Moonshiners (2011–…): Season 8, Episode 10 - Half-Cocked, Full Throttle - full transcript
♪♪
I'm josh. I'm a moonshiner.
Oh, yeah!
God dog. Look at that.
Moonshine and racing
Go hand in hand.
We wouldn't have racing
Without bootlegging moonshine.
Oh *bleep*[ siren wails ]
I been racing
For a couple years now,
And I'll race anything
That goes fast --
Stock cars, four-wheelers,
Motorcycles.
Sometimes I win.Yeah!
Sometimes I crash and lose.
My motto is,
"I will not keep calm,
I will drink moonshine,
I will raise hell
And break *bleep*
And when I'm not out there
Making shine,
I'm on the track,
Burning rubber on the dragway.
This is southeast gassers,
Drag racing at its finest.
And I'm out here with my
'66 chevrolet, "Sour mash,"
And it has a killer
Ford engine in it.
We're getting ready
To kick some serious butt.
[ engine revs ]
Every one of these cars
Had to be from 1967 back.
That means all the parts
Had to be from the '60s,
The '50s, the '40s, the '30s --
Whatever.
These cars, they're 700 to 850
Horsepower, naturally aspirated.
That means no superchargers,
No turbochargers --
Just some carburetors
And a motor
And whatever you can do
To make the baby go.
Everyone here
Wants to win the race,
But there's much more at stake.
It's not a matter of money
Or anything else.
It's a matter of pride
Who has the fastest ride.
[ engine revving ]
Captions paid for by
Discovery communications
Josh:
How you doing?
Good to see you,
Man.
What's going on,
Man?
This weekend, we're racing
At carolina dragway
In north carolina.
There are drivers here
From texas, iowa, michigan,
And all around the country.
♪♪
17 of us are racing
To battle it out
To see who among us
Has the fastest ride.
After each single
Elimination round,
The slower one goes home
And the faster one moves on
To their next opponent.
We race until only one of us
Is left to claim the victory.
Right now the two fastest guys
In this circuit
Are kenneth and shannon.
They've been trading
First and second place
Back and forth race after race.
Their rivalry goes way back.
♪♪
Kenneth is one man
That is really hard to beat.
He's driving one of the slickest
And fastest cars.
It's a 1958 chevy corvette
With a small-block chevy engine.
But a few months ago,
His car started to slow down,
And while he was losing
Race after race,
Another driver, shannon,
Was beating him easily.
[ metal clinking ]
Kenneth: we got to get
The rear end back together
And get the dials adjusted --
I think we'll about have it.
Dean: look at this,
Josh.
That's the bearings
Out of that thing.
Lord have mercy!
They crumble.
How did it not
Just explode
When you dumped the clutch
On her?
We don't know.
We don't know
What happened.
We couldn't find
A problem,
And it just kept dropping off
And dropping off,
And we took it apart,
And it just fell out
On the table in pieces.
Josh:
That's crazy.
It's hard to believe
Something as simple as a bearing
In a damn drivetrain could
Knock you out of the whole race.
A $20 part.
Dean: we going to aiken
With everything we got
And see what we can do
With shannon.
Yeah.[ tool whirring ]
That's gonna be tough.
It can be done.
♪♪
Shannon is driving a 1955 chevy
With a big-block chevy engine,
And although his car is a way
Heavier beast than kenneth's,
With his 427-cubic-inch engine,
It's a hard one to catch.
♪♪
Shannon: it's hard when
You got to race a school bus
Against all these little sports
Cars, you know what I'm saying?
No doubt.
One goof-up,
You can miss the whole race
And kenneth's ahead.
Yeah, I hear you.
That's racing, though.
I'm more afraid
Of what everybody in the stands
Is thinking
Than I am of frickin'
What's gonna happen with me
And that car.
It's like
I'm going to war.
Yeah.
I start getting sick
To my stomach. [ chuckles ]
Oh, I get butterflies --
Bad.
As soon as I drop the hammer,
It's on then.
I'm good to go,
Really.
If I can get
One good pass in,
They better look out.
♪♪
[ engine idling ]
Quain:
All right.
Listen, everybody.
We got y'all together.
Josh: in 2011, quain stott
Started the southeast gassers.
His strict set of rules,
Making sure that
Every single one of these cars
Are period-correct...
Everybody's stuff's got to
Be legal, 100% legal.
Josh: ...Really limits us
In our opportunities
To improve our speed,
But that'll never stop us.
There's not a racecar driver
Or mechanic out here
That's not looking for that
Extra little bit of horsepower.
♪♪
But the only way to find it
Is by removing the engine
Out of the car,
Hooking it up to the dyno,
And tweaking it.
The guy who knows more
About the tricks to the trade
Than any of us
Is "Carburetor bob,"
And that's my engine
That he's up there redlining.
[ engine revs ]
Carburetor bob:
Okay.
The yellow
Is horsepower,
The blue is the torque
In the engine.
646.4 horsepower is what
That engine just made.
And it did it
At 6,800 rpm.
Josh: wow!
So if you're
Turning it over 7,800,
You're actually
Not accelerating
At the greatest rate
You could.
So now
The two carburetors
Will even give us
More performance.
Carburetor bob can do miracles
When it comes to tweaking
And tuning an engine...
Oh,
That's a beautiful fit.
...Changing the headers,
The carburetors, the intake...
Oh, yeah.
...Anything to improve
The fuel-to-air ratio
And to get you more power.
♪♪
And here we go.
♪♪
[ engine revving ]
That sounds good!
♪♪
Damn,
That sounds good.
My goodness.
You went from there
To [chuckles] there.
You picked up 27 horsepower --
Average.
Josh:
It's way better.
[ laughs ]
[ engine revs ]
♪♪
If you've only drove
Your grandma's car,
If you've never drove
A racecar before,
The chances are you're going to
Barrel-roll the bastard
Right in the wall.
Not to mention they got
A straight axle on them,
So when the front wheels
Come off the ground,
When they land back,
They're liable to go
In any direction.
It's liable to start spinning
Around and around on you,
Go back and forth,
Back and forth.
Anything can happen!
These are some ill-handlin'
Sons of guns,
And if anyone knows about that,
It's barry.
♪♪
Barry's got a very rare car.
He's got a 1965 chevelle
Two-door station wagon.
There was like 1,600 or 1,700
Of 'em ever made.
He put a new engine in it.
It's got more horsepower,
But when he leaves the line,
He's spinning.
He's not getting traction,
He's not taking off,
So now he's changing his tires
To a different brand,
Little bit different compound,
And hoping
That's gonna fix his problem.
Barry: got a couple guys
Gonna be hard to catch.
Got kenneth phillips
And shannon smith.
I did take kenneth out
At alabama.
That helped shannon
A good bit.
I'd like to return the favor now
For kenneth
And take shannon out
One time.
I mean, that's not something
You get to pick, though.
No, you don't get to pick
Who you run.
It may be me
Running one of them boys.
Yeah,
That won't be no problem.
[ laughs ]
Tell you what,
If, just by chance,
It comes down to where
We get to race each other,
I'll bet you
That engine over there
That I'll tear
The tree down
While you're back there
Spinning.
I'd be crazy
Not to take that bet.
What do you want
To bet?
We're all a sucker
For a side bet.
Tell you the truth,
I'm ready to see barry put
His money where his mouth is.
I got
Two trees need cut.
How 'bout trees
Against a motor?
It's on.
♪♪
[ engine idling ]
[ engine shuts off ]
She goes fast,
But she don't stop fast.
[ laughter ]
It ain't got no brakes.
Reese.Reese: yeah.
Come here.
Let me show you a little bit
About the racecars.
I really love having my baby
Girl reese out here with me.
I get to show her
All about racing.
I get to show her the cars.
I get to show her
What it's all about.
