McFarland Wins $50,000 Autoland Door Car Challenge at Byron Dragway

McFarland, Kruse, Hastings, Zimmerman, Ince Jr., and Liss collect wins at the Autoland Door Car Challenge at Byron Dragway.

Byron, Illinois – Randy McFarland of Fargo, North Dakota, captured the $50,000 top prize at the Autoland Door Car Challenge at Byron Dragway. Randy Weller of Edwardsville, Illinois, was the runner-up in the prestigious race, earning a $7,500 payout for his final-round appearance.

The well-attended all-door-car bracket race saw a mix of local and out-of-state drivers find success over the course of the weekend.

Doug Kruse of nearby Rockford, Illinois, captured the $10,000 warm-up race victory to open the weekend. Nick Engler of Becker, Minnesota, earned a $1,500 payout as the warm-up race runner-up.

Like a case of déjà vu, Nick Hastings of Shelby, Ohio, swept both $15,000-to-win races on Friday and Sunday. Brett Williamson of Rockford and Brian Folk of Durand, Illinois, finished runner-up to Hastings on Friday and Sunday, respectively, earning $3,000 each. Folk also picked up a $250 bonus as part of event sponsor Autoland Outlets’ Big Money Bracket Racing Contingency Program.

Grant Zimmerman of Pekin, Illinois, won the “King of Byron” winner-takes-all race on Friday, earning a $5,000 payout over runner-up Nick Folk of Durand. An additional gamblers race to conclude Friday evening saw Bobby Ince Jr. of Kewanee, Illinois, take the final-round win over Stephen Liss of Elgin, Illinois.

Liss also found success Saturday night, driving the Johnny DiPiazza-owned Vega to the Quick 16 race win over Tommy DiPiazza in a freshly restored Firebird, raced in memory of Jerry DiPiazza, patriarch of the DiPiazza racing family.

A true crowd pleaser, Jeff Jaquish of Mount Pleasant, Wisconsin, earned a free entry into the 2027 Autoland Door Car Challenge as part of a wheelstand contest with his hard-launching Chevy S-10.

Congratulations to all winners and finalists from the Autoland Door Car Challenge at Byron Dragway.

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