In many circles, Shuffletown Dragway, the former drag strip located outside of Charlotte, NC, was known for its role in helping to develop the Pro Modified movement back in the late 1980s.
However, on one Sunday afternoon in 1984, the film crew for the Showtime series Rich Hall’s Vanishing America made a stop at the drag strip located off of Mt. Holly/Huntersville Road.
Vanishing America focuses on Hall, who when thumbing through old comic books in his parents’ attic, 3recalled the Junior Seed Sales Club of America owed him a basketball from when he was eight. He embarked on a journey across America to claim his prize, only to realize the country he once know just isn’t the same.
In stopping in at Shuffletown, Hall engages in a match race with the late Walter Henry and his Econo Altered dragster which ends up a lot like the tortoise and the hare. The same Henry was featured was the same one who battled for inclusion in the Carolina Quick Eights with a supercharged Corvette. Henry was killed in 1989, what was scheduled to be his final race, the Atco, NJ., exhibition for the IHRA’s new doorslammer division.
Adding to the flavor is Hall of Fame announcer Larry Wright superbly calling the action just as he did in those formative days of the fast doorslammers.
