Door Car Domination During the 4th Annual Old Dominion Duels

The racer based Old Dominion Duels has long been a favorite event on schedule here at Virginia Motorsports Park and the fourth running of this event lived up to its name with car counts and competition. Over 350 entries both Saturday and Sunday filled the staging lanes from the early morning hours all the way to night.

The first Friday Night Lights event kicked off the Duels weekend with two Super64 shootouts for Super Pro and Pro contestants. While Super Pro sold out within hours, Pro was unable to fill but still competed with tough competition. As Friday night came to a close, Super Pro decided to continue their event on Saturday while Brandon Michaels, Devin Dudley and John Madison in Pro decided to split and quit at the semi-final round. Blake Denton from Lillington, North Carolina piloted his ’04 Racetech to the first winner’s circle picture of the weekend defeated a red-lighting Todd Welzel in an all-dragster final round on Saturday morning to complete the Super64 shootouts that opened the weekend. Denton’s victory was the first win for him in his dragster and the only win by an entry without doors all weekend long as the door cars took over from here on out.

As Saturday began in the early morning hours, the single time trial session was completed and off to racing we went with over 350 total entries across three competitive categories. After nine hard fought rounds in Super Pro, Blane Parrish from Clayton, North Carolina emerged victorious in his ’93 Mustang with a .007 reaction time and a 5.85 elapsed time on his 5.83 dial-in to defeat the 4.45 dialed dragster of Ashley Smith from Winterville, NC for the big $10,000 victory. Andy Lloyd was the lone semi-finalist while Bruce Sisk, Tyler Colbert and Robbie Hamilton rounded out the quarters. For a complete breakdown of Saturday Super Pro, click HERE. In Pro ET, it took 8 rounds to crown a champion and James Moore from Taneytown, MD made sure he was the one left standing with a tough .018 reaction time in the finals but it was not needed as Jay DeMarr turned on the red bulb by .008 of a second and handed the automatic victory over to Moore. Jeffrey Brackett was the lone semi-finalist while Daniel Duff and Roger Bridges bowed out in the quarter-finals. For a complete breakdown of Saturday Pro ET, click HERE. In Jr. Dragsters, Phillip Radford from Radford, VA in his ’17 Mike Bos wheeled his way to victory in a double breakout race with Winterville, NC’s Camdyn Smith on Saturday evening. Hunter Cunningham was the lone semi-finalist. For a complete breakdown of Saturday Jr. Dragsters, click HERE.

Sunday kicked off with the new entry time trial then straight into eliminations for all three of our competitive categories, continuing over 350 total entries for the second day of a scorching weather forecast that was hot, but dry throughout the day. As another nine-round race was in line for Super Pro, Danny Mattera of Mechanicsville, MD wheeled his ’77 Vega to the front of the line and defeated Allison Lloyd’s ’01 Racetech residing in Doswell, VA with a incredible .003 reaction time and a 5.932 elapsed time on a 5.93 dial-in to slap a .005 package on the table in the final round with $10,000 on the line. Robert Camp was the lone semi-finalist in Super Pro while Jon Corbin, Ray Holmes and Steven Morrison rounded out the quarter-finalists in one of the toughest Super Pro fields this season. For a complete breakdown of Sunday Super Pro, click HERE. Nathan Sexton of Radford, VA rolled into the finals of Pro ET coming off the bye run at 3 cars with his 8.40 second dialed Ford Mustang and was facing off with one of the toughest in the area, Travis Leake from Fredericksburg, VA with his Mustang. Sexton strapped yet another killer reaction time on the table in the finals and never looked back, taking the big $5,000 check back to Radford in his ’01 Mustang. Buddy Mason was the lone semi-finalist in the Claytor Motorsports entry while Matt Sayers and Keith Dunkum, Jr. rounded out the quarter-final round. For a complete breakdown of Sunday Pro ET, click HERE. Girl power rose to the top in Jr. Dragsters on Sunday as Nevaeh Gilbert and Brooke Harper powered past all who stood in their way to face off in the final round where Harper left a touch before the green light came on, fouling away her chance at a victory and giving the win to Nevaeh Gilbert who ran dead on her dial-in with a 9.055 on a 9.05 dial-in. Chris Showns and Brandon Galderise, Jr. were the semi-finalists on Sunday while Nickole Cayton-Dabney, Phillip Radford and Anthony Suppers bowed out in the quarter-finals. For a complete breakdown of Sunday Jr. Dragsters, click HERE.

The 4th Annual Old Dominion Duels was definitely one for the ages with an excellent car count, a great time to be had and a lot of exciting and competitive drag racing on the championship, all concrete racing surface. Huge thank you goes out to all who supported us in our largest payout event since reopening due to COVID-19 and for supporting the facility week in and week out. Congratulations goes out to all of our winners, runner-ups, and money earners as you all did a great job all weekend long. Next up on schedule for Virginia Motorsports Park is the second O’Reilly Street Wars event of the year with L&W Racing Transmissions Street ET on Friday, July 17th while the VP Racing Fuels ET Bracket Series returns on Saturday, July 18th for the third race in the series. The PDRA Pro Line Racing Mid-Atlantic Showdown, presented by: Frederick Line-X storms into town on July 23-25 with the world’s best Pro Modified and sportsman racers, filling the pit area and putting on an excellent show for everyone involved and the following weekend, big money bracket racing returns with Loose Rocker’s Colonial Classic.

Photo Credit: Black Dragon Photography