Travis Harvey Wins September Big Dog Shootout, Secures 2023 Season Title

The 2023 season for Big Dog Shootout competitors is complete. All six races were contested in the most highly contested season in many years. The star of the show, of course, was the “Carolina Kid,” Travis Harvey driving the Vaughn Myles and Eric Holland-owned Corvette with power from a nitrous combination originally put together by our late friend, Sonny Leonard. How did this take place, you ask? Let’s review the six races that made up the year for historic Piedmont Dragway, the “DoorSlammer Capital of the World.”

April was a preview of the year with Harvey’s Corvette defeating the 2022 champion of the Big Dog vs. the World event from 2022, the “War Eagle” ’63 Corvette, built by Tommy Mauney and with power from Carmack Engineering in the form of a blown Hemi. May was the Jason Harris show with the defeat of “Cuda Time,” owned by Barry Mitchell but driven by Todd Tutterow. It would also be the first of several times that the SomeTime Racing Camaro set track records in E.T. and MPH. This would not be the last. In June, “King Tut” drove “Cuda Time” again to a win.

July was called due to weather, with Harvey defeating Harris and trying for the very difficult “double-up” accomplished only twice before. But “Cuda Time” spoiled the party with Harvey’s Corvette finishing in the runner-up spot to Tutterow for the August win. September was the third win for the Vaughn Myles team, led by Jeff Miller, but defeating a new blower car driven by Tony Wilson, who used the event as a tune-up for an upcoming event and competition in Pro Boost. This is the former David Lambert split-window ’63 Corvette, built, of course, by Tommy Mauney and powered by a Wyo Motorsports Hemi, complete with Ty-Drive.

How the September event transpired was as follows: First round saw Harvey run a 3.78 at 198 to defeat Jamie Chappell. Wilson also ran a 3.78 to defeat Cam Clark’s H&H Camaro, which ran a very good 3.81. Barry Mitchell found himself back in the driver’s seat and ran a 3.76 at 200 MPH to defeat team car Robbie Keziah’s nitrous Corvette at a great 3.82. The final pair had Harris defeating Michael Dawkins with the SomeTime Racing Camaro running a 3.81. Harvey used a very slight holeshot to defeat Harris’ 3.747 running a 3.749 at 200 MPH. Then the Wilson Corvette ran a 3.76 “tune-up” at 199 to defeat Mitchell and “Cuda Time” running an identical 3.765 at 200 MPH. As you can see, the 200 MPH runs were the order of the day and were plentiful.

In the final, the Vaughn Myles/Eric Holland team Corvette defeated the Wilson Corvette, also tuned by Todd and Ty Tutterow, not only capturing the win but the 2023 points title by a margin of 27 points over Harris with Tutterow third, Keziah fourth, and Clark fifth. These drivers ran all the races.

With a huge announcement in the works, General Manager Rick Moore broke the news that a first-ever Big Dog AllStars event would take place on October 12, paying a whopping $20,000 to the winner. Runner-up will receive $5,000 and first-round loser will get $1,500. It was also announced that any driver that filled out a tech card for the 2023 season would be eligible. Others would have to pay a $1,000 entry, but with 16 cars taking a time this season, the field could be filled. If there are 16 cars, all will run. Don’t miss this as it should be the most competitive Big Dog event in quite some time. Don’t miss it.

Other winners for the night included Tylor Ruff winning Outlaw DoorSlammer over Jeff Bowman. Mean 15 winner was Nick Reavis and the 7.49 winner was Ken Myrick over Melvin Watlington.

This story was originally published on September 26, 2023.