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ROB VANDERGRIFF AND CHARLES CARPENTER NAMED GRAND MARSHALS

Rob VandergriffandCharles Carpenterwere the kings of what was known back then as the shoe box wars. The Tri Five Chevys (and all big cars) were given the name shoe box because they were so big and looked like a box. In the 80's and 90's the question on every gear heads mind was, wonder who has the fastest Tri Five Chevy in the world. Every race track in the country was begging to bookthese guys for a match race because the fans poured in every where they went. They even fought it out with each other on the national event circuit all over the country.

In the early 70's Carpenter bought the XNed Cherry's Hot Stuff 55 Chevy gassers and raced it until the early 1980's when he up dated it to a light weight pro car. Then in the mid 80's Long time drag racer Robbie Vandergriff teamed up with Jim Bryant and built a trick state of the art 57 Chevy from scratch. That's when the war started, both cars were super quick so the battle was on to see who was the baddest between the two. Things heated up even more in 1984 when Carpenter laid claim to the first Shoe box in history to make a 7 second 1/4 mile pass. ~Quain

This battle went on for years and years as they both stepped up their game by building better state of the art cars and passing the crown back and forth over the years. With Rob now retired from racing and Charles still heavily involved we want to look back to the day when both these guys were hero's to all drag racing gear heads by honoring them as our Grand Marshals November 2nd atShadyside Dragwayin Shelby NC during theSoutheast Gassers Association race.