Josh: so, this is the engine
Of the car.
This is the intake.
It allows
All that gas
To shoot down inside the motor
Right there.
You want
To sit in it?
Reese loves this racing stuff.
She's about eight years away
From being able to be
A racecar driver herself.
[ engine starts ]
She's got her own
1962 chevy ii already.
Ha ha![ engine revving ]
What do you think
About that?
Loud.
Huh?
It's loud?
[ laughs ]
[ engine shuts off ]
What do you think?
That's the smell of money,
Honey.
♪♪
Hey, tom.
Do I not need brakes
On my racecar?
Tom is one of my race mechanics.
He is a great helper,
But he often misses some details
When he's checking my car --
Like my brakes.
You put these brakes on,
Didn't you?
Of course.
The tom white special.
Yeah, they are.
That's exactly what it is.
I don't know what the hell
Tom's been doing to my car.
[ laughs ]
But doing 130 mile an hour,
No brakes,
What could possibly go wrong?
♪♪
This is the last time
Any of us drivers
Are gonna get to run our cars
Down the track
Before the main race.
It's our last chance to see
If all of our tweaks and tunes
Have paid off.
Look, anything can happen.
I mean,
You could always spin sideways
And hit the wall and cut a flip,
Tear the car all to hell,
Even in practice.
Hopefully, when we rev her down
7,500, 8,000 rpms,
She don't blow the engine
Sky high.
When you pull up down here
To stage,
First thing you do
Is you pull the back tires
And the water box.
You rev it up.
You dump the clutch on it
And let her dig.
You spi-I-n like hell.
When you smoke those tires off,
You're cleaning the tires off
And heating them up,
You're prepping them to
Get ready to run down the track.
Then we get down,
Lined up on the tree,
And that light's
About to change.
So the next thing you got to do
Is be on the gas,
Have it revved up to about
7,500, 8,000 rpms,
And let 'er dig.
Just flying.
It's gonna be a...
"Fightin' forever" round.
Kenneth: I got a problem
With shannon.
He's got to go.
♪♪
[ tires screech ]aah! *bleep*
[ engine idling ]
Josh: right now, I'm 'bout to
Go out and run a practice round.
Right before
That green light hits,
You want to rev your motor up
To about 7,500 rpms,
Drop the hammer on that baby,
And let 'er dig.
[ engine revs ]
You go all through first gear,
Then you hit second gear,
Then you hit third gear,
Then you hit fourth gear --
Never letting off the gas pedal.
♪♪
[ engine shuts off ]
Boy, I screwed up that time.
I missed a gear.
♪♪
I threw it
In the wrong damn gear.
That's not good.
That over-revs the motor.
Now that motor's probably gonna
Have to be tore back down into,
But I cut that tree
Right on the money.
It's hard to do that.
Sorry, y'all.
*bleep* that one up.
Well,
Thing about it is
You gonna have all the people
Looking at you tomorrow
And can't do that tomorrow,
Brother.
Have to buckle up,
Get with it.
[ laughs ]
♪♪
Southeast gassers always runs on
1/8 of a mile drag strip.
It looks like your
Average asphalt, but it's not.
It's got track glue on it.
If I stop moving at all and I
Stand here for a minute or two,
My boots literally glue
To the track.
♪♪
Constantly,
During the entire race,
They'll be prepping the track,
Keeping a close eye
On where it's at.
From one minute to the next,
You might have a good,
Sticky, perfect, tacky track.
Frickin' 30 minutes later,
It might be slicker
Than all get-out.
Even with it being this sticky,
The cars still are ill-handlin',
Do what they want to do,
And any moisture just
Shuts us down altogether.
♪♪
How's everybody doing today?
Man: good.
How you doing?
Yeah,
Good to see y'all.
There you are.
Barry:
How 'bout it, now?
Josh:
What are you doing?
Get these evac tubes
Hooked back up.
You brung your chainsaw
With you,
Or you gonna wait
Till we get back home?
Ha, yeah.
The other day,
When I was in barry's shop,
He was talking all kind
Of mad crap about my racing,
So we decided we were gonna have
A grudge match
During the qualifying round
Of the race.
If I win, I get to take home
That killer engine.
If he wins,
I got to do a whole bunch
Of tree-work around his house.
Might be easier to do it
In qualifying.
That way,
We know we can get to do it.
Later on, we might not
Get to line up together.
All right.
Your mind
Might blow sky high.
Man might
Miss a gear.
I did,
I did.
Man, I can't believe
I missed them gears yesterday.
I was
So embarrassed.
Well,
You know,
The women we got running with
Usually don't do that.
Ha. I hear you, I hear you.[ laughs ]
♪♪
There's absolutely nothing that
Can stop us southeast gassers
From being at the racetrack
On race day --
Well, except for maybe
A missing engine in our car.
♪♪
My buddy ernie,
He races a 1952 henry j car
With a small-block chevy engine.
He is one tireless racer,
And, like me,
He'll do whatever it takes
To burn some rubber
And run his car down the track.
♪♪
Josh: what's going on,
Ernie?
Ernie:
Broke rod.
Oh *bleep*
Let me see that, ernie.
Aw! Man.
She just flew all to pieces,
Didn't she?
Yep.
Won't be nothing happening
For me this weekend.
Really?
I'm done.
Oh, well.
Everybody's got
To drop one race.
Guess I found mine,
Didn't I?
Josh: I got a dirt-track-car
Motor you can put in it.
It's supposed to be
A stock eight engine.
I don't know
How it would do out here.
Will my dirt-track-car motor
Work in his car?
You're not gonna set
The national record.
Let's do it.
Josh:
All right.
My buddy ernie, he's been one of
My competitors all year long.
He's beat me a couple times,
But I would much rather
Have my opponent
Out there racing with me.
That makes it a lot more fun,
And that's what makes the
Southeast gassers what it is.
I'd rather race with him
Than not have him race with me
And kicking my butt.
All right.I think it'll go right there.
He may be
A little bit under-powered,
But he's still gonna get
To go out and make the race.
And let's go race.
♪♪
So, we're just now
Getting in our car,
And as I'm crawling in here,
I frickin' notice that
Somebody's been here
With a magic marker.
It says, "One goes to two,
Two goes to three,
Three goes to four."
This is ridiculous because
I know how to shift gears.
I've been shifting gears
For a long time.
Accidents happen.
This is just him picking on me
At this point in time.
♪♪
[ engine revs ]
♪♪
Josh:
You ready or what?
[ chuckling ] hey.Huh?
How'd testing go?
How'd your testing go?
I don't test.
Hey, shannon,
He's a badass man.
He don't even go out there
And practice.
He just says, "Hell, I'm here.
I got my car fixed.
I don't need to shake it down.
I did it in my driveway.
We're ready to race."
Are you ready?
I guess.
You gonna
Wear 'em out?
I'm here to win.
I don't come to lose.
♪♪
Oh, man. It's raining.
I just saw a raindrop.
It's raining.
You don't see people scattering?
No!
Not chicken.
Go put your cars up.
We gonna ask them in a minute.
Can't race in the rain.
Cuz!
Let's get
The hood on it.
It started raining,
Everybody run like
A bunch of dang drowned rats.
Everybody's running to get
Their carburetors covered up
So they don't get
No water in there.
Come out here, cuz.
Water don't go in carburetors.
That's where the fuel goes --
The fuel and air only.
Water will straight mess one up.
You might as well dump
A handful of dirt in it.
That's good, that's good!
Whoa!
Hopefully, this is gonna go away
Right here,
Because if it don't,
We ain't gonna be racing.
♪♪
Reese: dad,
Can I start it?
Absolutely,
You can.
You ready? Do it.
Yeah.
[ engine starts, revs ]
Yeah!
It has been a *bleep* show
With rain.
