Garrett Griffith Wins American Race Cars $30,000 Saturday at the Summer Fling
Columbus, OH — The final day of the JEGS Performance Summer Fling presented by Optima Batteries at National Trail Raceway had 312 
entries staging up for $30,000 on American Race Cars Saturday.
A full week of beautiful weather continued throughout the day and into the afternoon. Increased round money and special awards would wrap up the third Fling event of the year.
The Fling Team selected Chris Bear as the 2022 Summer Fling MVP to receive the Todd’s Extreme custom-painted Impact Racing helmet and $1,000 bonus for his stellar performance over the course of the event, carrying double entries deep into eliminations during the Thursday 30K and Friday 100K races. Bear also had over five perfect reaction times, proving to be set up “on kill” each day and earning him a spot on the dragster side of the Brodix Best Package Runoff for the SR20 cylinder heads (qualifying with a .002 package).
After struggling early in the week and turning things around by going deep into eliminations on Saturday, the Fling Team selected Gary Williams as the winner of the Kyle Seipel Never Give Up Award presented by Ivey Hutto Golf Cart Sales. He received a custom crystal plaque and $1,000 bonus.
For round seven Joe Hoskins, Gary Williams, Garrett Griffith, Cameron Manuel, Vinny DiMino, Tim Markoglu, and Amanda Manuel (who carried two entries to the round of 14) remained. Williams let go perfect on the line against the .009 of DiMino and took .009 for the double breakout win. Griffith and Amanda Manuel were separated by just two-thousandths and Griffith took .002 at the stripe to be dead-on eight for the win. Cameron Manuel put up .012 total taking .009 to eliminate Hoskins, while Markoglu had a .003 bulb on the bye run.
Griffith held the advantage on the tree against Williams by .009 and had the lesser of the two breakouts being three thousandths under for the win. Cameron Manuel’s perfect reaction time wasn’t enough to turn on the winlight as Markoglu was .013 total taking .004 at the stripe.
The classic door car versus dragster final staged up nice and early at seven o’clock, made up of two proven Fling winners with both drivers having multiple prior victories at past events. Griffith controlled the final round with a .009 advantage on the starting line and ran his S-10 down to be dead-on two for the American Race Cars $30,000 Friday win. It made for the third big check in Griffith’s collection, following a 2021 Summer Fling 15K and a 2021 Fall Fling 25K.
That concluded the JEGS Performance Summer Fling, with the next and final stop of 2022 for the Fling Team being the Fall Fling at Bristol Dragway in Tennessee during the week of September 20-24. To get race updates by phone, text the word “Bristol” to 74121.
For more information, visit www.BracketRaces.com or Spring Fling Bracket Races Facebook page.
