Atlanta Drags - Atlanta's Newest Spectator Sport

Super Chevy Fans in the Stands
By the looks of those grandstands at the Atlanta Dragway, one might imagine the fans are packed in for a National Event with all the big names of drag racing here for the weekend. Well, it was, only instead of Force, Dixon, Bernstein, etc., it was Nickelson, Irving, Swinarski, Adler, Howes, Thomasino, and a few others from Super Chevy. Instead of dragsters and funny cars, the Super Chevy heros were pounding the ground, burning slicks, and spewing nitro-methane from serious door-slammers running well over two hundred miles an hour in the low-6-second bracket. And when the races were over, fans could walk through the pits, talk to the drivers, and get an eyeful of the racecars "up close." Randy Adler was the eventual winner in Nitro Coupes with a 6.527 second e.t. at 220.19 mph over Gary Irving who had an encounter (non-injurious, thankfully) with the wall.

Of course Super Chevy is about show cars as well as drag racers and the Atlanta Show had some great ones. Gold Class was visited for the first time by the immaculate black '66 Chevelle that Johnny Edmundson and friends from Sweetwater, Tennessee, just completed. Along with some other awards, the car took the Tremec Transmission Best in Show trophy. Rumor has it the car is headed for the DEI Show in North Carolina very soon and we look for it at future Super Chevy Shows. Gold Class cars are as good as they come in Super Chevy, and putting a black car in that category means the builder is very sure about "straightness." Amazingly, we had two black cars in Atlanta's Gold Class; the other was a delicious '69 Nova with a 396 and four-speed belonging to Billy Peek of Newnan, Georgia. Completely restored to stock with very little "creature comforts," this car was the picture of a late '60s factory musclecar.

See all of these cars, plus the Editor's Choices, and the Best Cars in the Show on www.superchevy-web.com