The Ohio Valley Raceway, nestled into the hills of northwestern Kentucky and situated along the banks of the Ohio River, welcomes some of the nation’s top radial tire racers back for a third edition of the Prize Fight, which will feature action in Limited Drag Radial, X275, Nitrous X, and Ultra Street. The 1/8-mile strip proved a season ago that it’s got the teeth for national record numbers, and that — along with the hardware — will be on everyone’s mind as they take to the track.

Qualifying Rd. 3

Rick Wetherbee and his “Land Yacht” Impala delivered the ‘wow’ moment of the third round of LDR qualifying, as the car hiked the front wheels and made a move toward the wall. Wetherbee hung with it and clicked off a career best 4.36 at 177 mph to move up to the fourth spot in the order. The quickest Wetherbee had been previously was a 4.43.

Frank Mewshaw remains at the top of a fairly tight LDR field after three rounds with his 4.24 from last night. Travis Esselman is trailing closely behind with a 4.26.

Joel Greathouse has Ultra Street on lockdown with his 4.83 from last night. Camren Massengale and his Corvette sit second, well back with a 4.98, and Zach Simmons is third at 5.00.

Despite the warmer temperatures this morning, several drivers were able to step up from their Friday night performances, including Shawn Pevlor, who unreeled a 4.683 in the third session to improve on his 4.71. With that, Pevlor remains No. 1 on the sheets by a slim margin over Jeff Carpenters’ 4.688.

67-year old Joe Wallace sits fifth in the Limited Drag Radial field with a stellar 4.37 from his nitrous-fed Chevrolet Camaro. The car sports a 619 cubic inch, BES-built big-block with conventional heads and a single cast intake, topped by an Accufab four-barrel 8500 throttle body. An NOS 3-stage dry nitrous system provides the extra horsepower, with with fuel provided by Billet Atomizer injectors and the ignition from a coil-on-plug setup. The Wallace’s, Joe and son and crew chief, Tyler, have been running this car for more than a decade in various forms, with Tydo Race Cars handling the updates over the years to bring it to its current state. With a previous career best of 4.43, their 4.37 this weekend is uncharted territory for the pair.

Qualifying Rd. 4 And Ladders

Shane Fisher didn’t waste his competition single in round one of X275, getting after it with low elapsed time of the weekend at 4.452 and 161.93 mph.

Eliminations Ladders

Final Eliminations

Mike Jones, in his twin turbocharged Chevy Cobalt, rolled to victory in the Limited Drag Radial class at well after midnight, early on Sunday morning, as he edged out Kerri Anne Beebe, 4.72 to a 4.81, to collect the Prize Fight title belt. In X275, No. 1 qualifier Shane Fisher, who also recorded low elapsed time of the weekend with a 4.45 in round one, denied Joel Greathouse in his double-up bid in the X275 finale, overcoming a lead out of the gate to take a close 4.49 to 4.53 win. Greathouse, however, avenged the loss in Ultra Street, running roughshod over the rest of the class with crushing laps of 4.82, 4.79, and 4.78 on his way to a defeat of Jason McGrane in the final. And in Nitrous X, Michael Hicks defeated Jeff Carpenter in the money round, driving away to a 4.75 to 5.16 rout.

Top 5 List: Our Favorite Rides From The Prize Fight

Paul Mitchell from New York came to the Ohio Valley Prize Fight with his original 2010 Mustang GT500. The car still has stock doors and power windows. He has owned the car for over five years, it started life as a street car that was running high 9-second passes, but quickly grew from there. For Paul this weekend is all about seat time, as the car is still pretty fresh and he wants to get a better feel for his X275 machine.

Under the hood of the Mustang is a BES-built, 5.8 liter Ford engine that’s backed by an M&M two-speed transmission. The power adder of choice is a single 88 mm Precision Gen 2 turbo. Chad at London Chassis Dyno built the amazing 25.3 chassis and clean turbo kit. The big goal, according to Paul, is to get the car, at 3,350 pounds, to run in the 4.60s range with the stock doors.

Camren Massengale brought his super clean 2001 Z06 Corvette to compete in Ultra Street this weekend at the Prize Fight. This machine started life as a street car and still only has 4,000 original miles on the clock. It originally had just a small nitrous kit and headers, but then was switched to a blower combo, and finally grew into its current race trim.

Powering the Corvette is a 440 cubic inch LSX-based nitrous motor that’s backed by a TH400 transmission. To help take all that power, the Corvette has been outfitted Ford 9-inch rearend, but still maintains its IRS suspension configuration. The nitrous kit is homemade with parts from Wilson, Nitrous Outlet, and Induction solutions.

