Clarksville Speedway

August 8, 2009

Drag Racing

Tyler O’Donnell

Drag racing action continued last Friday night with the trophy, foot brake, and street class all taking the drag strip.  Three Clarksville natives managed to make it in the final rounds. 

In the trophy class, it came down to Wesley Svatba out of Elkton, Ky., and Robert Knight out of Hopkinsville, Ky.  Svatba had an 11.3499 dial in.  When the tree came down, Svatba had a .7781 reaction time, slightly higher than Knight’s whose reaction time was .5460.   Svatba’s time at the far end was 11.25 seconds, which beat his projected time.  That was still not enough to take the victory.  Knight also beat his projected time of a 9.5459 to cross the stripe in 9.45 sec.  Knight’s winning speed was 70.96 mph. 

The next class to race was the foot brake class.  It came down to Bill Best out of Clarksville, and Tony Christy out of Cumberland Furn, TN.  Best won the duel by beating out his projected time.  Something Christy did not do.  Best had a 7.5681 dial in and beat it with a time of 7.53 sec.  Christy had a dial in of 6.7231 and was off it with a time of 6.73 sec.  Best’s car topped out at 87.91 mph in the win. 

Last came the street class races.  The final round had two competitive drivers in John Triplett and John Mulderink competing for the win.  Triplett, out of Clarksville, had at time of 9.0970 sec. on the board as his dial in time.  Mulderink, also from Clarksville, had an 8.5218 dial in.  Their reaction times were virtually identical which made for a close finish.   Triplett crossed the finish in 9.10 sec., while Mulderink crossed the stripe in 8.50 sec.  It was Mulderink that took the victory, having a top speed of 73.51 mph.