But the rain finally stopped,
And the tracks have been dried.
Finally,
We're lining up to race.
♪♪
Every car that's out here
To race tonight
Is out here right now,
But before we can start racing,
We have to run
A qualifying round just like
They did back in the '60s.
This is my chance for barry
To see who has the fastest ride
And for me to go home
With my new engine.
Oh, hell.
I hope I scald the dog.
I want
That damn engine.
Kid,
It's about to get real.
That's barry over there.
His motor's
Probably worth a little bit more
Than this tree-work,
So I know he's confident,
But I'm hoping to kick his butt.
God dog!
Whoo!
My window's fogging up!
I can't see *bleep*
♪♪
Josh: here we are
At the carolina dragway
In north carolina,
And the rain has just about
Cost us today's race.
Right now we're in
The qualifying round,
And I'm finally gonna
Get to race barry.
Hopefully, I'll get to
Bring home a new engine.
Man: put something over it
Until you run.
Now, see, if anything
Falls on it, it help dries.
Because of all this rain,
There's more moisture
In the air,
So people's windows
Are fogging up,
The track's getting slicker,
And that could become
A really big problem.
All right. I'm ready.
The anxiety of this,
Of being out here,
Makes me want to throw up
Because you know
You're all out here
About to go to war,
And you never know
What's gonna happen next.
He getting those wheels
Up off the ground.
Good run right there.
[ engine revving ]
Josh: cuz!
My window's fogging up.
It's bad.
Trying to stop it.
I can't see *bleep*
My nerves
Are tore up, cuz.
All right.
It's about to get real.
Make it or break it
At this point.
It's like everything in the
World may be happening to you,
Running through your mind,
A million thoughts.
But when you get up there
To that tree
And you cut on that first light,
It don't matter
If bombs are going off.
You are clued into that tree.
It's like tunnel vision,
And all you can think about
Is that light bulb
About to fade out.
[ shouts indistinctly ]
John:
He did good for a minute there,
And then that other car
Just run off and left him.
Didn't beat him by much.
John: watch out.
Here comes your daddy.
Get over
By uncle john.
I get some free trees.
[ engine revs ]
Ha ha!
Hey, at least I didn't
Swap gears tonight, huh?
[ laughs ]
I guess I'll bring
The chainsaws over next week.
I'll see you saturday.
Bring the saws.
God dog! It was that close
In the beginning.
Was it?
In the beginning!I didn't see you.
In the eighth of a mile, I was
Doing 106.59 miles an hour.
He was doing 119.12.
That was just qualifying round.
Now comes the real thing,
And if I can't do no better
Than frickin' 106 miles an hour,
I better go pack my lunch.
Hey!
Break a leg
The rest of the evening.
Gonna try to.Yeah, just not yours.
Right.
Somebody else's.
♪♪
All of us racers
Are gathered up
To find out who's racing who
In the first round.
Whatever our qualifying times
Are will determine the outcome.
Kenneth is really hoping
That his qualifying time
Will match him up
Against shannon
So he can race him early on
In the night.
If I get him out first round,
I'll be good.
From here on,
It'll be real interesting.
Quain:
Qualifying list is in.
Shannon smith was
The number-one qualifier,
But since there's an odd number
Of cars at 17,
He's got a bye run.
Gabriel burrell,
You're gonna have earl mclemore.
Barry lynn,
You got troy lightener.
Josh owens, robert frazier.
Donovan stott, todd oden.
Alan gaulden, ernie smith.
Justin moses, chase howard.
Steve davis, ben christopher.
Kenneth phillips, tony turner.
Now, listen, guys.
Y'all know I'm not all for
This betting stuff,
But if you gonna do it,
You're on your own.
If you want to bet, bet.
Josh: a lot of us guys
Like to place side bets
Just to raise the stakes.
Troy, $100.
$100?
I'll tell you what,
We'll do double or nothing.
Did you ever get beat
By a geriatric?
Ooh.
[ laughs ]
Ernie: where's that
Frequent flyer corvette?
I got $100 that says
I'm about to wear it out.
Josh: a lot of us have rivalries
That go way back.
Robert:
I got $100 on it.
$100.
Well, here, just go ahead
And let me have that $100,
And I'll put it
In my pocket.
Frazier,
He's a good buddy of mine.
We've run
Neck and neck.
We've had
A rivalry going on.
Oh, man.
1-1.
May the best man win.
♪♪
Josh:
Hey, quain.
What's the story?
Quain:
Ernie's pulling up.
This is my engine coming
Right here.
Dirt motor in ernie's car?Yep.
Well,
I knew he blew an engine.
I didn't know
Where he got one from.
That's how
He got back in action.
With your engine,
Think he outrun by alan.
That 331 small block
Is bad news.
There ain't no way them dirt
Motors [chuckles] can outrun it.
Well, let's see.
Yeah, we'll find out here
In just a second.
[ engines revving ]
♪♪
Announcer: man, what a great
Drag race that was.
Ernie: well, we gave him
All he wanted.
We had $100 riding on it,
We both wanted the money,
And right there, about 10 feet
Short of the finish line,
He drove by me.
The old dirt-track motor
Did a lot better
Than what we ever expected.
I mean,
That frequent flyer car,
That one's one of the fastest
Dudes out here,
And if he wants to try it again
At the next race,
I've got another $100.
We'll do it again.
Josh:
Here comes barry and troy,
And I guarantee you
Barry is gonna scald the dog.
I think I'm gonna take troy
On this one.
Troy is hungry
For a win.
He better be
Starving to death
'cause barry's got
His act together.
He pulled off
And left me
Like I was sitting still
A while ago.
♪♪
Barry: I won.
We left pretty much together.
He had a slight lead leaving,
And then I was able
To get around him.
New tires seemed to work good.
Hey, we done good.
It was a good race,
But I just don't think
I had enough for barry tonight.
I lost $200
And got some hurt feelings.
Shannon: we all friends
Till we get to the line.
And you get to the line...
Whoo!...You don't have no friends.
♪♪
♪♪
Josh: we're here at the carolina
Dragway in north carolina,
Where the best of the drivers
Of the southeast gassers
Are battling it out.
We're in round 1, and the race
Is just getting heated up.
♪♪
Quain: looks like next
Is tom and donovan.
I love donovan's car.
What kind of car is that?
I can't ever remember.
It's a '48 anglia.Anglia.
That be
An english ford.
They're good racecars,
But they handle so bad.
[ engines idling ]
[ engines revving ]
[ cheers and applause ]
♪♪
God dog!
He just about tore the wall down
On both sides.
Man,
I'm telling you what --
Did you see that kid
Drive out of there?
He was backing
Into the wall,
And as the car's
Going backwards,
He steps
On the throttle.
You could see the grass flying
Up where he was spinning --
That's natural reaction time
Right there, man.
That just had to happen.Yeah.
That slipping
And sliding
I think's
Because of the rain and all,
And now
The track's getting cold,
And they dry
The track,
But once that water
Gets on the rubber,
It just kind of
Made things touchy.
[ engine revving ]
♪♪
All right.
We're coming.
♪♪
Coming up now,
That's robert frazier and josh.
You know, it's a toss-up
Between these two every time,
So I think this is gonna be
A killer race.
Whoo!
♪♪
[ engines revving ]
[ tires screech ]
Whoo!
Once again,
I cut a really good light.
How'd you do,
Daddy?
Every race I've been in,
I've busted 'em at the tree,
And with me
Cutting a better light,
I should've had more horsepower
And been able to take off
And outrun him and leave him.
In a few years,
That's gonna be you out there.
And I'm gonna be too old
To do it,
And I'm gonna be walking up here
With my cane...
[ giggles ]
...Going,
"Go, reese, go!"
Josh: there he is
Right there!
Get over here!
Man, I can't believe
You just won that $100.