Andrew Alshami is the owner of this very eye-catching 1975 Convertible Corvette Stingray. The car was purchased brand new by Andrew’s father and spent most of its life as a street car until Andrew inherited it. Currently, the car still maintains its street car roots with tags, insurance, and even mufflers.

The beauty of Andrew’s Corvette, besides its screaming yellow paint is the simple combo he uses to run the 7.50 Index races locally here in Kentucky. The motor is just a small-block Chevy with a single plane intake, which is backed by a Powerglide transmission. Behind the engine and transmission is a Ford 9-inch rearend and four-link suspension that puts all the power to the track.

Steve Dowell was big into racing during the 1980s, but took a break, and is now back running a sleek 1986 Mustang GT in the Ultra Street category. Steve decided to make his comeback in Ultra Street because of how competitive the class is, and he loves the chase to become one of the best.

Fast Chassis updated the chassis to its current 25.5 certification after Steve purchased it as a roller. The bullet between the frame rails is a 8.2 deck block, with TFSR Heads, Jessel valvetrain, and a 4150 Quick Fuel carb. The power adder of choice to feed the giggle juice into the motor is an Induction solutions fogger system

Dusty Bradford brought out his 1987 Buick Regal T-Type clone to run in Limited Drag Radial at the Price Fight this weekend. The story goes that Dusty actually purchased this car from a little old lady in town before he began the process of turning it into a nasty heads-up car. After he purchased it, the car was run as an 8-second street car with a small-block turbo combo.

Now the Buick has a 531 cubic inch big-block Chevy short block that was assembled by Pro Line Racing engines powering it. Dusty assembled the top end himself, going with a set of conventional RFD heads. The turbo kit was also built by Dusty and flows boost from a single Precision 118 mm turbo. PTC provided the converter and transmission parts that send the power back to the TRZ fabricated 9-inch rearend. Chris Terry Racing assisted in building the 25.3 chassis that the car now has.

One of the things you usually don’t see at an Outlaw-style heads-up race is a full blown NHRA class car, but Matt Alvey, brought out his 2006 Super Stock Pontiac Sunfire to make some hits. Matt is a lifelong racer and gearhead that has spent many years running in the Super Stock ranks with different cars and loves the competitive nature of the class.

Matt’s current car runs GT/CA in Super Stock and was built about five years ago with his friends as a labor of love. Assistance in the build came from Quinn’s Chassis Shop for the things that Matt could not do in his own garage. Powering the car is a 1990 Corvette fuel injected motor that was built by Parson’s and Myers, generating around 580 horsepower on motor.

Wayne Bilbrey has been racing since he was 16 years old, and has put a lot of laps down various race tracks all over the country. One of his current rides is a clean 1970 Challenger R/T that he is running in the 6.50 Index class at the Prize Fight. Usually, you can find Wayne running in NHRA Super Street or IHRA Hot Rod trim. He has owned this car for over 29 years and even did a full frame-up restoration on it.

Powering the car is a Knieriem Racing Engines-built 451 wedge motor with a Quick Fuel Technologies carb mixing the fuel and air. A Bilbrey Racing Transmissions Powerglide transmission with a PTC torque converter send the power back to the Dana rearend and AFCO Shocks. Soon, the car will actually be piloted by Wayne’s daughter so he can concentrate on running his other car, a Top Dragster, at different events.

Ohio’s Ray Litz is making his return to competition this weekend after an incident at the World Cup Finals in the fall of 2014. The chassis has been updated/repaired by Midwest Chassis, with an all new Garrett turbo system fabricated by Mark Carlyle. Litz is working to get a handle on the combination, easing his way into the power with each successive run today in testing.

Jason “Pooch Rueckert, who promotes the Prize Fight, has brought his RvW Olds Cutlass out today for some testing laps, but hasn’t made a full pass as of yet.

Street Outlaws star James “Doc” Love has brought his newly-rebuilt “Street Beast” out to match race fellow OKC runner Jerry “Monza” Johnston tonight.

Jacky McCarty, the defending champion of the Prize Fight in X275, is back for another winners’ belt this year. McCarty, still in NMCA Street Outlaw trim, unloaded right off the trailer with a 1.16 – 4.41 pass, and then swapped turbochargers and added weight to get in X trim, going a 4.55 in the mid-day 85-degree heat.

Qualifying Rd. 1

Travis Esselman was struggling to keep the front end of his Corvette on the ground in testing today, but was strapping weights to the front end when we stopped by earlier and appears to have found the setup, as he laid down a 4.26 at 173.82 mph to lead the Limited Drag Radial after one round.

James “Doc” Love has this radial-prepped track, which is infinitely more tacky than the streets of OKC, all figured out. After going 4.31 earlier, he followed it up with a 4.32 in his second run just before sunset.

Qualifying Rd. 2