Symphony of Destruction: Chevy Silverado Tackles ‘Day of Destruction’
Scarborough, Maine’s Beech Ridge Motor Speedway hosted a day full of roasted tires, near misses, and lots of Chevy and GMC truck racing.
It’s just human nature to want to go fast. It doesn’t matter what you do it on or in. People race horses, bicycles, boats, and even tractors. Of course, cars are a big part of automotive racing, but so are trucks, whether they’re out blasting through the desert or roaring down a drag strip. Recently, some owners of Chevrolet and GMC pickups lit up the Beech Ridge Motor Speedway up in Scarborough, Maine, during the “Day of Destruction” event.
According to Beech Ridge’s site, the Day of Destruction is “a jam-packed night of crash-thirsty drivers bending metal and defying danger” in events such as Ramp Races, Donut Dashes, the Burn-out Bonanza, and what you see here, Spectator Drags. A drove of Chevy and GMC truck owners, as well as some Ford loyalists, showed up to battle each other in one-lap races around the 1/3-mile oval course at this year’s contest. Their rigs ranged in age, body style, and engine, but the all of the drivers were after the same thing: the $500 grand prize.
There was a definite strength in numbers. The two Ford trucks didn’t fare well at all. The driver of the high-riding white and tan Super Duty timed their start well, but they just couldn’t get traction and ended up getting left behind by a low-slung black Silverado SS. As if that weren’t bad enough, they also got a ribbing from the announcer. “Diesel power in the big white one. Got to get the RPMs up. It’ll only take him two laps to do it, though,” he said. A little later, an extended-cab Ranger got walked by a ferocious blue square-body Chevy.
Many of the GM enthusiasts brought two-door short-bed trucks, probably thinking their smaller size and lighter weight would be an advantage. It often was. A white Silverado easily took the lead against a 1991 extended-cab truck. “Put it in fourth gear there, black truck, will you?,” the announcer asked, clearly frustrated by the larger truck’s slow pace. The older square-body trucks were particularly quick, although their unladen beds could’ve benefited from some ballast. One of them got so sideways that they went off the track. Luckily, they recovered from the spin, which could’ve ended in absolute disaster. It took quick reflexes to correct that wrong move. Just participating in the event required a certain mental state. “You don’t have to be crazy to do this, but it helps,” the announcer said.
Despite the success of the smaller trucks, the two final races for the prize money were between the black Ford-beating Silverado SS and a white Duramax-powered GMC Sierra crew cab. At the start of the first of the best-two-out-of-three runs, the Sierra driver launched hard and took the inside left, leaving a thick cloud of black smoke in its wake. After the halfway point of the track, he cranked hard on the wheel, trying to keep the Silverado SS from slipping past him. It proved to be too much too late. He spun out, allowing the Chevy to cross the line first.
Both trucks started the second round relatively even. Once the black Chevy took the inside line, though, it was the beginning of the end for the GMC. It swung wide on the final curve and the Silverado SS drove to victory and a $500 reward. Judging by the burnout its owner performed afterward, it’s safe to assume he ended up spending that on new tires.
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