That initial test session resulted in a .992 60-foot time the very first time Mauney hit the throttle in earnest and the day ended with a 3.98 on an early shut-off pass. “It was sweet, I mean, it just really did good,” Mauney recalls. And it did even better a few weeks later at Rockingham (NC) Dragway, where Mauney knocked down a 3.95 at more than 189 mph in what he says was another shortened run under power.
Those promising test numbers, however, made what happened in March during the car’s public debut at ADRL’s season opener in Houston, TX, that much harder to swallow. Mauney failed to qualify and the episode remains an unpleasant memory for both owner and driver.
“Man, that car had done everything so perfect. We hadn’t really spent a lot of time testing, but that thing was running 3.90-something every single time he let the clutch out on it, everything was going perfect,” Leggett says. “I went down there thinking we were going to some good, but it wasn’t the car’s fault, it was the folks workin’ on it, like myself. I mean, we just done everything backward. It just looked like we hadn’t ever been to a drag race before. It was pretty bad.”
Mauney echoes the sentiment.
“Everything that happened at Houston was self-induced by Terry and myself,” he stresses. “I mean, it was really stupid what we did; we had better air than what we had at Rockingham and probably a better track, but we just went out there and just really screwed up, to be honest. We had way too much timing in the motor down low.”
Regardless, Leggett was thrilled with the attention garnered by the car at Houston and admits he “kind of got tickled” upon learning the promotional flyer for the ADRL’s next event at Montgomery, AL, pictured all the Houston race winners, except for Pro Extreme, which was represented by his car. “I’ll take it, I’ll take it,” he says, laughing. “I’ve got to take something out of there.”
Then, at Montgomery, the duo struggled again, overpowering the track in testing before inclement weather postponed qualifying and eliminations to later this year. Unfortunately, it also marked the (temporary) end of Mauney’s time in the car as scheduling conflicts resulted in Rickie Smith qualifying 8th and racing it to a first-round finish another month later during the ADRL’s annual visit to South Georgia Motorsports Park.
Smith was again in the seat at the ADRL’s recently completed Huntsville (AL) Dragway event, but bailed out on Leggett halfway through Pro Extreme qualifying after a dispute over his own Pro Nitrous entry with sanctioning body officials. “I can kind of see Rickie’s point, but it means I just spent about $5,000 for nothing,” Leggett said at the time while packing his rig for the long tow home. When asked if Smith’s desertion meant the Leggett-Smith partnership was over, the car owner thought for a moment, then answered in his slow, North Carolina drawl, “Yeah. Yeah, I guess it does.”
