Cultrera Finds First Fall Fling Win on Wednesday

Wednesday’s Fall Fling winner, Kyle Cultrera, picked up $15,000 while Gary Williams earned his second consecutive runner up at GALOT.

DUNN, NC – FST Wednesday opened up to cloudy skies but the racing continued all day. Today’s schedule called for a $15,000-to-win race and as of this morning, 396 racers came through the gate to compete. One possibly unique feature to this event was the use of special numbers for each entrant, each with the Fling logo watermarked within.

“One of the problems in the tower revolves around the various style car numbers an actually where the computer operator is situated,” said co-promoter Pete Biondo. “The computer operator then has to decipher the different styles and input them into the computer for each run. Kyle [co-promoter Seipel] and I chose to have car number stickers made for each entrant. The numbers were all a standard size and shape making it very easy for the computer operator to read. It’s actually has been done before at certain NHRA Bracket Finals for much the same reason.”

Biondo personally greeted each racer at the front gate and once the concept was explained, each one of them welcomed the effort in order to have the event run even smoother than it already does. “I can’t thank the racers enough for their cooperation in this,” added Biondo. “It definitely made the tower run so much smoother.” 

One time run was allotted for all with this being the last time run scheduled for the rest of the week. From here on in, only new entrants would be allotted a time run. Everyone else goes right into eliminations for Thursday, Friday and Saturday’s races.

Ladies and Gentlemen, Start Your Engines

Following the time run, a word of grace, singing of the greatest song in America, the Star Spangled Banner, and racing was on. What started at 12:20 in the afternoon, by the hour of 8 we were down to 14 drivers left for the ladder round; Colby Fuller, Stace Shrawder, Noah Carpenter, Bennie Ulmer, Gary Williams, Tracey Wiggins, Mark Siegel, Greg Duffield, Kevin Brannon, Holden Dial, Shane Maddox, Kyle Cultrera, Jamie Holton, and Stephen McCrory.

Round six and the survivors were Wiggins, Maddox, Duffield, Brannon, Cultrera, Williams, and Fuller. With seven cars left in the quarterfinals, a .003 reaction time by Fuller with give him the bye into the semifinals.

Foul Starts A Plenty

Quarters and first up was Williams versus Duffield with Duffield turning it red to advance “G-Dub” Williams. Maddox faced off with Cultrera and Maddox also turned on the red-light advancing Cultrera.

Brannon and Wiggins and again, the red-light bit Wiggins. With Fuller taking his bye run, according to the ladder, it makes the semifinals a door cars versus door car and dragster versus dragster match up, guaranteeing a door car versus dragster final round.

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Semifinals and Final Round Action

First up for the semis and Fuller ran under his dial to advance Williams who was coming off a runner-up performance in last night’s Dragster Shootout. Next up was Brannon and Cultrera, a double run-under affair with Cultrera getting the win light.

For the final, Cultrera had lane choice and chose to move over the left lane forcing Williams out of his preferred lane. When the ‘Tree turned green, it was Williams with a .002 reaction time but a run-out by .003 handed Cultrera his first Fling win.

Moser Engineering Thursday opens up tomorrow with the first of two $25,000-to-win races. The action will continue to be streamed live by MotorManiaTV thanks to Hoosier Tires and JEGS sponsorship. For all info and results, visit The Flings’ website here.

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Check out Tuesday’s Fall Fling results by clicking here.