by Ian Tocher
With its 10th and final event, the Southeast Gasser Association (SEGA) wrapped up its 2024 season Nov. 1 at Shadyside Dragway, where another sold-out crowd saw new series owner Leslie Horne prevail for the 5th-straight race in A/Gas, Rick Varner win a weird one in B/Gas, Todd Oden take the C/Gas event title, and Randy Kiefer win in Super Stock.
Also staging several exhibition rounds throughout the day were four A/FX entries including Allen Platt, Rob Walden, Robbie Walden, and Brad Wimberly, plus five H/Gas cars driven by Todd Hines, Don Jenkins, 2018 C/Gas champ Larry Noel, Scott Partee, and 2022 B/Gas champ Colby Welch.
All four 2024 championships had already been decided at the previous SEGA event held last month at Gulfport, Miss., where Horne secured the A/Gas title, Daniel Haynes won in B/Gas with his “The Patriot” Ford Falcon, Oden earned his second career C/Gas championship, and Jerry Dean drove his “Last Rebel” Chevy II to the 2024 Super Stock season title.
A/GAS – A full 16-car field showed up for A/Gas qualifying, led by Ben Christopher in his “Happy Daze” Nova, with newly crowned class champion Horne about 6-hundredths behind in second with his “Chick Magnet” ’55 Chevy. Chase Howard in his “USA-1” 1967 Chevelle was another 2-hundreths back in third, with Todd Blackwell and Kenneth Phillips filling out the top five.
As is traditional at SEGA events, elapsed times and speeds remained undisclosed — though a rare exception was made for spectators still on-hand for all final rounds at the Shadyside finale.
Round one saw Horne easily get past Ray Ballew and his “Bad Alibi” entry before taking on last year’s champ and 7th-place starter Gabriel Burrell and his fan-favorite “Southern Flyer” ’31 Ford. Burrell put up a good fight early but Horne had him by a couple of tenths at the finish line.
That brought on number-3 qualifier Howard, who got the holeshot and ran side-by-side with Horne much of the way in the semis, but finished about 6-hundredths behind at the 8th-mile stripe.
Meanwhile, on the opposite side of the ladder, 8th-place qualifier Rob Walden in the “Strych 09” ’33 Willys raced his way through Barry Lynn and his fan-favorite “Lil’ Red Wagon” Chevy, Christopher with the Nova, and Kenneth Phillips in the “Silver Streak II” C1 Corvette.
In the final round, Horne had command of the race by the time they reached the starting tree and went on to post a winning 5.21 seconds pass at more than 130 mph to a 5.43 by Walden. (Remember, times were publicized on the scoreboards for all final rounds!)
As mentioned, the win was Horne’s fifth in a row and his sixth on the year. He also was number-one qualifier five times in 2024, lowered the class elapsed time record three times this season, and currently retains it at 5.18 over the 8th mile. It also marked a great start to his tenure as Southeast Gassers Association owner and president after buying the series from founder Quain Stott late last year.
“It just so happened that we found something with the car mid-season with the chassis and it’s come alive and runs just straight as an arrow now, don’t really matter what the track does, we can get down it pretty good,” Horne explained of his late-season dominance. “So that’s been the biggest turning point and that was about mid-season when we found out we had some hangers and stuff that was cracked. It was up on top so we got those fixed and we done a little bit of cross bracing and stuff on the car. That made a huge difference.”
Regarding the final, Horne said he deliberately tries not to pay attention to whoever’s in the opposite lane. He said he respects all his competition and just tries to have faith in his Gene Fulton power built by Stacey Hall and G-Force transmission with a Ram aluminum clutch.
“I’ve got to where I don’t even really know who I’m even going to line up with when I get down there. I just line up and I try to just focus on the tree,” Horne said.
“I’ve really been trying to do better driving because I know if I can do my job driving, I’ve got the car to beat. I know my chassis is right, I know my engine’s right. I know all the stuff’s right. We just do so much maintenance in the shop.
“I mean, a lot of people think that if they don’t see you working on the car at the track you’re doing something wrong,” he continued. “But we try to do all of it in the shop before we get here and we’ve got a heck of a maintenance program on our clutch. And then even my engine, it’s been taken apart three times this season, just to freshen it up We’re talking about rings, rod bearings, and just checking everything.”
