Throwback: Kyle Huettel’s BAD9ER Camaro on the Bumper at Holly Springs

Before the track suffered a direct hit from a devastating EF5 tornado, Holly Springs was one of the premiere drag radial tracks in the country. The small outlaw facility in the northern part of Mississippi had a stellar reputation for ridiculous traction from starting line to finish line. It’s rumored that the track once pulled a 480 on the traction meter at the finish line, a number that most tracks can’t match on the starting line on their best day.

That stellar traction led to many records falling at Holly, along with countless career best elapsed times. Of course, as the saying goes, you live by the sword, you die by the sword. All that traction may have facilitated some killer numbers, but it also led to it’s share of problems, a lesson Texan Kyle Huettel learned all too well in the video below, captured by my good friend Hans at Free Life Films.

Huettel, in his nitrous-injected big-inch Camaro lined up to do battle with THE Kevin Mullins in his wild twin turbo Mustang. After their burnouts, the pair bump into the stage beams and the tree comes down, sending them both toward the finish line in very rapid fashion. Mullins, in the far lane, looks to get a tad out of shape early in the run, while Huettel appears to be on his way to a low 4-second run when things take a very quick turn for the worse.

As he nears half track, Kyle’s Camaro drives into a wheelstand, the back bumper dragging on the sticky surface for quite a way as Huettel expertly feathers the throttle, carefully returning the nose of the car to earth without slamming it down and destroying the oil pan or wrecking the front suspension. The car does drop hard enough to throw a few sparks, but if I remember correctly, there was no damage to the car.

Unfortunately, the track hasn’t returned to radial prominence following the tornado, mainly because the cars have reached speeds too high for the track’s notoriously short shutdown area.