I ain't got $100 yet.
I see how it is.Let's go, yeah.
Next time, it's $200.200 bucks.
I'm going to work on my car.You bet. You need to.
I know it.
♪♪
Didn't take long
For you to get finished.
Wait a minute.
I tore the tree down, quain.
Left the starting line --
It fell on its face.
It fell on its face
'cause you shifted late.
You was past the power band
When you put it in second gear.
We're gonna have to go back
To work on the car.
[ chuckles ]
No, you got to shift.
♪♪
I think round 1 is about over
'cause this is the last pair,
Kenneth and tony,
Pulling up now.
I don't know how the hell
That's gonna work out,
'cause tony's not
In the best shape.
I'm tony turner.
I drive the "Quick n dirty."
And broken foot or not,
I'm racing tonight.
Kenneth: I'm racing tony turner
In the quick n dirty.
Me and him's got a $100 bet
On which one take that now.
Tony ain't got a chance.
So, they modified this gas pedal
So that I can get the cast
In there.
It normally has a hook
That comes over the top so that
If the throttle was to stick,
You could pull the gas.
But since I can't do that,
If the throttle were to stick,
I can shove this,
Which will close the throttle.
[ engines revving ]
[ tires screech ]
♪♪
Kenneth put me on the trailer.
All that work
That we did on the pedals
Seemed to work pretty good
In the pits,
But when you actually
Get on the starting line
And you smash that thing,
That really hurt.
Hurt a lot more than I thought.
[ chuckles ]
Shannon: kenneth's flying,
So hopefully we get him tonight.
It's gonna be a...
"Fightin' forever" round.
♪♪
Well, josh,
We're down to nine cars.
Shannon
And kenneth's strong,
But I believe barry,
With his new engine, man,
He might be fittin' to win
His first ever
Southeast gasser race
Right here tonight.
I'd like to see it.
He'll be tough.
♪♪
Here comes barry
And earl mclemore
In the little
Morris miner.
What kind of damn car
Is that, anyway?
[ chuckles ]
I don't know.
It's a little
Old something,
But it is only like
89-inch wheelbase.
Never even seen --
That thing is a handful.
He's a fan favorite
Because it handles so bad.
Earl's crazy.
He won't let off.
He'll push it to the end,
I guarantee you --
No matter what.
[ engines revving ]
♪♪
Golly!
Quain,
Did you see that?
I told you that thing
Handled bad!
It hit the grass,
Never lifted the damn throttle.
He was slipping and sliding
All the way down through there.
Yeah, I told you
That short-wheelbase car
Was hard to handle.
He's crazy.
There he is
Right there.
Josh: kenneth has been trying
To race shannon all night,
But so far, he's had no luck
Lining up against him.
Kenneth: you got shannon
Next round.
You think
We can take him out?
I think we can.
Robert, who just took me
Out of the running,
Now has the chance to do
The same thing to shannon.
I'll get him
On the tree
And get out on him
And stay out in front of him.
He's got to go.
Look at me.
[ laughs ]
Nervous, baby.
That's it.
I know it.
Thank you,
Man.
Love you,
Baby.
Love you, too. Mwah!Mwah!
Man: all right, robert.
Here we go.
Here we go.
[ laughs ]
[ engines idling ]
♪♪
[ engines revving ]
Shannon:
Just beat "Black & blue,"
But that pass was not good.
We're .3 off our mark.
Well, I bogged it,
But something's wrong
With the clutch or something
Because it feels funky.
Yeah, the strategy now
Is to basically figure out
What's wrong with the clutch,
May readjust the carburetors,
And hopefully get ahold
Of this track.
This next round could
Take us out pretty easy, yeah.
♪♪
Josh: we're about two hours
Into this madness,
And most of the racers
Already got their cars
Back on the trailer.
We're in round 3,
And this battle is getting
More heated by the minute.
Kenneth:
I will end up racing shannon.
I was hoping "Black & blue,"
Robert frazier,
Can take him out,
But it didn't happen,
So it'll come down
To me and him,
And I can beat him tonight.
Josh: I know kenneth
Wants to take shannon out,
But he may not ever
Even get a chance.
My good buddy barry,
Who's been blowing the doors off
Of everybody tonight,
Is about to line up
Against shannon,
And it's very possible that
He'll put him on the trailer.
♪♪
Shannon: we all friends
Till we get to the line.
And you get to the line to race,
You don't have no friends.
[ engines revving ]
[ tires screeching ]
[ engine revving ]
Josh: look at this,
Look at this!
Look at this thing!
I ain't never seen
Nothing like that right there.
[ laughs ] god dog.
This guy has got
One crazy-looking car.
Ha ha!
I don't even know
How to describe the interior.
It almost look like
Some frickin' middle-aged dude's
Dyed hair
Frickin' hanging off the roof.
That's a crazy ride,
Man.
Frickin' this high
Off the ground,
And it looks like a drag car,
But that's nowhere near
What a real gasser is.
And that car honestly
Gives people the wrong idea.
♪♪
[ tires screeching ]
Josh:
We're all here
At the carolina dragway
In north carolina,
Anticipating the last race in
Round 3 -- barry versus shannon.
The fate of who moves on to the
Semifinals rests upon this race.
♪♪
[ engines revving ]
[ tires screeching ]
♪♪
[ indistinct shouting ]
♪♪
Barry:
Oh, my god.
♪♪
[ siren wailing ]
When I went through the lights,
I knew we had won.
I saw our win light, but I saw
The ambulance lights come on.
That's when I knew
Something had happened.
Just praying he's okay,
You know?
Barry.
Let them look at you
In the ambulance.
Yeah.
Kenneth:
Barry was running shannon,
And he got over in the grass
And got loose.
I thought he was gonna
Bring it back out,
And when he come back out,
I'm assuming he hit the asphalt,
And then it started
Flipping him over.
♪♪
I think he tore it up
Pretty good.
I thought he was gonna save it
For a minute.
He had it saved till
That last little [screeches]
And then
It was all she wrote.
He just should of got out of it
A little sooner.
He was fighting it.
He was trying to get
To the finish line.
This is a reminder to me
Of what could happen every time
I crawl behind that seat.
[ straining ]
God bless america!
[ normal voice ]
He probably hit that wall
Running somewhere between
60 and 80 miles an hour.
Hell, yeah.
Scared me to death.
Now do you see why I feel like
I'm about to go to war?
Because you are.
One of you might die.
♪♪
Do you want to go
To the hospital?
We certainly
Don't mind taking you.
Woman: that's what
We're here for.
I appreciate that,
But nah.
All right, hon.
I'm gonna let you go.
♪♪
Big step.
All right?
All right, dear.
You take care.
Right now the most important
Thing of all this
Is that
My good friend barry's okay.
Boy,
You scared me to death.
The car can be replaced.
He can't.
I've got two more just like it,
So between the three,
We'll build another.
Yeah, yeah. Anytime
You walk away, you're good.
♪♪
[ indistinct conversations ]
It's done got
Colder than crap out here.
Quain's done called
The race off.
That means the damn track's
Getting too slick to race on.
We got a three-way tie.
That's very unusual.
Quain:
Okay, guys.
Tonight, we got three winners.
We realized the track
Was just too slick to race on.
There's no way
We could run this race
After what happened to barry,
So what we decided to do
Is take the three cars
That were left in.
We're gonna split the money
Three ways.
You guys are just gonna have to
Wait to see who's the baddest
'cause we can't
Run this race tonight.
I mean,
They called the thing off.
You know, I get it,
But at the same time,
I want to race kenneth.
This between me and shannon,
It's not over.
It's just the beginning.
There gonna be another race,
And he's going down.
Josh:
This has been an ongoing feud
Between shannon and kenneth,
And I bet you
They're gonna be dying
To get back out on the track to
See who the best of the best is.
