Mind Blowing Change in the Action!
Written by: David Freiburger on September 8 2013 9:18 AM
No Larry Larson at Drag Week 2013! Yes, it’s official. We admit we heard rumblings of this as long as two months ago, but we wrote it off to sandbagging. Now it’s fact: five-time Drag Week winner Larry Larson and his 1966 Chevy II will not compete in 2013. A few weeks ago he mentioned he might have crew-chief commitments that would get in the way, and today racer Mike Roy told us that Larry broke some parts testing yesterday. Some folks here are saying Larry wanted to retire on top. He’s told us directly that he doesn’t like the composite-bodied Pro Mod cars racing with his all-steel Nova in Unlimited.
Regardless of the reason, we’re devastated that The King ain’t here. Larry is our hero and an absolute gentleman, and will remain forever a legend in street-legal racing.
Who’s left to race an all-steel, boxy muscle car in the 6s? Which Unlimited car will fill the spot of running the whole 1,000-plus miles without a trailer? Who will become the fan favorite? And the biggest question of all: who will win?
The players standing here in Bowling Green for the 2013 race include past runner-up Jeff Lutz, who showed up with more power in his 6-second ’57 Chevy. Joe Barry is back with his famed ’56. Dave Schroeder came again with his stock-bodied ’66 Corvette nitrous car. Last year’s player Shawn Fink is running his Nova panel wagon. And, of course, there’s the dastardly Tom Bailey in the Sick Seconds ’69 Camaro and Dave Ahokas in his Jerry Bickel Pro Mod Camaro that ran 6.87 in testing a few days ago. Those are the serious runners in Unlimited that we’ve seen in line so far.
Will one of them enjoy a shallow victory without having Larry Larson to beat? It would seem so at first, but there are some heavy breathers here that should put on a real race to the end. There’s also one bogey that could be even bigger than Larry Larson: averaging 6 seconds over 5 days of Drag Week. That’s the huge feat, and there are at least three cars on site with the potential. Stay tuned here all week for the news.
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