Drag Illustrated Issue 153, February 2020 | Page 47

DIALED IN Turkey Beach Bash Southeast bracket racers gobble up over $40,000 at inaugural Gulfport Dragway event  By Van Abernethy W hen race promoter Gaylon Rolison Jr. wanted to put together a pre-Thanksgiving race at his lo- cal Gulfport Dragway in Gulfport, Mississippi, he knew that timing was crucial since most folks clear their calendar to be with family on Thanksgiving. He figured that a gathering of bracket racers competing for big purses would be a success in November and penciled it in the week before Thanksgiving, which turned out to be a huge success, for the appropriately named inaugural Turkey Beach Bash, a proposed one-off event that Rolison says is already on the schedule for February 2020 2020 due to the fantastic turnout. For Rolison, the infrastructure was really al- ready in place when you consider the steadfast support from local racers who compete in the King of the Coast series, which Rolison co-found- ed in 2005 and now operates with his wife, Jen- nifer, and their daughters, Morgan and Kendall. For a brand-new event such as this to work, Rolison says he knew his core racers from King of the Coast would have to come out and support it, and they didn’t disappoint. “We opened this race for pre-entry on July 1st, and we were full all the way up till this weekend. It sold out pretty quickly,” says Rolison. DragIllustrated.com | D r a g I l l u s t r a t e d | 47