LIGHTS OUT 9
A
substantial
amount of
money was
on the line
for the
grudge match,
locked in on Friday night
during an afterhours
trash-talking session,
but this race was about
bragging rights. Jackson,
who’s won everything
from big-money grudge
races at the Southeast’s
backwoods dragstrips
to NHRA Pro Mod events
along the shimmering
Las Vegas Strip, was
merely defending his
unofficial title as the
king of Valdosta.
Sitting in the other
lane was Haney, a “car salesman
who does this on his days off ”, ea-
ger to prove his haters wrong and
use what was arguably the best car
he’s ever had to topple one of drag
racing’s hottest stars on his home
turf, the fabled South Georgia Mo-
torsports Park eighth mile.
As Jackson and Haney backed
up from their burnouts, Jack-
son in his supercharged Strange
Engineering-backed “Shadow
2.0” ’15 Camaro and Haney in his
nitrous-assisted “Enigma” ’16 Ca-
maro, a swarm of fans surrounded
the two teams on the starting line.
Respected tuners like Jackson’s
Phil Shuler, Billy Stocklin and
Mark Savage, or Haney’s Brandon
Pesz and Brandon Switzer, had to
nudge their way around spectators
as they prepared their driv ers to
take the tree.
Smartphones and dollar bills
– ranging in denomination from
$1 to $100 – went up in the air
as viewers wanted to capture the
moment and get a piece of the ac-
tion. Both drivers creeped toward
the pre-stage beam. Jackson lit
up his side of the tree first, waited
for Haney to light up his first
set of bulbs, then bumped in to
82 | D r a g
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