♪♪
I'm josh. I'm a moonshiner.
Oh, yeah!
God dog. Look at that.
Moonshine and racing
Go hand in hand.
We wouldn't have racing
Without bootlegging moonshine.
Oh *bleep*[ siren wails ]
I been racing
For a couple years now,
And I'll race anything
That goes fast --
Stock cars, four-wheelers,
Motorcycles.
Sometimes I win.Yeah!
Sometimes I crash and lose.
My motto is,
"I will not keep calm,
I will drink moonshine,
I will raise hell
And break *bleep*
And when I'm not out there
Making shine,
I'm on the track,
Burning rubber on the dragway.
This is southeast gassers,
Drag racing at its finest.
And I'm out here with my
'66 chevrolet, "Sour mash,"
And it has a killer
Ford engine in it.
We're getting ready
To kick some serious butt.
[ engine revs ]
Every one of these cars
Had to be from 1967 back.
That means all the parts
Had to be from the '60s,
The '50s, the '40s, the '30s --
Whatever.
These cars, they're 700 to 850
Horsepower, naturally aspirated.
That means no superchargers,
No turbochargers --
Just some carburetors
And a motor
And whatever you can do
To make the baby go.
Everyone here
Wants to win the race,
But there's much more at stake.
It's not a matter of money
Or anything else.
It's a matter of pride
Who has the fastest ride.
[ engine revving ]
Captions paid for by
Discovery communications
Josh:
How you doing?
Good to see you,
Man.
What's going on,
Man?
This weekend, we're racing
At carolina dragway
In north carolina.
There are drivers here
From texas, iowa, michigan,
And all around the country.
♪♪
17 of us are racing
To battle it out
To see who among us
Has the fastest ride.
After each single
Elimination round,
The slower one goes home
And the faster one moves on
To their next opponent.
We race until only one of us
Is left to claim the victory.
Right now the two fastest guys
In this circuit
Are kenneth and shannon.
They've been trading
First and second place
Back and forth race after race.
Their rivalry goes way back.
♪♪
Kenneth is one man
That is really hard to beat.
He's driving one of the slickest
And fastest cars.
It's a 1958 chevy corvette
With a small-block chevy engine.
But a few months ago,
His car started to slow down,
And while he was losing
Race after race,
Another driver, shannon,
Was beating him easily.
[ metal clinking ]
Kenneth: we got to get
The rear end back together
And get the dials adjusted --
I think we'll about have it.
Dean: look at this,
Josh.
That's the bearings
Out of that thing.
Lord have mercy!
They crumble.
How did it not
Just explode
When you dumped the clutch
On her?
We don't know.
We don't know
What happened.
We couldn't find
A problem,
And it just kept dropping off
And dropping off,
And we took it apart,
And it just fell out
On the table in pieces.
Josh:
That's crazy.
It's hard to believe
Something as simple as a bearing
In a damn drivetrain could
Knock you out of the whole race.
A $20 part.
Dean: we going to aiken
With everything we got
And see what we can do
With shannon.
Yeah.[ tool whirring ]
That's gonna be tough.
It can be done.
♪♪
Shannon is driving a 1955 chevy
With a big-block chevy engine,
And although his car is a way
Heavier beast than kenneth's,
With his 427-cubic-inch engine,
It's a hard one to catch.
♪♪
Shannon: it's hard when
You got to race a school bus
Against all these little sports
Cars, you know what I'm saying?
No doubt.
One goof-up,
You can miss the whole race
And kenneth's ahead.
Yeah, I hear you.
That's racing, though.
I'm more afraid
Of what everybody in the stands
Is thinking
Than I am of frickin'
What's gonna happen with me
And that car.
It's like
I'm going to war.
Yeah.
I start getting sick
To my stomach. [ chuckles ]
Oh, I get butterflies --
Bad.
As soon as I drop the hammer,
It's on then.
I'm good to go,
Really.
If I can get
One good pass in,
They better look out.
♪♪
[ engine idling ]
Quain:
All right.
Listen, everybody.
We got y'all together.
Josh: in 2011, quain stott
Started the southeast gassers.
His strict set of rules,
Making sure that
Every single one of these cars
Are period-correct...
Everybody's stuff's got to
Be legal, 100% legal.
Josh: ...Really limits us
In our opportunities
To improve our speed,
But that'll never stop us.
There's not a racecar driver
Or mechanic out here
That's not looking for that
Extra little bit of horsepower.
♪♪
But the only way to find it
Is by removing the engine
Out of the car,
Hooking it up to the dyno,
And tweaking it.
The guy who knows more
About the tricks to the trade
Than any of us
Is "Carburetor bob,"
And that's my engine
That he's up there redlining.
[ engine revs ]
Carburetor bob:
Okay.
The yellow
Is horsepower,
The blue is the torque
In the engine.
646.4 horsepower is what
That engine just made.
And it did it
At 6,800 rpm.
Josh: wow!
So if you're
Turning it over 7,800,
You're actually
Not accelerating
At the greatest rate
You could.
So now
The two carburetors
Will even give us
More performance.
Carburetor bob can do miracles
When it comes to tweaking
And tuning an engine...
Oh,
That's a beautiful fit.
...Changing the headers,
The carburetors, the intake...
Oh, yeah.
...Anything to improve
The fuel-to-air ratio
And to get you more power.
♪♪
And here we go.
♪♪
[ engine revving ]
That sounds good!
♪♪
Damn,
That sounds good.
My goodness.
You went from there
To [chuckles] there.
You picked up 27 horsepower --
Average.
Josh:
It's way better.
[ laughs ]
[ engine revs ]
♪♪
If you've only drove
Your grandma's car,
If you've never drove
A racecar before,
The chances are you're going to
Barrel-roll the bastard
Right in the wall.
Not to mention they got
A straight axle on them,
So when the front wheels
Come off the ground,
When they land back,
They're liable to go
In any direction.
It's liable to start spinning
Around and around on you,
Go back and forth,
Back and forth.
Anything can happen!
These are some ill-handlin'
Sons of guns,
And if anyone knows about that,
It's barry.
♪♪
Barry's got a very rare car.
He's got a 1965 chevelle
Two-door station wagon.
There was like 1,600 or 1,700
Of 'em ever made.
He put a new engine in it.
It's got more horsepower,
But when he leaves the line,
He's spinning.
He's not getting traction,
He's not taking off,
So now he's changing his tires
To a different brand,
Little bit different compound,
And hoping
That's gonna fix his problem.
Barry: got a couple guys
Gonna be hard to catch.
Got kenneth phillips
And shannon smith.
I did take kenneth out
At alabama.
That helped shannon
A good bit.
I'd like to return the favor now
For kenneth
And take shannon out
One time.
I mean, that's not something
You get to pick, though.
No, you don't get to pick
Who you run.
It may be me
Running one of them boys.
Yeah,
That won't be no problem.
[ laughs ]
Tell you what,
If, just by chance,
It comes down to where
We get to race each other,
I'll bet you
That engine over there
That I'll tear
The tree down
While you're back there
Spinning.
I'd be crazy
Not to take that bet.
What do you want
To bet?
We're all a sucker
For a side bet.
Tell you the truth,
I'm ready to see barry put
His money where his mouth is.
I got
Two trees need cut.
How 'bout trees
Against a motor?
It's on.
♪♪
[ engine idling ]
[ engine shuts off ]
She goes fast,
But she don't stop fast.
[ laughter ]
It ain't got no brakes.
Reese.Reese: yeah.
Come here.
Let me show you a little bit
About the racecars.
I really love having my baby
Girl reese out here with me.
I get to show her
All about racing.
I get to show her the cars.
I get to show her
What it's all about.
Josh: so, this is the engine
Of the car.
This is the intake.
