Drag Illustrated Issue 118, February 2017 | Page 38

Dirt BATTLE OF THE STATES “The best sportsman drag racers on the planet are in this race,” he continued. “Edmond Rich- ardson, Scotty Richardson, Tommy Phillips, Todd Ewing, Peter Biondo – it’s crazy to get all those racers to come together at one track to see which state has produced the best racers. I have no clue who’s going to win, because everybody’s good. There are no weak links.” The Scoggin Dickey Parts Center (SDPC) Raceshop is the title sponsor for the All State Challenge, a 100-percent payback race. Cum- mings and Rolison are still open to sponsors for the seven individual driver categories and the MotorManiaTV Live Feed, which will stream the entire weekend of racing. “We start off on Friday with an ‘Out of the Box’ race,” explained Cummings. “The first 16 to enter are in. Friday morning they’re the first ones on the track. They put a dial-in on with no time tri- als. The only numbers we give them are reaction time and 60-foot. There’s also a 10 grander on Friday, and we’ll run two rounds of the All State race in conjunction with that. We have a 32-car high rollers race scheduled for Friday night. The remaining rounds of the All State race will be run throughout the weekend, but with no ad- ditional time runs. That throws in another element of adapting to the changes across days. We will have two time runs on Satur- day for the 50 grander and then run that. Immediately following that we have a 32- car gamblers race for an American Dragster. Luke Bogacki puts that on. Immediately following that we have our death-defying golf cart race and racer’s party. On Sunday morning we have another 10 grander with no time runs. “We’ve always done everything that’s on the flyer; completed every race scheduled. We finish in a timely manner. Bracket racing has changed. Back in the day it didn’t bother people to race until three or four in the morning. Nobody wants to do that anymore. Everybody wants to finish early and then kick back.” Cummings admits that the big-money brack- et racing market is overly saturated these days, which is why he’s always thinking out of the box for the Great American 50 and the weekend of three $25,000 races he puts on with his brother, Slate, and the Folk family. While that’s nearly the extent of promoting for the world champion racer, Rolison, on the other hand, promotes sev- eral races along the Mississippi Gulf Coast at Gulfport Dragway. “Even though I don’t put on races for a living, I feel like it’s what I’m meant to do,” told Rolison, whose other marquee event is the Footbrake 150 + 50, held annually in March. “I’m really high on customer service. I like putting on a quality event where people know they’re going to get treated fair, there’s no monkey business going on and the guys are super nice.” Over 200 cars are guaranteed to be part of the Great American Bracket Race, and with the interest in the All State Challenge, both Cummings and Rolison believe this will be the biggest year for the event yet. Neither are in the promoting business to make money. For them, this is an oppor- tunity to further bracket racing. “I’m glad the All State Challenge has cre- ated a lot of interest,” expressed Cummings. “We’re trying to get bracket racers on the map.” “The All State Challenge is unique,” Rolison added. “It’s something that’s never been done on a racing surface. It’s big for the sport. It’s good for the sport to promote sportsman racers in general. The bracket racers and weekend warriors, those folks don’t get a lot of air time, but they’re the backbone of the sport. This deal is a win-win for everybody.” DI DI DI DI DI DI DI DI DI DI 38 | D r a g I l l u s t r a t e d | DragIllustrated.com Issue 118