HARRIS AND FRIGO COME FROM VERY DIFFERENT BACKGROUNDS AND DRIVE EQUALLY CONTRASTING CARS, BUT THE TWO CAME TOGETHER TO DELIVER A SIDE-BY-SIDE FINAL ROUND FOR THE FANS. and to win something like that, it would just be life-changing for me.”
The No. 1 qualifier position would typically come with the benefit of facing the No. 32 qualifier in the first round of eliminations, but the Winter Series races use random chip draws to determine pairings on race day. Harris’ bad luck in the chip draws continued when he paired up with Mark Micke, who qualified No. 1 at all three Winter Series events last winter.
“ I’ m kind of bad at chip drawing, so I knew I was going to draw somebody who was going to be tough,” said Harris, who thanked his team, which includes his father, Bob, and tuner Brandon Stroud.“ But No. 1 to 32 is all tough, and nobody wants me, but I don’ t want anybody else. That’ s just the way it goes because tomorrow’ s another day and anything can happen in drag racing.”
Harris came prepared for Micke, running the second-quickest pass of the opening round, a 3.579 at 210.64, to get past Micke, who lifted to a 4.345 at 121.29. Harris then drew Jimmy Taylor. Like Micke, Taylor had to lift to a 4.365 at 149.02, while Harris rolled on with a 3.607 at 209.79. Harris set low E. T. of the next two rounds, using a 3.584 at 210.28 to defeat Randy
Weatherford’ s 3.598 at 210.11 and a 3.576 at 210.44 to eliminate Kevin Rivenbark and his 3.658 at 205.47 in the semifinals.
Harris met up with Brazilian drag racing veteran Sidnei Frigo in the $ 50,000 final round. The North Carolina native left the line first and led the whole way, winning with a 3.561 at 211.06 to Frigo’ s 3.570 at 211.33.
“ Truthfully, it was tighter than I thought it was,” Harris said.“ I knew he was there and I wasn’ t sure if I took the win or not because the car wheelstood a little bit and I was trying to pay attention, but I got on the radio and nobody said anything to me. When I turned the corner, I saw Courtney [ Enders ] walking to me, so I guess I knew I won. It was just a relief.
“ We’ ve worked really hard this weekend,” Harris continued.“ We had a bad test session the first couple of days, but it just fell together
76 | Drag Illustrated | DragIllustrated. com Issue 198