It allows
All that gas
To shoot down inside the motor
Right there.
You want
To sit in it?
Reese loves this racing stuff.
She's about eight years away
From being able to be
A racecar driver herself.
[ engine starts ]
She's got her own
1962 chevy ii already.
Ha ha![ engine revving ]
What do you think
About that?
Loud.
Huh?
It's loud?
[ laughs ]
[ engine shuts off ]
What do you think?
That's the smell of money,
Honey.
♪♪
Hey, tom.
Do I not need brakes
On my racecar?
Tom is one of my race mechanics.
He is a great helper,
But he often misses some details
When he's checking my car --
Like my brakes.
You put these brakes on,
Didn't you?
Of course.
The tom white special.
Yeah, they are.
That's exactly what it is.
I don't know what the hell
Tom's been doing to my car.
[ laughs ]
But doing 130 mile an hour,
No brakes,
What could possibly go wrong?
♪♪
This is the last time
Any of us drivers
Are gonna get to run our cars
Down the track
Before the main race.
It's our last chance to see
If all of our tweaks and tunes
Have paid off.
Look, anything can happen.
I mean,
You could always spin sideways
And hit the wall and cut a flip,
Tear the car all to hell,
Even in practice.
Hopefully, when we rev her down
7,500, 8,000 rpms,
She don't blow the engine
Sky high.
When you pull up down here
To stage,
First thing you do
Is you pull the back tires
And the water box.
You rev it up.
You dump the clutch on it
And let her dig.
You spi-I-n like hell.
When you smoke those tires off,
You're cleaning the tires off
And heating them up,
You're prepping them to
Get ready to run down the track.
Then we get down,
Lined up on the tree,
And that light's
About to change.
So the next thing you got to do
Is be on the gas,
Have it revved up to about
7,500, 8,000 rpms,
And let 'er dig.
Just flying.
It's gonna be a...
"Fightin' forever" round.
Kenneth: I got a problem
With shannon.
He's got to go.
♪♪
[ tires screech ]aah! *bleep*
[ engine idling ]
Josh: right now, I'm 'bout to
Go out and run a practice round.
Right before
That green light hits,
You want to rev your motor up
To about 7,500 rpms,
Drop the hammer on that baby,
And let 'er dig.
[ engine revs ]
You go all through first gear,
Then you hit second gear,
Then you hit third gear,
Then you hit fourth gear --
Never letting off the gas pedal.
♪♪
[ engine shuts off ]
Boy, I screwed up that time.
I missed a gear.
♪♪
I threw it
In the wrong damn gear.
That's not good.
That over-revs the motor.
Now that motor's probably gonna
Have to be tore back down into,
But I cut that tree
Right on the money.
It's hard to do that.
Sorry, y'all.
*bleep* that one up.
Well,
Thing about it is
You gonna have all the people
Looking at you tomorrow
And can't do that tomorrow,
Brother.
Have to buckle up,
Get with it.
[ laughs ]
♪♪
Southeast gassers always runs on
1/8 of a mile drag strip.
It looks like your
Average asphalt, but it's not.
It's got track glue on it.
If I stop moving at all and I
Stand here for a minute or two,
My boots literally glue
To the track.
♪♪
Constantly,
During the entire race,
They'll be prepping the track,
Keeping a close eye
On where it's at.
From one minute to the next,
You might have a good,
Sticky, perfect, tacky track.
Frickin' 30 minutes later,
It might be slicker
Than all get-out.
Even with it being this sticky,
The cars still are ill-handlin',
Do what they want to do,
And any moisture just
Shuts us down altogether.
♪♪
How's everybody doing today?
Man: good.
How you doing?
Yeah,
Good to see y'all.
There you are.
Barry:
How 'bout it, now?
Josh:
What are you doing?
Get these evac tubes
Hooked back up.
You brung your chainsaw
With you,
Or you gonna wait
Till we get back home?
Ha, yeah.
The other day,
When I was in barry's shop,
He was talking all kind
Of mad crap about my racing,
So we decided we were gonna have
A grudge match
During the qualifying round
Of the race.
If I win, I get to take home
That killer engine.
If he wins,
I got to do a whole bunch
Of tree-work around his house.
Might be easier to do it
In qualifying.
That way,
We know we can get to do it.
Later on, we might not
Get to line up together.
All right.
Your mind
Might blow sky high.
Man might
Miss a gear.
I did,
I did.
Man, I can't believe
I missed them gears yesterday.
I was
So embarrassed.
Well,
You know,
The women we got running with
Usually don't do that.
Ha. I hear you, I hear you.[ laughs ]
♪♪
There's absolutely nothing that
Can stop us southeast gassers
From being at the racetrack
On race day --
Well, except for maybe
A missing engine in our car.
♪♪
My buddy ernie,
He races a 1952 henry j car
With a small-block chevy engine.
He is one tireless racer,
And, like me,
He'll do whatever it takes
To burn some rubber
And run his car down the track.
♪♪
Josh: what's going on,
Ernie?
Ernie:
Broke rod.
Oh *bleep*
Let me see that, ernie.
Aw! Man.
She just flew all to pieces,
Didn't she?
Yep.
Won't be nothing happening
For me this weekend.
Really?
I'm done.
Oh, well.
Everybody's got
To drop one race.
Guess I found mine,
Didn't I?
Josh: I got a dirt-track-car
Motor you can put in it.
It's supposed to be
A stock eight engine.
I don't know
How it would do out here.
Will my dirt-track-car motor
Work in his car?
You're not gonna set
The national record.
Let's do it.
Josh:
All right.
My buddy ernie, he's been one of
My competitors all year long.
He's beat me a couple times,
But I would much rather
Have my opponent
Out there racing with me.
That makes it a lot more fun,
And that's what makes the
Southeast gassers what it is.
I'd rather race with him
Than not have him race with me
And kicking my butt.
All right.I think it'll go right there.
He may be
A little bit under-powered,
But he's still gonna get
To go out and make the race.
And let's go race.
♪♪
So, we're just now
Getting in our car,
And as I'm crawling in here,
I frickin' notice that
Somebody's been here
With a magic marker.
It says, "One goes to two,
Two goes to three,
Three goes to four."
This is ridiculous because
I know how to shift gears.
I've been shifting gears
For a long time.
Accidents happen.
This is just him picking on me
At this point in time.
♪♪
[ engine revs ]
♪♪
Josh:
You ready or what?
[ chuckling ] hey.Huh?
How'd testing go?
How'd your testing go?
I don't test.
Hey, shannon,
He's a badass man.
He don't even go out there
And practice.
He just says, "Hell, I'm here.
I got my car fixed.
I don't need to shake it down.
I did it in my driveway.
We're ready to race."
Are you ready?
I guess.
You gonna
Wear 'em out?
I'm here to win.
I don't come to lose.
♪♪
Oh, man. It's raining.
I just saw a raindrop.
It's raining.
You don't see people scattering?
No!
Not chicken.
Go put your cars up.
We gonna ask them in a minute.
Can't race in the rain.
Cuz!
Let's get
The hood on it.
It started raining,
Everybody run like
A bunch of dang drowned rats.
Everybody's running to get
Their carburetors covered up
So they don't get
No water in there.
Come out here, cuz.
Water don't go in carburetors.
That's where the fuel goes --
The fuel and air only.
Water will straight mess one up.
You might as well dump
A handful of dirt in it.
That's good, that's good!
Whoa!
Hopefully, this is gonna go away
Right here,
Because if it don't,
We ain't gonna be racing.
♪♪
Reese: dad,
Can I start it?
Absolutely,
You can.
You ready? Do it.
Yeah.
[ engine starts, revs ]
Yeah!
It has been a *bleep* show
With rain.
But the rain finally stopped,
And the tracks have been dried.
