On April 5, 2009, Jeff Miles was witness to something he’s never seen in drag racing before.
The owner of Carolina Dragway in Jackson, S.C., contends that his track
played host to only the second known “TIE” drag race in the history of
the sport and he’s got the time slips to prove it.
“When I saw the win lights on both sides I thought the stupid computer
had messed up,” Miles said. “That was my initial thought and I did some
investigation and started adding some numbers, I realized this was not
something out of the norm.
On April 5, 2009, Jeff Miles was witness to something he’s never seen in drag racing before.
The owner of Carolina Dragway in Jackson, S.C., contends that his track played host to only the second known “TIE” drag race in the history of the sport and he’s got the time slips to prove it.
“When I saw the win lights on both sides I thought the stupid computer had messed up,” Miles said. “That was my initial thought and I did some investigation and started adding some numbers, I realized this was not something out of the norm.
“Never saw in all my years of drag racing two cars get a win light on the same run.”
In the first round of BOX E.T. eliminations, Tim Owens [Hodges, S.C.] and Mark Milford [Canon, Ga.] did battle in a run that went down to the ninth number on the elapsed time and they were still tied.
Owens was dialed on a 5.01 eight-mile elapsed time while Milford was using a 6.38 dial-in. Owens had the quicker reaction with his dragster, at .014 while Milford had a respectable .023. The dragster stopped the clocks with a 5.035 elapsed time. Milford’s Vega ran a 6.396. The margin of victory for both racers came up .0004.
“I just put them both in the next round,” Miles admitted, choosing not to make the racers run an extra round of competition with a re-run.
Miles contacted Compulink Timing Systems founder Bob Brockmeyer and conveyed the news of the run. Brockmeyer added up the numbers and confirmed the tie at Carolina Dragway was only the second one he’s experienced in his lengthy career of working with timing systems.
“He added up the numbers and it came down to .000400000 for him,” Miles explained.
Miles conveyed the news to Milford and Owens, who were both equally shocked with what had transpired.
“I talked to Milford about it,” Miles said. “He told me he looked over at the other lane and said, ‘boy this is going to be close.”
“He told me that it was so close that he was just going to stay wide open.”
Milford added, “I looked at the scoreboard and my win light came on and I said, ‘Alright!”
He continued, “I looked over in the other lane and said, ‘Uh oh, what just happened here?”
Miles has an answer for Milford’s question. Something special happened and he was privy to it. If the track owner has one regret it’s that no one snapped a picture of the momentous affair.
“I asked everyone around the track but no one got a picture of it,” Miles lamented. “I don’t know that I could go back and make both win lights come on just to make it look good.
“I guess if I can say one thing, it’s that I saw it with my own eyes and that’s likely something I’ll never see again.”
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