders.  Earlier I mentioned Mike Lewis and Ryan Pope running a grudge race against Adam Lowhorn with a $100 on the line.  These two try to line up against each other regardless in a healthy, fun rivalry, but the money put it on the line.  Ryan’s Big Iron ’56 is sidelined until another project of theirs is sold so the Lark Ness Monster got the call for this.  Nessie had an altitude adjustment over the winter and shed the wheelie bars.  It also gained front brakes to haul her down from its low-10second laps.

Both cars are pretty close so this really was anybody’s game, however, Nessie came out on top by a few hundredths and the crowd was treated to a great matchup.  When Ryan Pope had his turn behind the wheel of the Lark he not only did a Mike Belina burnout – he stood her on the bumper and rode it out.  Good job on treating your buddy’s car like a rental.  Danny Johnson is deadly consistent in the 221ci Windsor-Ford urged Minor Headache driving it for his soon-to-be father-in-law Tony McConnell.  Now you know why I didn’t put more photos of his cars in here because he had 4 entered in the event.  The last are Lee ‘two-lane’ Vickery’s ’55 sporting all the right stuff for a tribute car.  He has since changed the wheels and made some other modification to meet the strict guidelines for the Southeast Gasser Association that are a limited set based on 1967 rules.

That’s if for the ones I know well enough to tell you much.  If you haven’t caught one of their events, you should.  These folks have fun and race hard with few restrictions.  We enjoy hanging out with them and bet you all would too.

Enjoy.

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