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  • April and Carl Scott with their championship 1967 Chevy Nova. Carl Scott won Drag Week, a series of races put on by Hot Rod Magazine. (Photo by Johnny mcMahan)

    red drag nova
September 22, 2005

Local racer wins national event

Hot Rod Magazine went looking to find the fastest street cars in the country with its first-ever Drag Week 2005 event.

Woodward’s Carl Scott answered that challenge, entering and winning the overall title with his 1967 red Chevy Nova.

Scott won the grueling five-day, five-track competition in impressive fashion. He finished first in his class – Big Block Power Added – and overall in the five classes, averaging 8.58 seconds at 147 miles per hour in the five races.

His victory margin of .18 seconds was, “a big margin in an eight-second race,” Scott said.

Scott learned about the event from a friend, Richard Dailey, earlier this year.

“He said this should be right down your alley,” Scott said.

Scott and his wife April decided to enter and spent around two and a half months preparing. Scott built a trailer to haul needed items, and a trailer hitch for his car. The car’s motor was built by Scott’s brother Troy.

“You had to do it (Drag Week) without support vehicles and there were no trucks allowed (to haul the car),” Scott said. “The unique thing about this race is that you had to drive the car to each track.”

That trek started at the Kansas City International Raceway on Sept. 11, then moved the next day to Gateway International Raceway in Madison, Ill. (the St. Louis area), Beach Bend Raceway in Bowling Green, Ky., National Trail Raceway in Hebron, Ohio, and finished up at U. S. 131 Raceway in Martin, Mich. All told, the Scotts traveled over 1,400 miles to race in the competition.

Scott won the race at the first four tracks and was second at the fifth track.

The Scotts had to overcome some serious adversity to even make the fourth race in Ohio.

“At Beach Bend we had a problem with the fuel cellunoid and melted six of eight pistons,” Scott said. “We had to rebuild the engine overnight then drive eight and a half hours to the next track in Ohio.

“The track opened at 9 a.m. and we pulled in at 9:15 a.m.”

Other drivers competing were allowed to help the Scotts with repairs. Tommy Kreisler, Paul Whalen, Ole Westrum and Jerry Henderson helped them get going again.

Once they got to Ohio, the success continued as Scott won that race.

Scott isn’t a newcomer to the racing world. He said he’s been racing since he was 17 and usually goes to Thunder Valley Raceway in Noble every month to compete in the Pro Street Shootout at that track.

Drag Week was a no-money event, so the Scotts didn’t receive money, but they did win trophies, jackets and other prizes.

In addition, Scott and his car will be featured in Hot Rod Magazine’s January issue (released in December) and the event was filmed by Hot Rod TV and will be on the outdoor channel in December or January.

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