Piedmont Dragway presented a scorcher of an event yesterday, as the facility's
trademark Big Dog series assembled a thriller show, even as temperatures soared
into the mid 90's. Almost as hot as the June sun, the red hot Ronnie Gardner
collected win number 2 last night, with the running of Big Dog's third event for
2008.
Gardner, once a dominate force in Big Dog during the
late 1990's and years following, went winless in 2007 as competition became
brutal with 7 different winners in 8 events last season. Driving for car owner
Jack Gaddy, Gardner is enjoying his best series start in years - winning the
season-opener - followed by last night's display of power and
consistency.
Repeating his qualifying performance from last month,
Gardner once again solidly muscled his way into the show with a #2 spot on the
qualifying sheet, as 23 capable race cars were trying to fight their way into
the 8-car roster that made up the main event. Gardner stopped the clocks with
a 4.28, 173mph on his best attempt through two rounds of
qualifying.