The question of whether a 10.5W or a 315 radial tire-equipped car will be the first into the three-second zone in the eighth-mile has been a regular topic of conversation the last couple of years, what with the radial tire racers leapfrogging from the mid fours right down into the teens and twenties in short order while the Outlaw 10.5 cars remain at a standstill. But the topic has gained some considerable interest of late, after not one, but two radial tire racers have now dipped down into the four-oh’s — Jamie Hancock with a 4.09 in his lightweight Pro Mod on radials followed by DeWayne Mills in his Camaro at 4.08-seconds last weekend in Tulsa.
Now, you might be asking yourself, “wait a minute, didn’t the three-second barrier already fall at the hands of an Outlaw 10.5 racer or two?” Well yes, you would be correct. Both Todd Tutterow and Dave Hance recorded runs of 3.99-seconds during the winter of 2012/2013 in Qatar, and both remain adamant that their combinations were entirely legal per the Outlaw 10.5 rules here in the states. However, because those runs have been largely discredited, the conversation of who will get there first — stateside anyway — remains.
The challengers on the radial tire side include Keith Berry, Kevin Mullins, Rob Valden, and of course Hancock and Mills. All of these racers have been into the mid-teens or quicker, and given how far the radial tire cars have come in a short amount of time, there’s no telling what they might have up their sleeve come fall. Remember, it was little more than 18 months ago Steve Jackson punched into the teens on radials, and it didn’t take long for the continent to find the oh’s.
On the Outlaw 10.5 side, both Tutterow and Hance are, at present, out of the game. But carrying the torch is longtime frontrunner Richard Sexton in his screw-blown GTO, which has been 4.02 and recently went 4.05. Add to that racers such as Steve Gorman, T.J Kasper, Mike Decker, and Doug Sikora out on the west coast, among others with the power to get it done, and the threes are only the right hit in the right weather conditions away from popping up on the boards.
So what say you? Which tire will get into the threes first, and if you’re so inclined to step out on a limb, who and where will it go down?