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It’s all in the family at Montgomery Motorsports Park’s big two-day bracket raceStory and photos by Dale Wilson
Several second-generation bracket racing kids can thank their fathers and mothers for their wins at Montgomery (Alabama) Motorsports Park’s Summit Championships Points Series two-day race over the August 27-28 weekend. Seems that all that racing-schooling papa and mama gave to the kids of the house may have paid off in the form of good, hard Montgomery cash, including $3,000 to the winners in Pro, $1,000 to winners in Footbrake, and even $100 to the two champs in Jr. Dragster. In Saturday’s Quick 32 show, finished before the semis of Pro, “Little Jones” --- Jonathan Jones, to be exact --- won over Jerry Adams of Clanton, Alabama. Jonathan, 16, of Manchester, Georgia, is son to famed Camaro Pro and Super Pro racer “Tricky” Ricky Jones, and his ’04 Miller Race Cars dragster was won by Ricky two years ago at a big-money bracket race at Atlanta Dragway. The elder Jones gave it to son Jones, who finished the Wilkerson/CBI-powered digger mostly himself.
“He’s a chip off the ol’ block,” Ricky Jones said. “I told him that he had to respect everybody, but he also needs to be as good as anybody. I guess he has.” It was “Little Jones’” first-ever win, worth more than $500. In Pro, John Brown of Winder, Georgia, won over Trey Todd of Deatsville, Alabama, and guess what --- both racers have strong family ties to drag racing. Brown is the son of Jerry Brown, a long-time bracket racer who was a regular at the defunct Atlanta Speed Shop Drag Strip in Covington, Georgia, while Todd is son of MMP announcer Bucky Todd, whose father Buck Todd has managed and promoted races and drag strips all over Alabama. And Trey’s uncle is Monty Todd, the former “Super Brat” alcohol Funny Car racer who now owns a stretched ’55 Chevy for the local TA/FC wars. a
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Brown, racing a ’93 Innovative Chassis rear-engine dragster, was lucky, but his $3,000 still spends in most Wal-Marts. “It was my day,” he says. “on any given Saturday or Sunday, if you win, it’s your day. I had luck. Against one guy, I flinched and had an .894 light, but he went down there and broke out by one-one thousandth. And I had four red lights against me.” This too was John’s first big win.
In Saturday Footbrake action, Wilbur Baxley of Andalusia, Alabama, was victorious in his beautiful ’65 Chevelle wagon over Steve Stites of Falkner, Mississippi, a traveling Footbrake pro who last year won $42,000. Baxley, 48, started racing at age 16, and he gave up a Chevy II three years ago to get his yellow wagon, which had to be THE race car of the whole two-day meet --- in addition to winning on Saturday, it got Baxley down to three cars on Sunday, hitting 7.09s and .10s all day. Runner-up Stites is a story unto himself. Showing up at MMP in a Steve Taylor look-alike black Cavalier that is daily-driven and somewhat rough on the outside, Stites is a full-time bracket racer who in 2004 won a $20,000 race at Piedmont Dragway. He lost his right eye in a stickball accident in 1998, and a year later went bracket racing. He is now leading the points in two categories at Pickwick Dragway in Tennessee, and is also leading in points in the TCI/Comp Cams series at Memphis Motorsports Park; he is also second in Footbrake B&M points. Jeremy Britton, 16, of Alexander City, Alabama, won Saturday’s Jr. Dragster show over Maribeth Kennington, 15, of Prattville, Alabama, making it his fifth win this year at MMP and at Emerald Coast. But on Sunday, Maribeth won over Matthew Wilhelm of Commerce, Georgia, a member of the newly-formed “Donkey Punch” racing team. Matthew is son of long-time Super Pro Corvette racer Marty Wilhelm, who along with other kids, relatives and friends, showed up at MMP with five race cars and a semi-tractor trailer rig of parts.
On Sunday, two racing veterans, Rodney Carr of Millersville, Alabama, and Cole Cousins of Wetumpka, Alabama, met in the Pro final, and Carr and his dragster were victorious. Carr may not be a familiar name to many Southern bracket racers, but his “Droopy Drawers” Camaro is. He has been racing a dragster for only three months, and this is his first win in it; Saturday he got down to four cars. “Now I can race two cars,” Carr said. And Matthew Bates of Loganville, Georgia, driving mom Samantha’s
’99 Firebird streeter, beat Georgia Footbrake legend Toby Barnes
of Palmetto, Georgia in his GTO, when Barnes red-lighted with a .499 reaction
time. Bates is another “Donkey Punch” Racing member, and his
mother is a long-time racer, as is his father John. Maybe we should call
this weekend at MMP “All in the families.”
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