“It’s an exciting feeling,” Dustin Carroll said. “The feeling of winning one of the most prestigious championships hasn’t sunk in yet.”
Carroll representing Union County Dragway, Union, S.C., took home the win by defeating Larry Doty representing Palm Beach International Raceway, Jupiter, Fla., with a .042, 7.696-second pass at 90.53 mph.
“The day went fast,” Carroll said. “It felt like I couldn’t do anything wrong. I got lucky a few times with competitors breaking out or red lighting which helped me advance to the final round. I thought my weekend was over and went too quick against my dial-in in the third round and luckily saw the win light come on keeping my weekend alive.”
With the win Carroll took home a $5,000 payday, IHRA World Championship ring, IHRA Gold Card and an IHRA Ironman.
While this was his biggest win to date, Carroll now has two IHRA Ironman to his name. The IHRA Summit SuperSeries Sportsman Championship Ironman happens to be much bigger compared to the other Ironman he has.
Carroll started racing with his dad Lucky Carroll, his friend Bobby Hutto and cousin Danny Sanders in the year 2000. Nowadays his daughter Morgan Carroll who just graduated from Junior Dragster and is now in the No Box class, his wife Kelly Carroll, and brother Josh Carroll are all racing making it a true family affair in racing.
Carroll drives a 1968 Chevrolet Camaro during weekly events at Union County Dragway and South Carolina Motorplex, Neeses, S.C. He purchased the car in 2017 year from cousin Sanders who owned Danny’s Classic Cars. Carroll then put a 350 cubic inch engine in car and built it to compete in the Sportsman class.
“I credit Summit Racing Equipment a lot for helping us on the car,” Carroll said. “The majority of the parts we have were purchased from them and it helped us get the car in tip-top shape to compete at our weekly tracks and the IHRA Summit SuperSeries World Finals.”
“Tony Brown and his staff at Union County Dragway run an amazing l program and I can’t thank them enough for the opportunity to represent them at the World Finals,” Carroll said. “They have about 10 races a year and the competition there is tough which helped me compete against the best in the world in Memphis.”
Carroll now can relish being the first IHRA Summit SuperSeries Sportsman champion and having his name forever etched in the history books as the first champion.
“I have to give God all the glory that helped us get to Memphis and accomplish this feat,” Carroll said. “Everyone we met and competed against at the World Finals were amazing and I can’t thank them enough for an memorable weekend.”