Finally,
We're lining up to race.
♪♪
Every car that's out here
To race tonight
Is out here right now,
But before we can start racing,
We have to run
A qualifying round just like
They did back in the '60s.
This is my chance for barry
To see who has the fastest ride
And for me to go home
With my new engine.
Oh, hell.
I hope I scald the dog.
I want
That damn engine.
Kid,
It's about to get real.
That's barry over there.
His motor's
Probably worth a little bit more
Than this tree-work,
So I know he's confident,
But I'm hoping to kick his butt.
God dog!
Whoo!
My window's fogging up!
I can't see *bleep*
♪♪
Josh: here we are
At the carolina dragway
In north carolina,
And the rain has just about
Cost us today's race.
Right now we're in
The qualifying round,
And I'm finally gonna
Get to race barry.
Hopefully, I'll get to
Bring home a new engine.
Man: put something over it
Until you run.
Now, see, if anything
Falls on it, it help dries.
Because of all this rain,
There's more moisture
In the air,
So people's windows
Are fogging up,
The track's getting slicker,
And that could become
A really big problem.
All right. I'm ready.
The anxiety of this,
Of being out here,
Makes me want to throw up
Because you know
You're all out here
About to go to war,
And you never know
What's gonna happen next.
He getting those wheels
Up off the ground.
Good run right there.
[ engine revving ]
Josh: cuz!
My window's fogging up.
It's bad.
Trying to stop it.
I can't see *bleep*
My nerves
Are tore up, cuz.
All right.
It's about to get real.
Make it or break it
At this point.
It's like everything in the
World may be happening to you,
Running through your mind,
A million thoughts.
But when you get up there
To that tree
And you cut on that first light,
It don't matter
If bombs are going off.
You are clued into that tree.
It's like tunnel vision,
And all you can think about
Is that light bulb
About to fade out.
[ shouts indistinctly ]
John:
He did good for a minute there,
And then that other car
Just run off and left him.
Didn't beat him by much.
John: watch out.
Here comes your daddy.
Get over
By uncle john.
I get some free trees.
[ engine revs ]
Ha ha!
Hey, at least I didn't
Swap gears tonight, huh?
[ laughs ]
I guess I'll bring
The chainsaws over next week.
I'll see you saturday.
Bring the saws.
God dog! It was that close
In the beginning.
Was it?
In the beginning!I didn't see you.
In the eighth of a mile, I was
Doing 106.59 miles an hour.
He was doing 119.12.
That was just qualifying round.
Now comes the real thing,
And if I can't do no better
Than frickin' 106 miles an hour,
I better go pack my lunch.
Hey!
Break a leg
The rest of the evening.
Gonna try to.Yeah, just not yours.
Right.
Somebody else's.
♪♪
All of us racers
Are gathered up
To find out who's racing who
In the first round.
Whatever our qualifying times
Are will determine the outcome.
Kenneth is really hoping
That his qualifying time
Will match him up
Against shannon
So he can race him early on
In the night.
If I get him out first round,
I'll be good.
From here on,
It'll be real interesting.
Quain:
Qualifying list is in.
Shannon smith was
The number-one qualifier,
But since there's an odd number
Of cars at 17,
He's got a bye run.
Gabriel burrell,
You're gonna have earl mclemore.
Barry lynn,
You got troy lightener.
Josh owens, robert frazier.
Donovan stott, todd oden.
Alan gaulden, ernie smith.
Justin moses, chase howard.
Steve davis, ben christopher.
Kenneth phillips, tony turner.
Now, listen, guys.
Y'all know I'm not all for
This betting stuff,
But if you gonna do it,
You're on your own.
If you want to bet, bet.
Josh: a lot of us guys
Like to place side bets
Just to raise the stakes.
Troy, $100.
$100?
I'll tell you what,
We'll do double or nothing.
Did you ever get beat
By a geriatric?
Ooh.
[ laughs ]
Ernie: where's that
Frequent flyer corvette?
I got $100 that says
I'm about to wear it out.
Josh: a lot of us have rivalries
That go way back.
Robert:
I got $100 on it.
$100.
Well, here, just go ahead
And let me have that $100,
And I'll put it
In my pocket.
Frazier,
He's a good buddy of mine.
We've run
Neck and neck.
We've had
A rivalry going on.
Oh, man.
1-1.
May the best man win.
♪♪
Josh:
Hey, quain.
What's the story?
Quain:
Ernie's pulling up.
This is my engine coming
Right here.
Dirt motor in ernie's car?Yep.
Well,
I knew he blew an engine.
I didn't know
Where he got one from.
That's how
He got back in action.
With your engine,
Think he outrun by alan.
That 331 small block
Is bad news.
There ain't no way them dirt
Motors [chuckles] can outrun it.
Well, let's see.
Yeah, we'll find out here
In just a second.
[ engines revving ]
♪♪
Announcer: man, what a great
Drag race that was.
Ernie: well, we gave him
All he wanted.
We had $100 riding on it,
We both wanted the money,
And right there, about 10 feet
Short of the finish line,
He drove by me.
The old dirt-track motor
Did a lot better
Than what we ever expected.
I mean,
That frequent flyer car,
That one's one of the fastest
Dudes out here,
And if he wants to try it again
At the next race,
I've got another $100.
We'll do it again.
Josh:
Here comes barry and troy,
And I guarantee you
Barry is gonna scald the dog.
I think I'm gonna take troy
On this one.
Troy is hungry
For a win.
He better be
Starving to death
'cause barry's got
His act together.
He pulled off
And left me
Like I was sitting still
A while ago.
♪♪
Barry: I won.
We left pretty much together.
He had a slight lead leaving,
And then I was able
To get around him.
New tires seemed to work good.
Hey, we done good.
It was a good race,
But I just don't think
I had enough for barry tonight.
I lost $200
And got some hurt feelings.
Shannon: we all friends
Till we get to the line.
And you get to the line...
Whoo!...You don't have no friends.
♪♪
♪♪
Josh: we're here at the carolina
Dragway in north carolina,
Where the best of the drivers
Of the southeast gassers
Are battling it out.
We're in round 1, and the race
Is just getting heated up.
♪♪
Quain: looks like next
Is tom and donovan.
I love donovan's car.
What kind of car is that?
I can't ever remember.
It's a '48 anglia.Anglia.
That be
An english ford.
They're good racecars,
But they handle so bad.
[ engines idling ]
[ engines revving ]
[ cheers and applause ]
♪♪
God dog!
He just about tore the wall down
On both sides.
Man,
I'm telling you what --
Did you see that kid
Drive out of there?
He was backing
Into the wall,
And as the car's
Going backwards,
He steps
On the throttle.
You could see the grass flying
Up where he was spinning --
That's natural reaction time
Right there, man.
That just had to happen.Yeah.
That slipping
And sliding
I think's
Because of the rain and all,
And now
The track's getting cold,
And they dry
The track,
But once that water
Gets on the rubber,
It just kind of
Made things touchy.
[ engine revving ]
♪♪
All right.
We're coming.
♪♪
Coming up now,
That's robert frazier and josh.
You know, it's a toss-up
Between these two every time,
So I think this is gonna be
A killer race.
Whoo!
♪♪
[ engines revving ]
[ tires screech ]
Whoo!
Once again,
I cut a really good light.
How'd you do,
Daddy?
Every race I've been in,
I've busted 'em at the tree,
And with me
Cutting a better light,
I should've had more horsepower
And been able to take off
And outrun him and leave him.
In a few years,
That's gonna be you out there.
And I'm gonna be too old
To do it,
And I'm gonna be walking up here
With my cane...
[ giggles ]
...Going,
"Go, reese, go!"
Josh: there he is
Right there!
Get over here!
Man, I can't believe
You just won that $100.
I ain't got $100 yet.
