We have sunny skies today for the final day of Lights Out 8 and you could not ask for better weather to race in, or enjoy watching the action. Stay tuned to Dragzine for the behind the scenes news and track side action with our same day event coverage here from Lights Out 8.
Ken Quartuccio’s performance this weekend has set tongues wagging , especially after his 4.28 last night in round one eliminations. We spoke to Ken about his performance and the talk this morning where discounted the criticism. “What people don’t understand is I’ve have raced down in Florida three or fours years, I been racing twenty-five years with nitrous 632 stuff and the last two weeks we raced we have raced in better air than we ever have raced in in Florida….we are racing on the best track prep for a radial tire and people need to take that in consideration, it’s the trap prep and the air, that’s it.” Ken Quartuccio. The crew was replacing a broken valve spring this morning and checking the valve train over thoroughly.Eddie Harrison lost two lifters in round one eliminations last night and the team was wrapping up the valve adjustments when we stopped by. He will face Marty Stinnett in round two.
Phil Hines has a few changes to his combo from BES for 2017 including more cubic inch and more compression along with a new billet intake from Vizner Performance. He has also went to Neal Chance Racing Converters and is pretty happy with it so far. He is qualified seventh with a 4.47 at 162 MPH.
Earl Stanley runs X275 based out of Richmond, Kentucky with his Fox body Mustang powered by a Vortech Supercharged 8.2 deck 347 topped with some old school TFS Street Heads. He is the quickest 8.2 deck engine in class with a 4.49 best in qualifying Saturday putting him tenth in the field. The engine and chassis was done by Mike Adams Race Cars in London, Kentucky with some assistance from PLR on the set up. Further assistance with the racing program includes Vortech, Prock Performance, Greg Slack Converter Design Specialties, VP Fuels and Eddie Harrison. The team from left to right Mike Adams, Earl Stanley, Earl Stanley Jr and Tyler Stanley. Marty Chance landed twenty-first in X275 with a 4.56 after struggling with the car not grabbing the track. He runs a Disomma built small block Ford fed by a F-1R Procharger and backed by a two speed TH 400 transmission with and NCRC converter. “I definitely want to thank the Holley EFI guys, they helped us a bunch this weekend and Micky Thompson Tires, none of us could do any of this without Mickey Thompson..and our crew, Dennis, Doug, Allen and Curtis.We dropped by the Hancock Racing pits on talked with Jamie’s father James about their week. “ We struggled a little bit when we got here the first of the week, but we got a handle on it, she is coming around the right direction, we are just waiting for the right time to really stand on it to make it run the right number” James Hancock. This is the second race with this car and they made a couple of changes since running the US Street Nationals. Some other companies involved with their program include Nitrous Outlet, ASA Performance, ARP, Fuel Tech and Mark Menscer.Ron Hamby is double entered again for Lights Out 8 for ODR and Pro 275 but struggled some getting the car worked out with the new combination. He upgraded in the off season to a fuel injected Pat Musi 960 managed by an EFI Technologies system tuned by Robert Hays. They finally got the car to apply the power in round one eliminations of ODR this morning earnign a win over Mike Barron. Hamby pictured at right.We kicked things off this morning with an invocation and a beautiful instrumental version of the national anthem before Outlaw Drag Radial round one eliminations.An early pairing in ODR was Justin Swanstrom and Rick Prospero with Swanstrom getting away clean and going on for the round win in Apocalypse.Daddy Dave has been very consistent this week running a string of low 4.20’s. He had the earned single this morning as top qualifier running a 4.23 at 173.mark Dykeman had a hard time even getting here much less working nearly all night repairing the damage to the car from a bad injector. He was all fixed up this morning and ran a strong 4.51 at 159 MPH though taking a loss to Chris Bretz out of Spring Hill, Florida who put up a 4.45 at 173 in his turbocharged 2002 Camaro.
Steve Jackson had lane choice meeting up with Jamie Hancock in round three of RVW. Both cars ran hard to the stripe with Hancock stepping it like they said, scoring a 3.85 at 193 MPH for the best pass yet with this car though it was not enough to earn the round. Jackson got loose in the shutdown and made contact with the wall. He is ok and the team is already hard at it making repairs.
A large crowd gathered to watch the Killin Time Racin crew thrash on the Shadow 2.0 requiring security crowd control to keep the crowd out of the way. All four tires were ruined in the incident and they were taken to the MT rig for new skins. At right Nitrous Mike gets to work tearing down the wheels. Tim Slavens was paired with Marty Stinnett with bother racers making solid runs. At the stripe it would be Slavens earnign the win with a 3.923 at 205.44 MPH. Stinnett repeated his round one effort 3.938 in a great match.
