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Four back-to-back winners and one first-timer visited victory lane May 7, when the South East Gassers Association visited Lassiter Mountain Dragway in Mt. Olive, AL.

Earning his first SEGA B/Gas victory was Ted McKee, while Leslie Horne, Tim Hall, Rick Varner and Doug Loudermilk backed up their wins from last month at North Carolina's Shadyside Dragway in A/Gas, C/Gas, Super Stock and H/Gas, respectively.

HORNE MAKES IT HAPPEN -- AGAIN - Racing from the number-one qualifying spot over a 12-car field with his "Chick Magnet" '55 Chevy, Leslie Horne made his way through Ken Phillips and Dean Jones before making a solo pass to reach third-place qualifier and defending class champ Gabriel Burrell in the final round.

Though SEGA does not officially release elapsed times or speeds, Horne left with about a .050 advantage over Burrell and held on for more than a tenth-of-a-second margin of victory at the eighth-mile finish line.   

The Boiling Springs, SC-based driver said his path to a second win and the current points lead was far from easy, though. Horne explained an exhaust valve lash cap broke on his second of two qualifying passes.

"I thought my day was over because it just broke in half and half of it went somewhere in the motor and the other half we found laying on top," he said. "It was only hitting on seven cylinders and sounded like a pea thrasher coming up through here, almost like a rod was knocking, so I was pretty relieved when we got that fixed.

"But then first round I go out there and do my burnout and I've been doing burns a little bit longer 'cause I like to roll down and have a track to run in. But I felt a tooth gone off the gear in the rearend and I was like, 'Oh Lord, here we go.'

"But we were able to beat Ken and I pulled it back in, but we didn't mess with it because I didn't have my spare with me. So I was just praying it was going to hold together," Horne continued. "Then I went out there second round thinking I had a bye run, but I didn't, I looked at the chart wrong. So I had to go out there and run Dean Jonas, who's a heck of a driver, and I slept majorly on the tree but lucky I was still able to get around him at the finish line."

That did lead to a bye run in the semis for Horne, who explained he'd normally go out and put on a show for the fans, but this time he just broke the beams to make it official and headed back to the pits.

"I knew we was hurt, so I wasn't gonna' take the chance to tear the car up," he said.

That left only Burrell and his "Southern Flyer" '31 Ford Tudor to contend with after they previously made it past Robert Frazier, Rick Varner and Chase Howard in the preliminary rounds.

"When I left the car spun a little bit to the left and I really thought it was over with then," Horne recalled of the final. "But it was over with when I hit second gear; I knew I had him at that point. In A/Gas, whoever leaves first is probably going to win, that's just the way it is."

McKEE BREAKS THROUGH IN B/GAS - Ted McKee won from the top-qualified spot over a 13-entry B/Gas field, narrowly edging out Charlie Lee in second and Shadyside winner Colby Welch in third.

After originally campaigning his "Rocky Top Missile" Chevy II in C/Gas, McKee made the move up to B/G last year after installing a new Gene Fulton engine and scored two number-one starts. The car also was sporting a new, as-yet-unpainted front end at the Lassiter Mountain event.

"It had a front end that didn't have a bumper molded into it, so we thought we'd change it over to one with a bumper this year," McKee explained.

Late last year the car also underwent, weight reduction, rearend work and chassis tweaking at Blake Housley's shop in Kansas City, MO, to correct a tendency to pull left on the track.

"This weekend was the first runs on the car since we had all the work done," McKee said. "And it was driving good, not fighting me like it was before, much better."

Following a first-round bye, McKee made it past Shadyside finalist Bill Revels in round two, then downed Daniel Hayes in the semis to reach Lee and his Chevy-powered "Tennessee Charlie" '67 Mustang in the final.

"Charlie, he's a good guy on the tree, but I left on him and it stayed pretty close to the finish line. I got him by about half a car," McKee said. "Every time I'd hit a gear it was pulling away just a little. But I could see him the whole way down. I was just waiting for that (win) light to come on. Feels good to get it done."

HALL HAPPY TO REPEAT IN C/GAS - After going winless in six SEGA final-round appearances last year, Tim Hall has already visited victory lane twice in two completed events this year. Hall qualified his "Scalded Dog" '67 Rambler atop 17 C/Gas entries at the Lassiter Mountain SEGA event, followed by Josh Pruitt and Larry Cummings.

He opened eliminations with a bye run, then took down Ricky Jones and Alexis Phillips before receiving a second free pass for the semis.

"Everything was going well until I run that semi-final bye when I ran it out to see if the right lane was better," Hall said. "That's when it broke the pinion gear. When I came back to the pits it was making all kinds of noise, so I backed up and told everybody it's broke, get some help."

Fortunately, Hall had the parts and help he needed for an all-out effort to make the repair and get him ready to take on Todd Oden in the final--a repeat of the final C/Gas pairing at the Shadyside event.

"We fixed it just in time for me to wipe my hands off and hop in the car and run the final," Hall said.

After dropping a solid holeshot on Oden in his "Double XX" '58 Chevy, Hall laid down his quickest pass of the weekend to take the trophy home to Abbeville, SC.

"As soon as I shifted into second I looked over and didn't see him, so I knew he wasn't running me down," Hall said. "But it's always a good close run. Todd and me, we don't play games on the starting line. We're buddies. I told him it don't matter if you'll beat me or I'll beat you, we'll always be friends when it's all over."

VARNER VICTORIOUS IN SUPER STOCK - Mark Hackett and his "Mercury Poison" led an 11-car Super Stock qualifying field at Lassiter Mountain, but the race title went to Rick Varner in "The Dirt Man" '67 Camaro after he started an uncharacteristic 10th among 11 qualifiers.

"It spun the first time. And then the second time it burned a wire on the ignition," Varner explained. "But I knew my car was fast, so we just didn't give up."

Varner got past third-place qualifier and 2021 class champion Ron Allison in a very close opening round of racing before facing off against teammate Tyler York in the quarter finals.

"He was fast, man," Varner declared. "He's driving one of my cars and as far as set up they're about the same and Tyler's getting a lot better at driving, so me and Tyler was pretty much identical. The closest race I had all day was with him."

That sent Varner to the semis and a win over Hackett, while Rick Cathcart made a leisurely solo pass into the final with his '67 Mustang to set up a classic clash of the pony cars for the final round of Super Stock competition.

Remaining in his preferred right lane, Varner left first in the final and made his quickest pass of the day to take the win home to North Carolina.

"I got out on him first and never did see him the whole way down," Varner said. "It's been a great start to the season. So far we're perfect and I want to keep it that way."

HISTORY RIDES WITH LOUDERMILK IN H/GAS - Just four H/Gas entries made it to the mountain for SEGA, but they put on an entertaining show that ended with Doug Loudermilk and his 1967 VW Bug taking on the inline-six-cylinder-powered Austin of John Bish in the final.

Bish and his "Spit Six" entry got the jump on Loudermilk and "Beelzabug," but within a hundred feet of the start the positions had swapped and Loudermilk drove away for his second-straight SEGA win.

"The car's running great. It's got an original 2700-cc Gene Berg motor that's probably 20 years old," Loudermilk said. "He was the top Volkswagen builder and producer of parts until he passed away many years ago, but that's one of his crafted motors. It may not be the fastest motor out here, but I'd bet  I've probably got the oldest motor around."

The South East Gassers Association will next visit Kilkare Raceway June 4, in Xenia, OH.