Home Local Sports Woodring overcomes Paschal Brothers for win at Rockingham Dragway

Woodring overcomes Paschal Brothers for win at Rockingham Dragway

Rockingham Dragway

ROCKINGHAM — The Paschal brothers had him surrounded, but Lenoir’s Jake Woodring managed to overcome the odds Saturday and win the biggest share of the purse at the ATI Performance Products Top ET Challenge at Rockingham Dragway.

Driving a black dragster largely devoid of signs and decals, Woodring outlasted more than 150 rivals to secure a $17,000 payday before track officials canceled Sunday’s final day of racing because of weather issues.

The fact that three of the four cars in the Saturday semifinals belonged to either reigning Carolina Coalition Champion T.G. Paschal of McLeansville or his brother Michael, both multiple winners at The Rock, obviously didn’t bother Woodring.

He used a .019 package (a .011 reaction time and a 4.588 second track time against a 4.580 target) to force T.G into a breakout foul in the semifinals and when he wound up facing him again after a sibling showdown in the other semi, he got a free ride to the big money courtesy of a foul start.

As a result of Sunday’s rainout, the last big winner of ATI weekend was New Jersey veteran Chris DePascale who won Saturday night’s Gamblers Race, beating Thursday race winner Gary Ingold in the final.

Like Paschal, Ingold fouled away his chances in the final, going red by .002 of a second. For DePascale, a two-time NHRA national tour winner in Super Street and the Super Street runner-up at the 2015 NHRA New England Nationals at Epping, N.H., it was just the tonic to make the trip home a little less tedious.

DePascale beat Megan Lotts, daughter of Friday race winner Daren Lotts, in the semifinals while Ingold was dispatching Tanner Gray of Hope Mills.

EARLIER

Butcher’s Foul Start Hands Winston-Salem’s Plott the Win in Friday Gamblers Race

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ROCKINGHAM – Virginia’s Daren Lotts turned back 2015 Summit Super Series Champion Jeff Parrish of Clayton in Friday’s final to claim the first $10,000 share of the purse posted for the ATI Performance Products Top ET Challenge which continued today at Rockingham Dragway. 

Lotts, who owns Lotts Home Furnishings and Appliance in Suarts Draft, Va., got his dragster to the finish line .01 ahead of Parrish after the two left the starting line in a dead heat. A $20,000 top prize was on the table for Saturday with a second $10,000 share available to the winner of the third race scheduled for Sunday.

Sharing the Friday spotlight with Lotts was former Carolina Coalition champion Tommy Plott of Winston-Salem who won the Gamblers Race when final round foe Lenny Butcher of Howell, N.J., was guilty of a foul start by a narrow .006 of a second.

Thomasville Driver Beats Plott by .001 of a Second in Final Round Showdown

Thomasville’s Gary Ingold drew first blood Thursday when he beat former Carolina Coalition champion Tommy Plott of Winston-Salem by a razor thin .001 of a second to win the $5,000 prelim to the ATI Performance Products Top ET Challenge which begins today. 

Ingold, a racer not unfamiliar himself with the Rockingham Dragway winners’ circle, made a .007 of a second starting line advantage hold up for the win. Semifinalists Thursday were Shawn Carpenter of Elm City and Tim Phipps of Kenansville, whose 1998 Chevy Monte Carlo was the longest surviving door car. 



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