In the mid-to-late 1990s, King of Columbus was a marquee event that attracted some of the baddest outlaw street cars in the Midwest to National Trail Raceway outside Columbus, Ohio. The race went away for several years after ownership changes before the current ownership and management, Jay Livingston and Jason Murray, brought it back with reasonable success in 2019. After a COVID-induced hiatus in 2020, the event switched to a no-prep format in 2021. The race went on hiatus again for the last two years, but Triple J Promotions brought it back for 2024 with a continued focus on no-prep racing.
Triple J Promotions – made up of National Trail Dragstrip Manager Jeb Bolyard and brothers Camron and Austin Kardules – started planning the King of Columbus come back in early November last year.
“When Jeb asked Camron and myself if we would help be a part of bringing back the King of Columbus, we couldn’t say yes quick enough,” said Austin Kardules, the younger of the two brothers. “This was an event we wouldn’t miss as kids growing up and always heard about how great it was back in its day, so we jumped at the opportunity to co-promote the event with Jeb.”
This year’s running of the King of Columbus was a one-day event held on Saturday, April 13 to kick off National Trail’s 60th anniversary season. Around 60 cars showed up to compete in several classes, while another 30 or so participated in the open grudge/test-n-tune portion of the event.
“We had racers from Chicago, Canada, New York, and pretty much everywhere in between, a line of spectators out to the road for over an hour, and thousands of viewers on the live feed,” Kardules said. “For being our first event we have done as promoters, it far exceeded our expectations.”
The headlining class, Driveline1 Small Tire (28×10.5s), paid $8,500 to win with 29 cars entered. Canada’s Wajdy Khalil – aka Wajdy WK – in his small-block Ford-powered ‘02 Mustang known as “The Grinch” got the win in the final round when local standout Tommy Hoskinson couldn’t make the call due to a mechanical issue suffered in the semifinals.
“It was badass,” Khalil said of the event on the Ohio Grudge Racing Podcast. “That track was really tricky. It was so hard to read it. In the beginning it was slippery. We spun right on the hit first past. It recovered and got the win somehow. Second pass, took some power out and it went down. It was fast for the amount of power we took out. The car got out of shape on the top end [in the semis]. In the finals, I left the tune from the semis in it and the track didn’t take it. If we were going to race, we would’ve changed the tune-up and tamed it down a little bit.”
In the Small Tire Second Chance Race, Chris Taber in his silver Camaro picked up the win over CJ Buckner in “Raggedy Ann.” Taber also earned the Long Haul Award for making the trip from eastern New York.
Graham’s Auto Resale True Street, which paid $2,600 to win, saw 21 cars enter the class. Another New York-based racer, Tyler Desantis, won in his blue Fox-body Mustang over Ohio’s Logan Bilbrey.
Hot Shot’s Secret Stick Shift may not have attracted as many cars as the promoters hoped for, but Pennsylvania’s Joe Fisher still collected $1000 check for his win in his white Toyota Supra over Andrew Hamlin.
Chris Layne in his purple Chevy S-10 picked up the $900 win in Houck Performance Fabrication Hard Tire over Ernie Brown.
The winners walked away with special no-prep edition NHRA Wally trophies, as well as Hot Shot’s Secret gift baskets. Sponsors like Clear One Trailer Accessories, Neal Chance Converters, and Lincoln Welders also contributed gift certificates and prizes, while random spectators were given gift baskets from Roosters, a local wing chain.
Triple J Promotions is already back to work on a fall edition of the King of Columbus, which will be a prepped event, set for September 7. The lineup will include UMTR stick-shift racing, heads-up drag racing, a car show, truck, show, and audio show. Find more info at www.NationalTrailRaceway.com.
This story was originally published on April 20, 2024. 
