BILOXI DRAGWAY RESULTS JULY 3, 1965
Match Race Is Big Highlight At Biloxi
From DRAG NEWS
By Charles Meek
BILOXI, MISSISSIPPI July 3 Southern (Mississippi style) match racing at it's very best was the order of the day at Biloxi Dragway Saturday night. Featured match was between that Hero of all Chevy lovers Dickie Harrell from the deserts of New Mexico and the Howard Neal driven Falcon with a Hilborn injected 427 wedge engine from the Smoky Mountains of North Georgia. The weather, as usual didn't cooperate fully and the race was run under threatening skies that still didn't bother the huge crowd of racing fans who turned out to see this classic Chevy vs. Ford battle.
First run off the trailer Howard Neal really shook the crowd up with fabulous 10.76 at 132.35 mph. That should have warned a few of the Chevy lovers of things to come. Dickie Harrell, who is one of the nicest men in drag racing bar none, then made his warm-up run and both cars went back to the pits to prepare for the first leg.
Class runs were called and races were under way. 165 cars and bikes were entered.
MATCH RACE FIRST LEG
The Chevy II and Falcon pulled to the line and rosin sprinkled and both cars made several passes thru the rosin and then they were ready. After three false starts they were away side by side. The top end power of the big injected Falcon proved to be too much for the Chevy and the win lights flashed for the Falcon of Howard Neal at 10.60 and 129.49. The Ford fans went wild as both cars came back down the track returning to the pits.
D/S was the usual dogfight between S.T. Cooper "Jiffy II" and "Red Light" Robicheaux's "Irritator". Both cars are injected '57 Chevys and both cars turn in the 13.3 to 13.4 bracket. When the lights flashed downward the "Irritator" got a slight lead and held it all the way for the win at 13.36 at 101 mph. That's really going for a eight year old car.
MATCH THIRD LEG
I'm not really sure what happened from here on out but I'll try to report Howard Neal anxious to make it 3 straight got a little mixed up on his gears and when the green flashed he started backward. By this time both boys were getting a little excited. They were lined up again and this time Dickie left first and really poured it on at 10.67 and 124 mph but the red light had come on in Dickie's lane. It had been decided before this round that the red light would count as a foul so that gave the Falcon three wins. In the first part of the race when the two match race cars weren't using the foul lights alot of the fans felt that it would have been a different story because the Falcon was doing most of the jumping. But that remains to be seen. It was by far the most exciting match race ever witnessed by this writer and Howard Neal and Bob Thomas proved they could run with just about anybody in the country with their show car Falcon.
Sources: Drag News, Copyright BiloxiDragway.com
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First run off the trailer Howard Neal really shook the crowd up with fabulous 10.76 at 132.35 mph. That should have warned a few of the Chevy lovers of things to come. Dickie Harrell, who is one of the nicest men in drag racing bar none, then made his warm-up run and both cars went back to the pits to prepare for the first leg.
Class runs were called and races were under way. 165 cars and bikes were entered.
MATCH RACE FIRST LEG
The Chevy II and Falcon pulled to the line and rosin sprinkled and both cars made several passes thru the rosin and then they were ready. After three false starts they were away side by side. The top end power of the big injected Falcon proved to be too much for the Chevy and the win lights flashed for the Falcon of Howard Neal at 10.60 and 129.49. The Ford fans went wild as both cars came back down the track returning to the pits.
D/S was the usual dogfight between S.T. Cooper "Jiffy II" and "Red Light" Robicheaux's "Irritator". Both cars are injected '57 Chevys and both cars turn in the 13.3 to 13.4 bracket. When the lights flashed downward the "Irritator" got a slight lead and held it all the way for the win at 13.36 at 101 mph. That's really going for a eight year old car.
MATCH THIRD LEG
I'm not really sure what happened from here on out but I'll try to report Howard Neal anxious to make it 3 straight got a little mixed up on his gears and when the green flashed he started backward. By this time both boys were getting a little excited. They were lined up again and this time Dickie left first and really poured it on at 10.67 and 124 mph but the red light had come on in Dickie's lane. It had been decided before this round that the red light would count as a foul so that gave the Falcon three wins. In the first part of the race when the two match race cars weren't using the foul lights alot of the fans felt that it would have been a different story because the Falcon was doing most of the jumping. But that remains to be seen. It was by far the most exciting match race ever witnessed by this writer and Howard Neal and Bob Thomas proved they could run with just about anybody in the country with their show car Falcon.
Sources: Drag News, Copyright BiloxiDragway.com
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