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Every October, fans flock to Byron Dragway to watch the World Power Wheelstand Competitions where racers bring their cars out and compete to have the most crowd pleasing wheelstand of the day. Each year, racers hope to walk away as the overall event winner but there are numerous awards given away each season — best overall, longest, highest, most photogenic, most unique and last but not least, most violent.
‘Hollywood’ Wes Newman of El Dorado, IL came to Byron to shoot for the overall event winner status — but his solid green ’68 Chevrolet Camaro had other ideas. After warming up the supercharged engine tucked between the frame rails, Newman was ready for his first shot at the track. During his burnout, Newman lost control of the car and tagged the wall with the right hand side of the vehicle, scratching up the body but not causing enough damage to abort the pass.
Each and every year, you get to see shots like this at Byron Dragway during the Power Wheelstand Championships!
After backing up and getting lined up back in the groove, Newman mashed the loud pedal on the blown injected Camaro and was along for the ride — straight to the rear bumper it goes, the left side catches the concrete, and kicks the car off towards the right retaining wall. Newman lets out of the gas and the Camaro comes barreling back down to Earth in a direct manner, damaging the front suspension on the vehicle.
Most would be out of contention for the second and final round, but not Newman — he was a man on a mission. He persevered through, fixed the front end, came back and hammered another 330 foot burnout, laying down more hot rubber to back up into.
With the capacity crowd on its feet, Newman turned loose of the transbrake on his final pass and his Hollywood Trucking Camaro went straight to the rear bumper, lifting all four rear tires off the ground and unloading the suspension. He kept his foot planted into the firewall, keeping wheelspeed up so as soon as the tires touched back to the Byron Dragway concrete, it went into tire smoke, sending the car off to the right in mid-air and crashing down to the ground hard — damaging the front end once again.
Newman's second and final pass, all four tires off the ground and then a hard landing with more front suspension damage and sparks flying out from the undercarriage of the Chevrolet Camaro.
This wild wheelstand landed Wes Newman the most violent award at the 21st Annual Power Wheelstanding Championships at Byron Dragway in Illinois!
Video Credit: victoryredcolorado
