The First Street Car Challenge Event Wraps Up in Alabama– Clyde Carlson, Adam Buntley and Jeff Hughes Lead the Winners List
A new event to the drag and drive community in 2025, the Street Car Challenge encompassed four days and a trio of race tracks in Alabama: Baileyton Dragstrip, Holiday Raceway and Jake’s Dragstrip.
Although weather made things difficult on a couple days, only two competitors failed to complete the event, and class champions were crowned at Baileyton Dragstrip on Sunday, July 20th.
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The event would start at Baileyton Dragstrip on Thursday, July 17th for a full day of racing before hitting the road to Holiday Dragstrip. Friday, July 18th, found participants at Holiday Dragstrip, and Mother Nature would also join the party, preventing anyone from making runs for the day.
Competitors got on the road for Jake’s Dragstrip on day three, but the rain from Friday made an appearance on July 19th as well. This time, it stopped for competitors to get some track time, where two runs would be counted to make up for the July 18th rainout.
Sunday, July 20th brought the tour back to Baileyton Dragstrip for final runs, and to determine class champions in the six categories.
The quickest class would be the Run What You Brung class, where Clyde Carlson’s third-gen Chevrolet Nova put together a 5.448 average to score the win over Gary Bell’s 5.66 average.
Adam Buntley put up the third lowest average of the event, a 5.741, to put his Ford Mustang at the top of the Stick Shift class. Austin Grims was runner-up with a 6.544 average.
The Tailgate class has Jeff Hughes holding the winner’s trophy after four days of work, thanks to a 5.958 average. Josh Elam put his ’69 C10 pick-up in second with a 6.151 average.
The Modern Muscle category had a familiar name at the top of the list, as Tyree Smith guided his Cadillac to a 6.867 average for the class accolades. Kyle Buntley’s 6.993 tally landed in second.
The closest finish on performances would be in the True Street and Dial Your Own (DYO) classes. Richard Campbell put his Dodge Challenger Hellcat through the event with a 6.191 average, barely holding off Todd Aaron’s 6.197 average for the class victory.
The Dial Your Own (DYO) class had Michael Johnson matching his 7.815 dial to the thousandth of-a-second, scoring the top spot over Jonathan Phillips, who was close behind just four thousandths of-a-second from his 7.479 prediction.
Written by Derek Putnam. Photos courtesy of Street Car Challenge.
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