Halsey takes the win at the FARM!

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Halsey takes Quick 8 win at The Farm

(3-23-2008) MOCKSVILLE, NC – The first Quick 8 race of 2008 kicked off with a big bang at Farmington Dragway. Records fell when Jim Halsey and Rickie Smith both ran in the 3 second zone in the final.

After the first round of qualifying we saw a familiar red '63 Corvette driven by "Tricky" Rickie Smith at the top of the chart with an outstanding 3.98 at 187.01. The closest competition in the first round was eventual winner Jim Halsey in his Gene Fulton powered '68 Camaro with a 4.057 at 185.29. After the first round came to an end the quickest 8 were Rickie Smith, Jim Halsey, Steve Vick, Randy Weatherford, Thomas Dunford, Dale Brinsfield, Buzz Varner and Todd Howard.

In the second round the Rickie Smith sent shock waves through the field with a track record blast 3.959 at 185.90 with a 60 foot time of .952 and .330 time of 2.616. Again the closest to Rickie was Jim Halsey at 4.057 at 185.29. Both Steve Vick and Randy Weatherford moved up to the number 3 and 4 spots with Vick running a stout 4.062 and Weatherford not far behind with a 4.085. Thomas Dunford stepped it with a 4.103 while Dale Brinsfield in Jerry Williams beautiful new Jerry Hass built 2008 Mustang Cobra was starting to get a handle on the new car running a 4.104. Buzz Varner was number 7 with a 4.104 running the same number as Brinsfield because his 182.26 was faster than Buzz’s 180.01. Former Quick 8 champion Todd Howard driving Jerry Williams' other entry, his famous Hass built 1998 Ford Probe was in the 8th spot going into the final round of qualifying.

In the final round of qualifying the first 3 stayed the same as Smith, Halsey and Vick ran into tire shake. Thomas Dunford driving his Tim McAmis built Camaro known as the Death Dealer ran a career best at 4.066 at 180.05. Talking to Thomas in the staging lanes he said, "Not many people know it but this was actually the first nitrous assisted Pro Modified car to run in the 6.20's. I let Shannon Jenkins borrow it while his car was getting painted and when he brought it back he told that the car in the paint shop was going to mine and that he was keeping this one". Buzz Varner also picked it up running a strong 4.073 at 180.07. The "Mad Man" Chad Tilley with his Powerglide equipped Grand Am sporting a new Billy Albert 728 cubic inch engine got in on his last qualifying pass with a 4.229 at 172.25.

The first round of eliminations saw Thomas Dunford get the win over Chad Tilley with another career best at 4.050 at 181.39 to Chad’s slowing 4.633 at 122. Rickie Smith went into the 3's again with an ultra fast 3.961 at 187.81 while Buzz Varner went .007 red. Jim Halsey ran into tire shake about half track but still had enough to take the win over 2006 Quick 8 champ Randy Weatherford. Randy shook the tires at the hit of the throttle. Steve Vick picked up the win over a tire shaking Dale Brinsfield with a 4.079 at 181.50.

The semi-final rounds did not disappoint. The tricky one Rickie Smith came and really flexed his muscle with an 1/8 mile blast at 3.952 while Steve Vick rattled his tires at the 60 foot mark. The other semi-final round saw Thomas Dunford run a career best 4.030 but it wasn’t enough as Jim Halsey laid down a 4.010 taking home the win.

The final round saw two of the best Pro Modified racers in the country square off. In what could be compared to a heavyweight title fight we saw the worlds quickest nitrous assisted Pro Modified driver Jim Halsey and his '68 Camaro take on multi-time champion "Tricky" Rickie Smith. The two left the line close together but at the 1/8 mile Jim Halsey pulled ahead with a 3.95 to Smith’s losing 3.97. "Coming up the return road a man told that I was a pretty good poker player. Yeah we turned it up a little bit. We are completely IHRA legal with the car, we run a 1/4 mile setup in it. If you put a good back half on that run it was probably a 6.03 or 6..04. We’ll see how our schedule goes and how much fuel it will cost but we’ll try to come back," said Jim.

Some might call it an upset win but why? After all he is the quickest nitrous Pro Modified racer in the world. From all of us here at FastDoorslammers.com congratulations to Jim Halsey and crew!
Click here for full results. Click here to view Buddy Trivette's photo gallery.

The next Quick 8 race will be May 17th at Roxboro Dragway.