While technically it was Wiseco Saturday at the K&N Spring Fling presented by Optima Batteries at GALOT Motorsports Park, it really is not nice to fool with Mother Nature. Fridays Strange Engineering-sponsored $50K race was hampered by rain, forcing officials to pull the plug with six pairs of cars left to run in the fourth round due to curfew restrictions. Unfortunately, that was at 1:30 in the AM today.
Because of that, today’s schedule had to be adjusted and as such, round four was completed followed by the balance of eliminations, eventually crowning Tommy Cable as the Spring Fling $50K champion. That was then followed by Wiseco Saturday’s $20K race with the decision not to allow buybacks as more weather was scheduled to come in.
Wiseco again awarded the Golden Ticket to one randomly selected buyback participant purchasing their buyback for the day. Wednesday that person was David Bell, Thursday Ivey Brannon and Friday was Donny Algieri. Because there was no buyback on Saturday, Wiseco still awarded the Golden Ticket randomly to a first-round runner-up, $160 in cash, to Shane Carr.
Round seven of the Strange Engineering Friday $50K had ten cars remaining; five door cars and five dragsters; to be placed on a ladder with the first pair out Nick Hastings and Michael Illig with Hastings giving back the win light by .002 to advance Illig. Robert Hindman and Jeff Serra battled with Serra winning. Mike Bloomfield Jr. and Megan Lotts did battle next with Lotts moving on with a .006 package. Former Fling champion Tommy Cable and this year’s Fling Million runner-up Shane Carr battled with Cable getting the win. Bobby Mouat and Russell Penny rounded out the round with Mouat getting the nod to move on.
Quarterfinals had two door cars still alive. Cable dispatched one of the door cars to move on to the semis with his dragster, and Mouat defeated the last remaining door car of Serra, while Lotts took the odd car bye run.
Mouat’s .009 reaction time in the quarters earned him the bye run in the semis to advance directly to the finals, while Cable and Lotts battled with Cable looking for his third Fling trophy to add to his Fling points championship in 2015. With the reaction time advantage, Cable sent Lotts packing, moving into the finals to continue his quest.
One round left in Strange Engineering Friday; although it was Saturday. With both dialed identically, it was Tommy Cable on a mission with a perfect .000 reaction time and dead-on the dial with an “8” for his third Fling trophy.
Like a lot of other champions, Cable said, “This is simply amazing and you can’t ever let up against these guys here. They’re all good. I was lucky when I had to be and good when it was needed.”
With a Strange Engineering Friday champion finally crowned, the racing moved on to Wiseco Saturday and $20K-to-win. Thirteen racers left, five door cars and eight dragsters. Barry Teachey II, Jake Hodge, Ricky Adkins, Colby Fuller, Ray Knight, Buddy Dial, Kenny Underwood, Josh Harper, Dan Davies, Greg Showns, Shane Maddox, Will Holloman and Baily Ferraro.
The odd car bye run fell to Adkins in round six, while the other survivors were Fuller, Maddox, Underwood, Holloman, Harper and Davies.
Quarterfinals and those moving closer to a $20,000 payday were Davies, Maddox, Holloman and Fuller. Three dragsters and one door car.
Semifinals and the lone door car of Fuller missed the ‘Tree handing the win to Holloman. In the other half, Maddox used a stellar .002 reaction time to take a holeshot win over Davies. Final round, two friends and two great racers, but Mother Nature wasn’t having any of it with rain and wind starting to come down heavy. Both Maddox and Holloman decided on their own to simply split the final with both stating, “It’s not worth waiting for the rain to stop or taking a chance with our cars.”
The Todd’s Extreme Paint MVP award was given to Gary Williams for his many late round appearances which included a win and a runner-up. The award comes with a custom painted helmet and $1,000.
After the event, Track Manager Dana Strickland said, “We are so happy to have the Spring Fling here. All the racers are so tough and the entire event is run so smooth. Thank you to all who came, congratulations to all the champs, and we hope to see you all again next year.”
Our sincere thanks goes out to all the racers for supporting our event at Galot,” said co-promoter Kyle Seipel, “and we look forward to seeing each of you in Bristol in September.”
And with that, the third K&N Spring Fling presented by Optima Batteries at GALOT Motorsports Park is in the books. Next up for the Spring Fling brand is the famed tenth anniversary of the Sparco Fall Fling 500K in Bristol in September where one winner will walk away with $500,000.
This story was originally published on May 4, 2019. 
