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After all the months of hype the time has finally arrived for the “Night the Lights Went Out” ORTC race at South Georgia Motorsports Park this weekend. A first of it’s kind race that blends rules from three regions to bring together Drag Radial, Limited Street and TT5 cars from across the country. There are also two separate 275 radial tire classes. Modified Street and the more liberal BMF Xtreme Street, which also allows a 28x 10.5 slick if you desire, as well as index classes. You can check out the rules over at Drag Race Place.com Don’t forget the kids have a class for them as well with a special Outlaw 330′ class for Jr. Dragsters.
Our coverage will begin Thursday morning as racers beging to get parked, set up and teched in. There is also a test session running from 10 AM to 6PM. On Friday the pit gate opens at 8 AM with spectators in at 11. There are three qualifying sessions set for Saturday starting at 11 AM, then 2 and 5PM which you can follow along with on the live feed and timing. Mark Walter has all the information for that posted over here on YellowBullet.com In addition to Mickey Thompson, TRZ Motorsports and Monte Smith Performance are event title sponsors.
There is one last chance qualifying session on Saturday morning, Eliminations begin at noon.
Dragzine event coverage is brought to you by Mickey Thompson Performance Tires and Wheels
Check Back for Updates Throughout the Day
Our first update today will feature some updates on some of the cars here and new combos from the pits.
Enzo Pechini made the trip from Canada to run in the 10,000 to win TRZ Motorsports Ultimate Street class. Pechini runs a Procharger F1C feeding into the Panhandle Performance built engine.
JoJo Milton is one of several Texas True Ten racers that made the haul to South Georgia this weekend. The Dallas resident runs a 408 Small block chevy with twin turbos on alcohol.
The Proline Racing Engine crew is out in force with three cars on the lot. Coby Rabon will be driving John Carters drag radial Corvette.
I didn't recognize this one at first but it's the former Tim Lynch car now owned and driven by T.J. Casper.
This Mustang also features a Proline engine and is owned by J.R. Gibson. They just finished replacing the converter which gave during testing on Monday.
I spoke with California resident Tim Rigby about what cars they brought across country. Roger Holder and Dave Bowman both made the ride out. Holder has the current number one car in PSCA Extreme Drag Radial.
Daniel Farris out of Sikeston Missouri has this nice looking 95 Mustang. The single turbo car has a 434 Bennett engine for motivation. They hurt the engine testing here in January so this is the first outing for the fresh mill.
David Wolfe in the house with a new bullet under the hood. A 532 ci. big block chevy from Hans Fuestal with twin 91MM turbos. On yesterdays 4.61 pass he had a stellar 1.15 60'.
The number 1 NMRA drag radial guy Jason Lee is here looking for a big payday. I caught a test hit earlier from the tower where he got some air. It's a new game for him on some Mickey Thompson tires instead of the NMRA class required BFG hoops.
Patrick Barnhill came out of a two year hiatus for this race with a new combo, switching from a Procharged small block and slicks to a twin turbo BBC on radials.Jeff Lutz is on hand helping out with tuning the Scott Braskett build engine.
Portsmith Arkansas racer Justin Martin and crew are hard at work in the trailer swapping out the converter looking for some ET. A F3R Procharged 605 ci BBC provides the horsepower and has been 4.80's so far.
Brand new Outlaw 10.5 car for Killin Time Racing. Steve Jackson and the cfrew have spent multiple all nighters getting it all finished up for this weekend. The backhalf 93 Mustang has a similar engine to that in the Orange car and has been 5.50 so far on short passes. Of course he is on radials.
This Impala is in the 6.50 index class and is owned and driven by Steve Adams from Tennessee
This is Jeff Cooner's car with awesome new paint. Cooner normally races ORSCA Limited Street and TT5 events and hold the Limited Street record with a 4.53.
Test and Tune Notes
Eric Stubbs took out the 330' cone on his last pass.
Some racers were getting down the track just fine,some were not as evidenced by this Camaro, no this is not a burnout. I shot the photo just after the launch.
NMCA racer Nick Owens shows how it's done, hanging the wheels on a clean pass
Scotty Gaudagno and Jeff Cooner were the first pair down to run side by side 4.60's.
Eric Dillard had the quickest pass of the day with a 4.55 @ 173 MPH. David Wolfe was close behind with a 4.59 @ 167. No one else ran in teh .50's
Jim Plimpton aka "Dr Ford" set his T Bird on the bumper today. he won the Hot Rod Pump Gas Drags with this car in 2008. Now it's got 18 bolt heads, more boost, different rear gears and Q16 for fuel, also a blow thru carb from C&S.
JoJo Milton laid down an exciting run during todays test session carrying the wheels pretty much the length of the track, just letting off near the finish to set the front down in the lights. Check out the sequence below
We are all wrapped for tonight for testing after Dave Hance got into a wheelie and had a hard landing and leaked some oil onto the surface. With the very cold air temp the track surface would get cold and unsafe during the cleanup. I will have some more photos on the track and some pit notes and photos coming later.
Dave Hance had some damage under the car to the transmission pan and rack mount at least after the wheelie this evening. They are going to assess if there is any further damage and see if they can get it patched up for tomorrow.
Chad Opaleski took out the planetaries on his transmission tonight. Steve Cannizio from CRT Transmissions is making the repairs while Chad open up the converter to check for damage to that. He had a pass in the 4.8 range today and should be good to go for qualifying.
Another racer that broke a gear set is Patrick Barnhill. Yellow Bullet member Dave Klaput (F RIZZO) from ProFormance Transmissions in Elborn Illinois handled the repairs on this one. Lack of spare parts forced him to install the stock 2.48 gear set instead of a 1.96 that came out. The steeper gear will have Patrick adjusting the tune and boost ramp in the AMS controller.
Jerry Gunter has a F.A.S.T. ECU go out on him. It's an older box so they have had trouble finding one to swap into the car. The car has a BBC with twin gear driven Prochargers, they will need some luck to get it going again this weekend but Travis Quillen was there making some calls so you never know..
This is the race debut for Enrique Pirez' new look and a fresh 23* small block. They are competing in Ultimate Street this weekend.
An ORTC race would not be complete without massive quantities of food out of Don Long's pit for anyone who stops by. Someone left Donald in charge of the grill but I don't think that was such a good idea.
