Consistency is the key to the kingdom.
Street Machine Eliminator is HOT ROD Drag Week Powered by Dodge and Presented by Gear Vendors’ largest class yet, with 136 entrants—one-third of our 400-car field—taking on our catch-all class, with the drivetrain and body modifications being open but with a 10.00-second e.t. restriction. Unlike the other class racers, SME is decided by a 32-car bracket race at the end of Friday that’s picked from the top average elapsed times throughout the week. From there, the racers’ average elapsed times are subtracted by a tenth for the Sportsman bracket dial-in. Once bracketed, it’s like watching a heads-up race on paper, but with cars leaving at a delayed start to equalize their performances.
The final was everything we could have asked for: a showdown between Garry Harris’ massive, quad-cab Silverado and Jeremy Wilson’s honest, small-block-powered Nova—who took the win this year with a 10.79 at 121.91 (10.68 dial-in) to Harris’ 10.074 at 129.87 (10.62 dial-in). The 2015 SME Top-32 Champion came back this year with his tried-and-true lightning-quick reaction times and a reliable nitrous package to pick-off wins with little drama.
Looking first at runner-up Harris, the turbocharged 2005 Chevy Silverado made its third return to Drag Week, and ran through 2017 with a conservative Monday-through-Thursday average of 10.76 to a last-second 10.72 average with his Friday 10.55 pass, his quickest of the week. His first-round match-up was Jason Moore’s ‘88 Chevy Camaro, narrowly taking the win with a margin of victory of .0497 with a 10.72 to Moore’s 10.17 (10.07 dial-in). Round two lined Harris up with Brian Hanson’s ’08 Ford Mustang GT. While Hanson got the best reaction time, it was again Harris staying on-point with a 10.72 to Hanson’s 11.03 (10.81 dial-in). In the quarter-finals, Harris laid into the boosted Silverado to make up for a sleepy start to Lucas Brunkow’s Fox-based ’83 Ford Fairmont, freight-training to a 10.65 (with his best trap speed of the week, 130.49) to beat Brunkow’s 10.79 (10.48 dial-in). For the semi-finals, Harris took out Dean Tepen’s ’65 Chevy Nova, who had taken out our top-qualifier, Jared Ball, and his twin-turbo, small-block-powered ’95 Chevy S10. Tepen couldn’t back that momentum, with Harris winning with a 10.75 to Tepen’s 11-flat (10.79 dial-in).
This led him to the final against Wilson’s nitrous Nova, who took the win with a wicked .016 reaction time. Wilson was on fire Friday, even knocking out a perfect reaction time (.000) in the semis. This momentum started with his first round against John Stuckey’s Charger Hellcat, taking the factory-blown Mopar with a 10.92 to Stuckey’s 10.22 (10.03 dial-in). From there, he battled at the tree with Ray Mohoff’s wild ’67 Chevy Chevelle street machine, taking out the candy-copper gasser with a 10.95 to Mohoff’s 11.36 (10.94 dial-in). In his quarter-final against Wesley Butler’s ’91 Pontiac Firebird, he clicked off an easy 10.76 to Butler’s 10.12 (10.06 dial-in). It was in the semis against Jerry Barnes and his ’67 Chevy Camaro that Wilson pulled off his perfect .000 reaction time, but after watching Barnes let-up after his Camaro got out of shape past the 100-foot mark, he coasted to an 11.07. We truly had no favorite in the final against Harris’ Silverado, as booth machines were dead-on during the hell week, but it came down to the hundredth on the final, making for an epic finish on this year’s SME Top-32 Bracket.
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