Military Helicopter Interrupts Drag Race At SGMP

A few years back, before they got into hot water thanks to some poor decisions by the former management, the ADRL was the #2 sanctioning body for drag racing in the US. The American Drag Racing League had surpassed the IHRA in car and fan count and was drawing massive crowds all over the country. The National Guard was one of their main sponsors during much of their growth, and as part of that partnership, the National Guard would bring out some of it’s equipment to display at the races.

For this one particular race at South Georgia Motorsports Park, they brought in a monster Chinook helicopter during the pre-race test session. The only problem with that was the fact that SGMP was surrounded by dry, dusty fields and the downdraft from the Chinook’s massive rotors kicked up a huge dust storm, which blew all over the track itself. This would cause major problems for the high horsepower Pro Mod Motorcycles on the starting line, so the racing had to be suspended while the track was swept clean. Luckily, what the video of the incident, captured by our friends over at Urban Hillbilly, doesn’t show is that the track has a huge sweeper and a jet dryer that should have taken just a few minutes to blow all of this dust and grass off the track.

Racing resumed shortly later and the event would draw a massive crowd, filling the stands at SGMP to capacity much like we see there at Donald Long’s spring and fall tandem of radial races, Lights Out and No Mercy. The ADRL would shut down for a couple of years after the aforementioned poor decision making, but is now up and running again under completely new management. Look for some big things out of the revamped ADRL in the upcoming season, where they are looking to return the sanction to its former glory.