Hixson resident Ron Lane, owner of Ron’s Classic Cars in Soddy-Daisy, won $20,000 in a classic drag race this past Saturday at Memphis International Raceway. He was the runner-up in his Miller rear-end dragster in the Great American Bracket Race, which annually attracts more than 350 drivers from throughout the United States and Canada “to see who the best of the best is,” said the 53-year-old Lane. He considers drag racing “a side hobby” but among other accomplishments won the Million Dollar Race in Memphis eight years ago.
* Charlie Hardy from Rome, Ga., was the $5,000 winner in the Super Pro drag-race class Saturday night at Brainerd Motorsports Park. Hardy won the 69-entry class with a 6.65-second run on a 6.64 dial in his 1978 Malibu powered by a 468-cubic-inch Chevrolet engine. Denise Young of Knoxville, the only woman in the class, was second in a 601 Chevy-powered dragster with a 4.49 burst on a 4.49 dial at 145 mph. Tony Brock of Barbourville, Ky., won the Foot Brake class with a 6.27 run on a 6.25 dial in a 1970 Camaro. The son-father combo of David and L.C. Bigham were second and third, David with a 7.85 on a 7.81 in his 1969 Dodge Dart and L.C. with a 9.75 on a 9.74 in a 1978 Plymouth. Logan Grayson of Murfreesboro was the Junior Dragster winner with an 8.73 on an 8.71, and his cousin from Whitwell, Cole Grayson, was second with an 8.68 on an 8.63.
Tennis
* The Chattanooga 3.5 men’s 65-over tennis team won the USTA state championship this past weekend in Memphis with a 6-0 record that included only two individual match losses. Captain Tom McCullough and fellow players Richard Campbell, Paul Brown, John Blake, Earl Hereford, Gary Shields, Tom Carter and Tommy Alexander earned a spot in the Southern Sectionals Dec. 1-3 at Hilton Head, S.C.
Soccer