09-18-2006, 07:33 PM
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Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: Texas
Posts: 3,470
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Record-Breaking Weekend for Hagan
 Record-Breaking Weekend for Hagan
(9-18-2006) In the last regular season Motor Mile Dragway Mean 16 event before the October 14th final, Matt Hagan set a new Mean 16/Extreme 8track record. The record had been held by Danville, VA native Randy Weatherford who ran a 4.109 two weeks ago, but Hagan went on a mission to recapture the record he has held several times since the Mean 16 class debuted in 2005. Not only did he break the record, he broke it four times!
It happened in qualifying when Hagan ran a 4.071 @ 179.64 miles per hour. Hagan's second run saw him scoot down the eighth of a mile track in 4.052 seconds at 178.93 miles per hour. But it only got better for Hagan as he made a first round run in the Pine Ridge Nursery and Landscaping Extreme 8 knocking out Ralph Hancock with a 4.028 @ 180.00 miles per hour. But wait; he wasn't done yet! Facing Charlottesville's Wayne Bishop, Hagan made the second round pass with a 4.017 @ 180.43 miles per hour setting the record for the fourth time in less than six hours. The record sent shock waves down to the states of North Carolina and Tennessee where some of MMD competitors were running. Excited about his performance today Hagan said, "The car ran great and I got to pull a couple of gears. There was no pressure and we had fun tonight."
All things weren't perfect as Hagan fell in the finals to Ken Regenthal's 1963 Corvette named the "Carolina Hooker." Regenthal entered the finals with a competition single after David Webb broke going into the semis. Regenthal had a personal best of 4.164 @ 171.69 miles per hour in the finals against Hagan. Regenthal said, "We ran well and the car ran great. We ran against Matt in the finals and it felt like David and Goliath but we came through."
A little disappointed with his finals run, Hagan said, "We were trying to run a number. I thought I could squeeze a 3.9 pass out of the car, but we got a little too much bite in it and I shook the tires. I'll take second place to Ken Regenthal, though. Ken's a great guy and a great racer."
Photo: Frank Mariano
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