B/Gas – Number-one qualifier Ken Rainwater fell victim to drag racing’s so-called “first-or-worst” rule in the B/Gas final at Shadyside when Rick “The Dirt Man” Varner turned on the red bulb on the start, but Rainwater’s bright, red “Renegade” ’66 Chevy Nova got squirrely and turned right to cross the centerline about 150 feet down track.
Since Rainwater’s lane transgression is considered “worst” of the two infractions, he was disqualified, nullifying Varner’s ’55 Chevy jumping the gun “first.” So, a 5.70 pass got the win for Varner after Rainwater had been running low- to mid-5.60s all day long.
“Yeah, I just didn’t realize he had done that,” Rainwater freely admitted later. “If I did I think I could’ve bailed on [the run] and caught it before it crossed over. But, that’s the way it goes sometimes.”
Regardless, the win may have put a fitting punctuation to the end of Varner’s storied SEGA career.
After dominating last season’s Super Stock class and walking away with his third SEGA championship and second-straight, Varner finished tied for second with Ted McKee behind Haynes in this year’s B/Gas title run. However, the 68-year-old racer insisted in Shadyside’s victory lane he’s retiring from drag racing.
“Nope, no, I won’t be back,” Varner answered when pressed by SEGA announcer David Lancaster. “This is it for me, I’m done.”
Haynes, meanwhile, qualified his ’62 Ford 6th for the all-run, 22-car field at Shadyside and bowed out in the third of five rounds after posting a red-light start beside Rainwater. Still, he earned the 2024 B/Gas championship anchored by a string of back-to-back wins at Xenia, Ohio, Knoxville, Tenn., and Union, S.C. early this summer.
Haynes said his season started “kind of rough,” but after visiting Kil-Kare Dragway in Ohio his season turned around. He recalls McKee, his closest rival all season long with his “Rocky Top Missile” Chevy, “had a bad day there and that flipped us by a round in the points.”
“So, we left there with Ted around behind us and that turned the season around and we were just able to maintain that lead and build on it,” Haynes said. “We had never held the lead before, so it was pretty different but we had a lot of fun with it, too.”
With help from Duane Busch tuning a 354-cubic-inch engine he built himself, Haynes also called his season title “extremely satisfying.”
“I built pretty much every part of this car, so this means a lot to me,” he said.
“And everyone we race against has been very supportive and happy for us,” Haynes added. “Even McKee and his Missile crew. It’s been just great.”
C/GAS – As number-one qualifier for a 15-car C/Gas field, to open eliminations Oden made a leisurely 12-second cruise down the Shadyside 8th mile in his big, black “Double XX” ’58 Chevy Delray. “The cheapest model they made,” he proudly pointed out.
Oden then made his way through series newcomer Andrew Wiebe and Billy Wilson in the “Trouble Maker” Studebaker pick-up to reach the final round.
Eventual fellow finalist Steve Davis in his “Spinny” ’63 Falcon Futura opened with a big holeshot win over 10th-place qualifier Dan Hogan in a similar ride dubbed “Flat Out,” before making a solo pass in round two when past class champ and Shadyside number-two qualifier Tim Hall was unable to answer the call to stage with his “Scalded Dog” Rambler.
Davis caught a fortunate break in the semis when 3rd-place starter Jerren Purdue went red in the “Stud Muffin” Chevy wagon, throwing away a significantly quicker pass than Davis. Worth noting, Perdue set the official SEGA C/Gas record earlier this year at 5.965 seconds.
Regardless, it was Davis and Oden in the final, where Oden left with a big holeshot and already was pulling away as the cars passed the tree. Almost exactly 6 seconds later (6.004) Oden had his fifth race win of the year and his second SEGA championship after winning the 2017 D/Gas title.
“We’re super happy. If you’d have told me at the first of the year that we had a chance to win five out of 10 races and get the championship, I’d have signed the contract on that one,” Oden declared. “Especially after what we went through last year.”
Oden recalled damaging several engines throughout the 2023 season and sitting well outside the top 10 in points after just three events.
