For racers, the offseason can be long. After a few weeks, drivers want to hit the track.

Mother Nature – more specifically winter weather – prevents racing from taking place until February or March in most states.

With the layoff in mind, Don O’Neal put his head together to give racers in Evansville, Ind., and surrounding something to do the last couple of years.
O’Neal and his friends have put on the DragstersForSale Practice Tree Race.

The 3rd annual DFS Practice Tree Race takes Jan. 21 at the VFW Post 114 located at 110 North Wabash Ave of Flags in Evansville. Doors open at 4 p.m.

“I just try and put on a creative type of event in the middle of the winter in the Midwest,” O’Neal said. “I just wanted to have an event to get everybody out of the house and out of the shop. We do it on a Saturday at a VFW hall, so we give back to the military to the veteran community here.”

The event brings together the Tri-State areas toughest bracket racers competing in the Top Bulb class which is the format for all Super Pro classes across the country. Over $5,000 will be paid in this Top Bulb event, allowing a maximum number of four entries per person with 1st round buy backs only. The best deal is the Bottom Bulb Racer or No Electronics Racers who will enter the Top Bulb and go many rounds over the typical electronics racers.

The Bottom Bulb Event will be paying over $1500 to the no electronics racers. Like the Top Bulb event, four maximum entries per person, however this event no buy backs. Both events the winners are decided by who has the best reaction time between each pair, just like every drag race on the strip.

DragstersForSale.Com will be giving the winner of the Million Dollar Specialty Event a $2000 entry into the Million Dollar Race in Montgomery, Ala., in 2017.

“It’s just simply the Million, everyone wants to win the Million,” O’Neal said. “This event will only have 32 of the Toughest Racers all battling for this entry.”

The Spring Fling promoted by Kyle Spiel and Peter Biondo will have a specialty event of 32 racers battling for an entry to their Bristol, Tenn., or Galot, N.C., events in 2017.

“This gives people a chance to have their weekend entry paid (at Bristol or Galot) for a $50 entry and cutting a great reaction time,” O’Neal said. “Over a $700 weekend entry (at Bristol or Galot) covered by a $50 bill.”

For pre-entry into for the Fling, Million, and Bottom Bulb classes people may text O’Neal at 910.237.3825. For pre-entry to all the races, visit the DragstersForSale Practice Tree Page on Facebook.

In addition to all the brackets, O’Neal said there also will be a lot of different giveaways during the event and food and refreshments will be provided.

“When we did this the first time I was kind of nervous about it,” O’Neal said. “I’m a marketing guy, but I’ve never been a track promotion guy, I never put on actual race. I was a little nervous, but the event took off and last year we had just over 300 people competing. This year we are pulling out all the stops, we have a host hotel, to make things easy for folks to come have a good time.”

The last couple of years had racers competing against each other sitting on a chair at a table.

“I had so many entries, so I used table and chairs, so they could sit down, pull the button and let go. People complained because there wasn’t a steering wheel. So, this year we are building driving simulators that will have steer wheels on them.”

O’Neal served in the Army from 1991-2013, retiring as a Sergeant First Class (SFC).

Throughout his years of service, O’Neal never stopped drag racing. He presently drives the VP Racing Schools Monte Carlo in the Top Sportsman class.
The highlight of O’Neal’s racing career – to date – came in 2010 when he became the first U.S. Army active duty soldier to appear in an NHRA national event final round at the U.S. Nationals in Indianapolis.