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Darrin Hoyle knew he had one last chance in 2010 and decided to go for it.
“I’d run four-flat last year; I’d run four-flat this year, and I just couldn’t believe how hard it was to get that three-second run,” he admitted. “Whenever I go to a race I go to win, but this time I knew it was my last chance, so I decided I’d just go and have fun and see if we could get it done.”
The Taylorsville, North Carolina-based car dealer scored on both counts Nov. 5-7, at Carolina Dragway, qualifying his nitrous-boosted ’68 Camaro third in a 24-car Automatic Pro Mod field with a 3.96-seconds effort at 183.19 mph, then went on to win the final in 3.97 seconds at a career-best 183.22 mph.
Qualifying for the eighth-mile event began on Friday with two more rounds of qualifying followed by eliminations on Saturday, however crisp autumn air and low track temperatures convinced organizers to postpone much of the racing to Sunday afternoon.
“I think with our small motor—we still run the same Fulton 762 I’ve had for the last five years—we didn’t have enough horsepower to overpower the track like some of these other guys were doing in these conditions,” Hoyle said. “I keep thinking we need to upgrade and buy a new motor, but then I think about how good this one still is. It’s a little outdated, but it’s been good to us this year.”
Hoyle caught a break in the opening round of competition when his car initially refused to start, but Tommy Mauney, driving Danny Blankenship’s bright red ’41 Willys, agreed to wait. Hoyle quickly got things sorted out and completed his burnout, only to find out Mauney’s ride also wouldn’t start. So Hoyle shut down and waited for Mauney until it became clear the famed chassis builder was out, and Hoyle made a traction-challenged 4.23 solo pass at 134.50 mph.
He stepped up again in round two, however, going a career-best 3.95 at 182.28 mph against Steve Drummond of Laurel, Delaware, who posted a 4.07 at 184.35 mph in his turbocharged, late-model Mustang. Then came the decision to postpone the completion of the event to the next day.
“It was still pretty cold on Sunday and I was a little worried about that,” Hoyle recalled after making a pair of tire-shaking passes of 4.34 and 4.31 seconds to get past Kenny Kneece and Bubba Livingston, respectively. “So I did get a little lucky, but luck’s always good. And when it really counted it went right on down there, so I feel good about that.”
Waiting on Hoyle in the final was the Lugoff, South Carolina-based ’68 Camaro of 22nd qualifier Troy Jordan, who previously defeated Ric Fleck, DeWayne Silance and David Partridge before making a 4.91-seconds, semi-final bye run based on the 24-car ladder.
The two Camaros left the line within a thousandth of a second of each other (Hoyle .038; Jordan .039) and remained practically welded together to the 330-foot halfway point. Shortly after, however, Jordan suffered tire shake severe enough to pop a parachute free and he labored through in 4.23 seconds at just over 121 mph while Hoyle streaked ahead to win.
“We were dead even at half track and all of a sudden I started to pull away and that was the last time I saw him,” Hoyle said later.
“That took some work,” he added. “I just kept applying power where I thought it needed it and took it away where it didn’t; I couldn’t leave real hard because the air was so good and I was afraid of overpowering the track. The track was really good, though, they do a great job with it.
“It felt great to finally get that three (second pass) here and it made it one of the more exciting races I’ve ever won.”
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