“This is hard racing, man. I think as tough as Southeast Gassers is, once you get to the semifinals here, everything heats up and these guys, there’s not a bad car out here. There’s really not a bad car any round,” he said. “But once you get to the semis, I mean, it really gets to be a dog fight then.”
Oden said despite having a big car he actually went with a different, smaller engine this year, which also required a different mindset and technique behind the wheel for him.
“It’s only 300 cubic inches and this thing takes a lot of RPMs to move, so we were hoping the track would hold the car. We ramped it up a little bit better than 10,000 (rpm) when we left, but it 60 footed with the best number it ran all night, just performed flawlessly,” he said. “I mean, you couldn’t ask
SUPER STOCK – After qualifying his wheelstanding “Spine Tingler” ’56 Pontiac wagon second behind newly crowned 2024 Super Stock champ Jerry Dean at Shadyside, it seemed only fitting that championship runner up Randy Keifer should meet Dean in the final round, too.
Dean made it through the 10-car field with an opening-round win over Kim Haynes, followed by a second-round bye before taking down Bryant Dalton Sr. in the semi-finals. Keifer, meanwhile, beat Dean Hall and Mickey Huddleson before enjoying a bye in the semis into the final against Dean.
A 6.65-seconds time, trailing only his qualifying effort, got the job done for Keifer, who also won the previous race last month.
“We won one race my first year in 2022, won twice in 2023, and now that was our second straight this year. We won down in Gulfport (Miss.) last month,” Kiefer explained. “We were pretty good, pretty consistent this year, were in every fight, but Jerry has been on point all year long and we just could never catch him. But we had a blast trying!”
Keifer grabbed a holeshot, then ran quicker with a 6.69 in the final to beat Dean.
“I mean the car is really sensitive to launch RPM and if you don’t keep it down, this car, this Pontiac, it makes so much torque, tons of torque down low,” he explained. “So, I staged up what I just felt was good. Me and Jerry, we never mess with each other. We just go up and do our thing.”
After the race, Keifer confirmed he plans a move to C/Gas competition next year.
“Same car. I mean, I love the car, the fans love the car. We’ve got a lot of people that follow us that like the car,” he said. “I’ve told many people that it’s the slowest drag race car I’ve ever had but it is by far the most fun, too.”
Which begs the question, why move on?
“No real motivation other than this year was pretty taxing on us. And we felt like we’ve done about what we can do in Super Stock,” Keifer answered. “I mean, really, we started out the year wanting to win a championship, but Jerry, he just wore us out. It’s his fault.”
Kiefer confirmed there will be some significant changes made to the car, too.
“I always wanted to go gasser racing, so Super Stock was always going to be a stepping stone for me,” he said. “We’re excited about making it into a true gasser, straight-axle front end, and we’ve got Colby Welch and his dad, they’re going to help with the chassis and we’re going to cut the fenders next week. I’m excited. Looking forward to next year.”
2025 SCHEDULE – The next event on the SEGA schedule is its annual championship awards banquet Jan. 11, 2025 at the Ramsey Hotel and Convention Center in Pigeon Forge, Tenn.
Next year’s 11-event schedule has been released, too, highlighted by SEGA’s inaugural visit to South Georgia Motorsports Park in Adel, Ga. on March 22, 2025, to open the season. North Carolina’s Shadyside Dragway will follow April 5, with Holiday Raceway in Woodstock, Ala., another new venue on April 26.
A May 17 trip to Mooresville Dragway in North Carolina will come next, followed by the first of two visits to Tennessee’s Knoxville Dragway June 7, and Kil-Kare Dragway in Xenia, Ohio on June 28th.
The SEGA series will sit out the heat of July before returning to action Aug. 2 at Brainerd Motorsports Park in Ringgold, Ga., then will head to Jackson Dragway in Jackson, Tenn. for Aug. 28 before making a Sept. 20 return to Knoxville Dragway.
Gulfport Dragway in Gulfport Miss. will host the next event Oct. 11, with the 2025 SEGA season ender scheduled for Nov. 1, again at Shadyside Dragway in Shelby, N.C.
