It could only happen at a three-day big-bucks bracket race in which nearly everybody entered is a “hitter” --- one guy wins, another gets runner-up, with tremendous reaction times and dead-on runs out of both lanes. Only this race had a twist: the guy who won on the second race day gets runner-up on the next, while the runner-up on the first day takes the win the next.

Sort of like those “double-ups” in Stock and Super Stock or Super Gas and Super Comp we all hear about, only in this case both racers taste victory AND get the runner-up status on two different days.

The event in question here was the fifth race of the Super 7 Race Series at Montgomery (Alabama) Motorsports Park held over the July 4th weekend, four races in all, with $5,000 going to the winner on Friday, $10,000 twice to the winners on Saturday, and $10,000 to the winner on Sunday.

Same guys get winner and runner-up at big-bucks July 4 Alabama bracket race.

It could only happen at a three-day big-bucks bracket race in which nearly everybody entered is a “hitter” --- one guy wins, another gets runner-up, with tremendous reaction times and dead-on runs out of both lanes. Only this race had a twist: the guy who won on the second race day gets runner-up on the next, while the runner-up on the first day takes the win the next.

Sort of like those “double-ups” in Stock and Super Stock or Super Gas and Super Comp we all hear about, only in this case both racers taste victory AND get the runner-up status on two different days.

The event in question here was the fifth race of the Super 7 Race Series at Montgomery (Alabama) Motorsports Park held over the July 4th weekend, four races in all, with $5,000 going to the winner on Friday, $10,000 twice to the winners on Saturday, and $10,000 to the winner on Sunday.

The brainchild of this deal was Birmingham’s Jim Howard, brother of racing impresario George Howard. The Super 7 series, so-named because there are seven big-bucks races held each season, is now in its third year, with more to come.

“I wanted to make a big-money bracket series for the regular bracket racer,” Jim Howard said. “We’re here racing even in these bad economic times. We’ve had an average car count of 100 to 150 cars, and at our season finale last year, we had 280 entries in Super Pro alone.”

The first day of the Super 7 bash saw Georgia hitter Peabody Harrell of Lyons beat racing veteran Cliff Shipp of Dallas, Georgia in a battle of dragsters, Peabody in his ’98 Danny Nelson entry and Shipp in his similar mount. Shipp never left the seat of his digger throughout the race because of a pair of bum legs --- he had friends tend to his needs, including fueling up and checking air pressures in his car between every round. Cliff red-lighted in the final.

Saturday was the first day of MMP’s Super 7 “madness.” In the final of the first race, A.J. Ashe of Gulfport, Mississippi was victorious over Stephen McCrory of Dallas, Georgia, Ashe driving Troy Williams Jr.’s Race Tech dragster and McCrory in friend Bob Savage’s ’05 Miller digger. McCrory red-lighted with a minus .002, while A.J. hit a .001 package. “I drove this car two weeks ago at Gulfport and lost at six cars with a .002 red light,” Ashe said. “The car is fabulous.”

In the second $10,000 race on Saturday, Troy Williams Jr. of Bradenton, Florida won over friend Greg Samuels of Deland, Florida, with Samuels red-lighting. Troy, racing a 2010 Phantom dragster with a Steve Schmidt big-block backed by a new FTI trans and converter, was racing with a broken left wrist, while Samuels, with all his limbs intact, also had an FTI trans/converter in his big-block-powered ’03 Mullis dragster.

And so it came down to Sunday’s final go for $10,000 to the winner. In the finals, it was A.J. Ashe vs. Stephen McCrory --- the same two --- only this time McCrory won against A.J.and his venerable ’89 Grand Am, a car that he says has won him a quarter-million dollars over its racing life. Not only did McCrory, a member of a long-time bracket racing family of McCrorys, turn the tables on Ashe, he did so with a .000 perfect starting light against Ashe’s .002 tree and three off his dial-in to McCrory’s two-off.

“I had a .003 in the round before, so I pulled ‘3’ out of my delay box and hit the .000,” McCrory said. “I set up for it.” Stephen was racing in Troy Williams’ ’08 Mullis dragster with a Schmidt engine and also in friend Mitch Cleary’s ’10 Phantom, which went out at 28 cars.

Oh yeah, and on Saturday at MMP, they held a scooter/four-wheel/golf cart gamblers race, and Troy Williams won that plus the $200 in gambler’s money that went with it. Timmy “the Kid” Smith of Alabama got runner-up and $60. In Footbrake on Saturday, Rick Justice of Wetumpka, Alabama won in his ’27 Chevy roadster over Barry Allen of Panama, Florida in his ’71 Duster, and Hayden Smith of Brookwood, Alabama won Jr. Dragster over Taylor Ramsey, daughter of long-time bracket racer Mike Ramsey, both of Commerce, Georgia.