I see how it is.Let's go, yeah.
Next time, it's $200.200 bucks.
I'm going to work on my car.You bet. You need to.
I know it.
♪♪
Didn't take long
For you to get finished.
Wait a minute.
I tore the tree down, quain.
Left the starting line --
It fell on its face.
It fell on its face
'cause you shifted late.
You was past the power band
When you put it in second gear.
We're gonna have to go back
To work on the car.
[ chuckles ]
No, you got to shift.
♪♪
I think round 1 is about over
'cause this is the last pair,
Kenneth and tony,
Pulling up now.
I don't know how the hell
That's gonna work out,
'cause tony's not
In the best shape.
I'm tony turner.
I drive the "Quick n dirty."
And broken foot or not,
I'm racing tonight.
Kenneth: I'm racing tony turner
In the quick n dirty.
Me and him's got a $100 bet
On which one take that now.
Tony ain't got a chance.
So, they modified this gas pedal
So that I can get the cast
In there.
It normally has a hook
That comes over the top so that
If the throttle was to stick,
You could pull the gas.
But since I can't do that,
If the throttle were to stick,
I can shove this,
Which will close the throttle.
[ engines revving ]
[ tires screech ]
♪♪
Kenneth put me on the trailer.
All that work
That we did on the pedals
Seemed to work pretty good
In the pits,
But when you actually
Get on the starting line
And you smash that thing,
That really hurt.
Hurt a lot more than I thought.
[ chuckles ]
Shannon: kenneth's flying,
So hopefully we get him tonight.
It's gonna be a...
"Fightin' forever" round.
♪♪
Well, josh,
We're down to nine cars.
Shannon
And kenneth's strong,
But I believe barry,
With his new engine, man,
He might be fittin' to win
His first ever
Southeast gasser race
Right here tonight.
I'd like to see it.
He'll be tough.
♪♪
Here comes barry
And earl mclemore
In the little
Morris miner.
What kind of damn car
Is that, anyway?
[ chuckles ]
I don't know.
It's a little
Old something,
But it is only like
89-inch wheelbase.
Never even seen --
That thing is a handful.
He's a fan favorite
Because it handles so bad.
Earl's crazy.
He won't let off.
He'll push it to the end,
I guarantee you --
No matter what.
[ engines revving ]
♪♪
Golly!
Quain,
Did you see that?
I told you that thing
Handled bad!
It hit the grass,
Never lifted the damn throttle.
He was slipping and sliding
All the way down through there.
Yeah, I told you
That short-wheelbase car
Was hard to handle.
He's crazy.
There he is
Right there.
Josh: kenneth has been trying
To race shannon all night,
But so far, he's had no luck
Lining up against him.
Kenneth: you got shannon
Next round.
You think
We can take him out?
I think we can.
Robert, who just took me
Out of the running,
Now has the chance to do
The same thing to shannon.
I'll get him
On the tree
And get out on him
And stay out in front of him.
He's got to go.
Look at me.
[ laughs ]
Nervous, baby.
That's it.
I know it.
Thank you,
Man.
Love you,
Baby.
Love you, too. Mwah!Mwah!
Man: all right, robert.
Here we go.
Here we go.
[ laughs ]
[ engines idling ]
♪♪
[ engines revving ]
Shannon:
Just beat "Black & blue,"
But that pass was not good.
We're .3 off our mark.
Well, I bogged it,
But something's wrong
With the clutch or something
Because it feels funky.
Yeah, the strategy now
Is to basically figure out
What's wrong with the clutch,
May readjust the carburetors,
And hopefully get ahold
Of this track.
This next round could
Take us out pretty easy, yeah.
♪♪
Josh: we're about two hours
Into this madness,
And most of the racers
Already got their cars
Back on the trailer.
We're in round 3,
And this battle is getting
More heated by the minute.
Kenneth:
I will end up racing shannon.
I was hoping "Black & blue,"
Robert frazier,
Can take him out,
But it didn't happen,
So it'll come down
To me and him,
And I can beat him tonight.
Josh: I know kenneth
Wants to take shannon out,
But he may not ever
Even get a chance.
My good buddy barry,
Who's been blowing the doors off
Of everybody tonight,
Is about to line up
Against shannon,
And it's very possible that
He'll put him on the trailer.
♪♪
Shannon: we all friends
Till we get to the line.
And you get to the line to race,
You don't have no friends.
[ engines revving ]
[ tires screeching ]
[ engine revving ]
Josh: look at this,
Look at this!
Look at this thing!
I ain't never seen
Nothing like that right there.
[ laughs ] god dog.
This guy has got
One crazy-looking car.
Ha ha!
I don't even know
How to describe the interior.
It almost look like
Some frickin' middle-aged dude's
Dyed hair
Frickin' hanging off the roof.
That's a crazy ride,
Man.
Frickin' this high
Off the ground,
And it looks like a drag car,
But that's nowhere near
What a real gasser is.
And that car honestly
Gives people the wrong idea.
♪♪
[ tires screeching ]
Josh:
We're all here
At the carolina dragway
In north carolina,
Anticipating the last race in
Round 3 -- barry versus shannon.
The fate of who moves on to the
Semifinals rests upon this race.
♪♪
[ engines revving ]
[ tires screeching ]
♪♪
[ indistinct shouting ]
♪♪
Barry:
Oh, my god.
♪♪
[ siren wailing ]
When I went through the lights,
I knew we had won.
I saw our win light, but I saw
The ambulance lights come on.
That's when I knew
Something had happened.
Just praying he's okay,
You know?
Barry.
Let them look at you
In the ambulance.
Yeah.
Kenneth:
Barry was running shannon,
And he got over in the grass
And got loose.
I thought he was gonna
Bring it back out,
And when he come back out,
I'm assuming he hit the asphalt,
And then it started
Flipping him over.
♪♪
I think he tore it up
Pretty good.
I thought he was gonna save it
For a minute.
He had it saved till
That last little [screeches]
And then
It was all she wrote.
He just should of got out of it
A little sooner.
He was fighting it.
He was trying to get
To the finish line.
This is a reminder to me
Of what could happen every time
I crawl behind that seat.
[ straining ]
God bless america!
[ normal voice ]
He probably hit that wall
Running somewhere between
60 and 80 miles an hour.
Hell, yeah.
Scared me to death.
Now do you see why I feel like
I'm about to go to war?
Because you are.
One of you might die.
♪♪
Do you want to go
To the hospital?
We certainly
Don't mind taking you.
Woman: that's what
We're here for.
I appreciate that,
But nah.
All right, hon.
I'm gonna let you go.
♪♪
Big step.
All right?
All right, dear.
You take care.
Right now the most important
Thing of all this
Is that
My good friend barry's okay.
Boy,
You scared me to death.
The car can be replaced.
He can't.
I've got two more just like it,
So between the three,
We'll build another.
Yeah, yeah. Anytime
You walk away, you're good.
♪♪
[ indistinct conversations ]
It's done got
Colder than crap out here.
Quain's done called
The race off.
That means the damn track's
Getting too slick to race on.
We got a three-way tie.
That's very unusual.
Quain:
Okay, guys.
Tonight, we got three winners.
We realized the track
Was just too slick to race on.
There's no way
We could run this race
After what happened to barry,
So what we decided to do
Is take the three cars
That were left in.
We're gonna split the money
Three ways.
You guys are just gonna have to
Wait to see who's the baddest
'cause we can't
Run this race tonight.
I mean,
They called the thing off.
You know, I get it,
But at the same time,
I want to race kenneth.
This between me and shannon,
It's not over.
It's just the beginning.
There gonna be another race,
And he's going down.
Josh:
This has been an ongoing feud
Between shannon and kenneth,
And I bet you
They're gonna be dying
To get back out on the track to
See who the best of the best is.
♪♪