My recent trip to the United States gave me the chance to check out one of the country’s ever-growing number of bad-arse small-tyre drag racing events: Radial Bear Slayer at Twin City Raceway in Monroe, Louisiana. With big-hitters like Joey Hiykel’s ‘Beater Bomb’ Fox-body Mustang and a bunch of Street Outlaws racers like Daddy Dave set to vie for the $25,000 up for grabs, it promised to be massive.

First published in the August 2025 issue of Street Machine

Bear Slayer is the brainchild of up-and-coming builder and tuner Rustin Ledbetter, owner of Riverside Racecraft in Glenwood, Arkansas. He spends most weekends touring the country tuning hot rods, from stock-bottom-end deals at no-prep cash events to Pro Mods that wrestle it out on Street Outlaws.

Having been to so many race meetings, Rustin couldn’t help but notice that all the prize money always seemed to go to the winners, while racers who did well in the early rounds got zilch. “Small-tyre events are tough to get cars along to because racers are afraid to race when certain other cars enter,” he explains. “We all know that if you have the baddest car on the property you are going to take home the cash, but making it to the final rounds and going out because you nicked a piston or broke a throttle cable shouldn’t mean you go home empty-handed. So, we came up with an event format where you get paid for every round you win.”

Unfortunately, unseasonal rain around Bear Slayer’s original late-April date meant Rustin had to postpone the event for several weeks. We rocked up to Twin City Raceway for the rescheduled Bear Slayer on 7 June amid soaring temperatures and stifling humidity, and the forecast suggested a high chance of rain. In addition, five or six other small-tyre events were happening within a 500-mile range, which knocked out a few of the superstar cars.

Nonetheless, the clouds slowly cleared and the pits were alive with a great mix of turbo, nitrous and nitro cars, and with $25,000 in cash being offered across the 5.80 index and small-tyre classes, there were some tough customers on the property.

The brutal weather saw the start time pushed back from 6pm to 8:30pm, but by then the track was coming around, despite the 30°C heat.

There was a massive $7500 in cash up for grabs for the Small Tyre class winner, plus an additional $7500 for the quickest ET with a win light – serious coin. In the 5.80 index class, there was a healthy $5000 cash for the win, plus an additional $5000 to be divided between the top three with the best reaction times and the closest ET to the index.

“There were a bunch of cars that had a good shot at the Small Tyre win, as the track was hot and it was a tuner’s game early in the night,” Rustin says.

Caleb McGill’s primer-coloured ’63 Nova was a hot favourite in the Small Tyre class, having run into the high threes previously with a twin-turbo, billet small-block Chev combination. As the night unfolded, the Nova was flying, and Caleb took no prisoners in the early rounds.

Another Small Tyre favourite was 19-year-old Patrick Lewis of Mount Holly, Arkansas. A week before the event, Patrick held the world stock-block LS record with his 1993 Mustang, and with the ability to run into the low fours over the eighth, he was shaping up as a finals contender at Bear Slayer. Unfortunately, a wheelie in the second round against the hard-charging Cody Wagoner in the blue New Edge Mustang put him on the trailer.

Cody then went on to meet Caleb McGill in the finals. It was an awesome race, with barely a sheet of paper between the two cars at the finish line. While times weren’t displayed at the track on the night, later results showed both cars left on a 1.0sec 60-foot, and McGill stopped the clocks with a 4.40 to Wagoner’s 4.405 – just five thousandths of a second between them!

The racing was even tighter in the 5.80 field, with a bunch of highly successful and seasoned racers vying for the win.

Brian Kelley’s super-clean, nitrous big-block Chev-powered ’71 Nova was always going to be hard to get around. In the third round, he met Craig Ashcraft, another great racer in his small-block Ford-powered ’87 Mustang, with Brian narrowly taking the win.

It was always going to be a tough final match-up for Kelley, and when he came up against one of the best 5.80 racers on the property, Byron Jordan in his stunning nitrous-fed ’67 Nova, he had his work cut out for him.

Both cars left panel-to-panel, but an engine misfire in Kelley’s Nova let Byron do his thing. He drove it into the winner’s circle to collect $5000 cash, the trophy and a $750 gift card from Monkey Fab Garage.

In the Second Chance 5.80 buy-in race, Mike Rogers in the BBC-powered 1967 Nova met with track local Dusty Boyett in his fifth-generation, turbo LS-powered Camaro. Both drivers were extremely experienced, with a bucketload of 5.80 event wins to their name, but as it turned out, it just wasn’t Boyett’s night. He broke his transmission mid-race, allowing Rogers to take the Second Chance win and collect $1000.

Despite mosquitos that were like something out of Jurassic Park, Radial Bear Slayer was a cracker, and a couple of mason jars of local moonshine afterwards put the finishing touches on a wild night in the US south!

It was great to see so many sponsors supporting local grassroots racing, too, including Powerhouse Performance Diesel, Powerhouse Custodial Services, Monkey Fab Garage, Street Carr Fabrication, Freakshow Performance and Nitrous Outlet, to name but a few.

While Rustin got smashed by the rain and heat this year, Radial Bear Slayer will return to its original April timeslot for 2025, and will definitely be one to watch on the annual US racing calendar going forward.

HIGHLIGHTS:

Donald White of Almyra, Arkansas lays down a solid lick in his all-motor, big-block 1956 Chevy in the first round of the 5.80 class.

Fresh from a change from nitrous to twin-turbo, the all-billet small-block Chev powering Caleb McGill’s ’63 Nova is rumoured to nudge 500ci! Capable of running in the threes over the eighth, the Nova was unstoppable in the Small Tyre class at Radial Bear Slayer, cleaning up the cash and the class crown.

One of the nicest cars at Radial Bear Slayer was the 1969 Camaro of Raymond Humphries Jr. It was his first outing in the car with a freshly built, ProCharged big-block Chevy under the bonnet, but unfortunately, he shook the tyres hard in the first round and didn’t return.

Radial Bear Slayer gave Arby the chance to give the Aussie Malibu some shakedown runs with its new stock-bottom-end, turbo LS combo in the lead-up to Sick Summer a week later. He got knocked out in the first round in the 5.80 class, but returned to make a couple more test hits, with a best of 6.0. By the end of the week, the car was dialled in with a 5.81 – there’s always next year!

Byron Jordan of Street Outlaws fame continued to live up to his reputation, taking the win in the 5.80 class with his big-block Nova. The car is generally an all-motor deal, although Byron does run it on the bottle when needed.

Sean Madden ironed out a few bugs in his wife’s 1991 notchback Mustang at Radial Bear Slayer. Powered by a single-turbo, 388ci LS, backed by a billet-case T56 with Tick Performance internals, the car has already run into the eights on just 5psi of boost! Unfortunately, Sean didn’t bring enough and was outgunned in the second round.