(Words and Photos by David Whealon) What started out in 2016 of as a Thursday night test and tune for all types of racers and a Pro Mod Quick 8 shootout thrown in to highlight the mid-week racing fix, the three event Mad Mule Series has risen to the point of epic proportions in it’s only 2nd year of existence. Starting out with a 5k paycheck for the Pro Mod winner, which isn’t too shabby, for an 8 car field in the middle of the week the thought was hopefully they could attract enough cars to make a show of it. Fortunately the turnout exceeded the expectations to many of us with over 20 cars showing up for a chance at the 8 car field and pocketing a few bucks to have some fun with for the upcoming weekend. Plagued by Mother Nature the 1st event was unfortunately cancelled and the winner’s prize was doubled for the next event. After seeing the awesome response, the fine folks at Galot Motorsports Park saw fit to expand the field to 16 and keep the purse at 10k. With the likes of Pat Musi and his posse of nitrous cars competing against the big inch Charlie Buck powered racers and a fully blown contingency from Galot Motorsports as well as many others, the series was changed in 2018 into a Saturday extravaganza with a Friday test and tune for all.  Additional classes were also added to include the 4.70 Outlaws, Door Car and Dragster Brackets and Jr. Dragster Shootouts.
The best in the biz and PDRA competitors such as Lizzy Musi, Tommy Franklin, Rickie Smith and several out of towners made the regular trip to Benson, NC to take on our local hometrack stars of Jay Cox and Galot Motorsports’ Todd Tutterow, John Strickland, Kevin Rivenbark and a host of others.
This year was one for the record books with nearly the entire field of Pro Mods at every event running in the 3’s to get into the show that made for excitement and drama aplenty. And the 2018 finale had all the drama that one could have not scripted any better. Today we’ll be showing some of the Friday test and tune along with some of the qualifying action. Stay tuned for more 2018 Mad Mule Finale coverage coming up.
