This weekend’s No Mercy V: Cleared For Takeoff at the South Georgia Motorsports Park hasn’t even officially kicked off yet, and already things are getting real. Like 4.0 and 200-plus mile per hour real.

Race promoter Donald Long and the SGMP staff hosted a pre-event test session today leading into Thursday’s qualifying opener, and the numbers have been spectacular to say the least, although we can’t help but guess a number of the big hitters are saving their best for when it counts. But others, however, aren’t being at all.

Keith Berry, who clicked off a 4.13 earlier this week in Holly Springs, went a 4.16 at 187 earlier in the day, and then punched his way into the exclusive 4.0 club this evening with a jaw-dropping 4.099 at 186.33 MPH, compliments of a 1.099 short time and a 2.77 to half track. With that time slip, Berry is the owner of the quickest small block-powered, small-tire car on the planet, and the first small block radial car into the 4.0’s.

The other eye-opener of the day came compliments of ProLine’s own Eric Dillard, who made waves a day ago with his incredible 4.07 blast at Holly Springs. Dillard, driving Willard Kinzer’s familiar ProLine-powered, twin-turbo Radial Wars Ford Mustang, which went 4.11 at a booming 205 miles per hour. That trap speed, if accurate, would be an absolute moonshot compared to the typical mile per hour seen in the class.

Certainly, the big guns haven’t even scratched the surface of what we’re likely to see this weekend in Georgia, and where the records end up is anyone’s guess at this point. But it sure will be entertaining!