Bruce Thrift celebrates his win at the 2009 Moser Axlemania Sportsman Showdown!
After months and months of anticipation leading up to Saturday’s Moser Axle-Mania Sportsman Shootout this weekend at U.S. 131 Motorsports Park, Bruce Thrift (Waycross, Ga.) made what will without a doubt go down as the easiest $22,500 he will ever make in his life.
Going head-to-head with Scott Macy (Randleman, N.C.) in the final of Saturday’s Moser Axle-Mania Shootout, Thrift had all of the butterflies one would expect in knowing that a win or a loss would be the difference in $15,000 in his pocket.
But after staging the car and preparing himself for the most profitable ride of his life, all of the pressure was immediately lifted when he saw the red light come on in Macy’s lane.
At that point, all Thrift had to do was cruise to the other end at a lazy 6.320 seconds at 78.06 miles per hour in the eighth mile to take home his share of the $51,000 in prize money up for grabs Saturday night.
“He was going for the throat. We were fixing to have a drag race, but he just pushed it a little too close,” Thrift said, moments after letting out a yell of excitement. “It wasn’t easy, that was some hard earned money. But when I saw that, I just lifted and eased on through.”
Bruce Thrift Competing at Moser Axlemania
Thrift, behind the wheel of his ’96 Beretta Top Sportsman machine, was one of three door cars in the semifinals of Saturday’s shootout, with Greg Slack’s dragster being the odd man out. Glenn Ferguson was the other semifinalist during Saturday’s showdown.
Thrift was matched up with Macy in his ’78 Volare Stock machine in the final in a matchup of one of the fastest sportsman categories versus one of the slowest.
In the final Thrift had a dial of 4.86 seconds, but he didn’t need to worry himself with those numbers when Macy lit the red bulb by a few thousandths of a second to hand the win to the 50-year-old Georgia native in a race that included many of the best in business today.
“You can’t take any of them lightly. For any of them to get here, they didn’t just wake up and get here,” Thrift said. “They earned their spot just as I did.”
With the victory Thrift pocketed a cool $22,500, while Macy received $7,500 in the runner-up spot.
