{"id":89618,"date":"2023-09-22T18:18:42","date_gmt":"2023-09-22T18:18:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/drag-racing\/uncategorized\/late-bracket-racer-honored-through-inaugural-sean-serra-memorial-drag-race\/"},"modified":"2023-09-22T18:18:42","modified_gmt":"2023-09-22T18:18:42","slug":"late-bracket-racer-honored-through-inaugural-sean-serra-memorial-drag-race","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/drag-racing\/uncategorized\/late-bracket-racer-honored-through-inaugural-sean-serra-memorial-drag-race\/","title":{"rendered":"Late Bracket Racer Honored Through Inaugural Sean Serra Memorial Drag Race"},"content":{"rendered":"

On the weekend of June 9-11, bracket racers converged on Darlington Dragway to pay tribute to one of the sport\u2019s brightest young talents at the inaugural Sean Serra Memorial Drag Race. Over $139,000 in total payouts was up for grabs across three days of racing, but more than anything, racers were there to remember and honor Serra, who was killed in a car accident in July of 2022. He was 27.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

[Editor\u2019s Note: This story originally appeared in DI #183, the Sportsman Special Issue, in July\/August of 2023.]<\/em><\/p>\n

The race was a production of Big Block Promotions, which includes Sean\u2019s older brother, Jeff, as well as Jamie Sarracco and Kyle Cultrera. In a nod to Serra\u2019s competition number, 139P, Friday\u2019s race paid $13,900 to win, while Saturday and Sunday both paid $20,000 to win.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\n

Racing was off to a slow albeit fun start on Thursday with the Over Kill Motorsports Golf Cart Showdown, which saw Stephen \u201cChamp\u201d McCrory get the win.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Footbrakers Jake Clayton and Jeff Krushinskie picked up the \u201cHeavy\u201d wins on Friday and Saturday, respectively, earning a $500 bonus and a spot in the Super Pro portions of the event.<\/span><\/p>\n

In a door car versus dragster final round, Virginia\u2019s Steve Witherow raced to victory in Friday\u2019s L&L Transmission & Axle Services $13,900 race, with runner-up honors going to Thomas Bell in his wheelstanding Chevy S10. They were separated by five thousandths at the starting line, then Witherow laid down a 4.465 on a 4.46 dial-in to beat Bell\u2019s 5.731 on a 5.73 dial-in by .0005.\u00a0 Jamie Holston was the lone semifinalist.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Witherow was understandably emotional in his winner\u2019s circle interview. Both Serra brothers have driven for him over the years, so it was fitting that he won the $13,900 race. \u201cThis means a lot. It really does,\u201d Witherow said in his interview with announcer Ryan Gleghorn. \u201cI miss Sean. I\u2019m glad I came through. He was riding with me all day.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Friday night\u2019s action concluded with a 280 MPH blast down the track by Dawn Perdue in the \u201cWicked Sinsation\u201d Jet Dragster.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It was a dragster versus S10 final round yet again on Saturday for the FuelTech $20,000 race. Cory Gulitti was .002 off the line in his dragster, then ran a 4.459 on a 4.43 dial-in to beat Turtle Brannon\u2019s 5.046 on a 5.03 dial-in. Jeff Dobbins II and Hayden Lambert were the semifinalists.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m speechless,\u201d Gulitti said. \u201cI\u2019ve had the most lucky rounds today that I\u2019ve ever had. This thing has fought me pretty hard the last week or so, but thankfully, with the help of Bug McCarty, my parents, and Chris Wilson, we\u2019ve got this thing turned around and it\u2019s on kill. It\u2019s proven itself because it\u2019s a lot better than me right now.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The on-track competition wasn\u2019t limited to bracket racing. Racers smoked out the starting line in the Hubbard Heating & Cooling Burnout Battle, with Bug McCarty and Jason Rich named co-champs by the time it was over.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Donovan Williams earned the inaugural Sean Serra Memorial Drag Race Berserker MVP Award by winning the most competition rounds throughout the weekend. He outlasted Steve Witherow and Cory Gulitti to pick up a custom painted helmet provided by Champs Performance and Schuster Paint Works.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Rain brought racing to a hold during Sunday\u2019s third round, and the rest of eliminations was eventually cancelled due to the weather. Though the weekend came to an end earlier than planned, racers walked away grateful for the opportunity to pay tribute to Sean.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThanks Kyle, Jamie, and the countless others who made this a successful first event,\u201d Jeff Serra said. \u201cIt definitely gave us a different perspective and respect for the ones who organize races each week. Look forward to doing it again in 2024.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

McCrory, winner of the Thursday golf cart race, shared his post-race thoughts on Facebook, saying, \u201cThe Sean Serra Memorial Drag Race was the most fun and most well-ran race I\u2019ve been to in a long time! Got lucky on Thursday and won the golf cart race. Didn\u2019t do much on the track after that, unfortunately. Did get lucky and get some of the rainout split on Sunday. Great job Jeff Serra, Kyle Cultrera, Jamie Sarracco! Can\u2019t wait for the next one! We love and miss you down here, Sean, but even your memory is still making our world a more fun place.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

MVP Donovan Williams<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

The post Late Bracket Racer Honored Through Inaugural Sean Serra Memorial Drag Race<\/a> first appeared on Drag Illustrated | Drag Racing News, Opinion, Interviews, Photos, Videos and More<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On the weekend of June 9-11, bracket racers converged on Darlington Dragway to pay tribute to one of the sport\u2019s brightest young talents at the inaugural Sean Serra Memorial Drag Race. Over $139,000 in total payouts was up for grabs across three days of racing, but more than anything, racers were there to remember and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-89618","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89618","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=89618"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89618\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89618"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89618"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89618"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}