Round One Elimination Results
RVW E1, RVW E2, OL632 E1.
OL632 E2, ODR E1, ODR E2. Alan Pittman and Joe Albrecht were side by side off the line with Pittman having a holeshot advantage. Albrecht scored a 3.99 at 198 earnign the win over the 4.07 at just 160 MPH through the lights.
Charlie Johnson has his very clean Nova in Ultimate Street where he faced off with Corey Stephens earnign the win with a 5.12 at 136 MPH. He confirmed the rumors about his renown white Firebird is getting a twin turbo combo. He has tagged John Kolivas and the KBX team to update the car and is looking to go No Time race as well as compete in 28/29 shootouts. We know the fans will love to see the car back at it. Mark Woodruff faced off with Keith Haney earning a berth in the next round over the off pace Enigma with a 3.84 at 211.
Walt Drakeford earned his way to the next round over the high flying John Snyder who had to pedal the car and slowed to a 5.03 to Drakeford's 4.91.
Final Results
Radial vs the World, Outlaw Drag Radial, X275, Pro 275.
A bit of controversy ensued after Steve Jackson’s crash in the quarter finals at the scales with some voicing complaints he was even allowed to cross them at all after bumping the wall. The end results is he was and faced off with Mark Woodruff in the semi finals where Woodruff took a hole shot start and running a 4.05 at just 167 MPH and Jackson having trouble and skipping the tires and moving left out of the groove and was quick pulling the chutes to get the car straightened though his crazy day was over. The other pair left in was Tim Slavens and Joe Albrecht with the two having very close reaction times. Slavens put some power in it scoring a 3.90 at 206 for his efforts, it just wasn’t enough to keep Albrecht at bay with the New York based racer running a 3.845 at 201 MPH to set up the final.
A bit of controversy ensued after Steve Jackson’s crash in the quarter finals at the scales with some voicing complaints he was even allowed to cross them at all after bumping the wall. The end results is he was and faced off with Mark Woodruff in the semi finals where Woodruff took a hole shot start and running a 4.05 at just 167 MPH and Jackson having trouble and skipping the tires and moving left out of the groove and was quick pulling the chutes to get the car straightened though his crazy day was over. The other pair left in was Tim Slavens and Joe Albrecht with the two having very close reaction times. Slavens put some power in it scoring a 3.90 at 206 for his efforts, it just wasn’t enough to keep Albrecht at bay with the New York based racer running a 3.845 at 201 MPH to set up the final. Mark Woodruff and Joe Albrecht in the final round.Outlaw Drag Radial had some very stiff competition this week with a number of cars running consistent 4.20’s and low 30’s. Daddy Dave Comstock was top qualifier but went red by .004 in round one ending his weekend a little early. Mel Nelson, Justin Swanstrom Tony Ridenour and VP Fuels’ Jason Rueckert Nelson and Swanstron met up in the semi finals where Mel must have blanked as he went -.293 red giving the race to Swanstrom who laid down a 4.16 at 179 on the pass. Ridenour was away first against Rueckert by a small margin with Ridenour earning the round with a hole shot. His 4.212 at 185 was enough to stay in front of the quicker Rueckert who scored a personal best with his 4.208 at 184 MPH riding out a short wheelie nearly to the stripe before lifting setting up the final with two Tampa Bay based racers.Swanstrom scored an .027 reaction when he needed it as the engine was not quite happy, just making it to the stripe with a 4.20 for letting go and earning the hard fought win.
X275 had the most cars here this weekend and also featured some stellar racing. Once into the semi finals it was basically up for grabs with Dean Marinis the favored racer on paper. He faced Sean Lyon and earned the round driving right by with a 4.437 at 162.02 MPH and a weekend best of 165 using a new NCRC lock up converter. Montgomery, Texas based Kenny Hubbard turned some heads bumping down the nitrous record to a 4.377 earlier against Eric Moore in round three before meeting with Dennis Bickford who slowed to a 9.95 in the semi final. In the final round Marinis took the holeshot against Hubbard and never looked back, running a 4.40 at 162 to Hubbard's strong 4.42 at 159 MPH. Dean had a hole down on Saturday and actually welcomed the rain as an opportunity to tear into the engine to investigate and make repairs, putting the car inside the trailer and going to work, quite a task on the car which is a “ real car” without a removable front clip taking the crew around three hours to get the job done. Dean has also been helping Hubbard some with his program and it showed with bother racers making the final and Kenny also finding his way to the Outlaw 632 Final. Marinis uses BES horsepower with Speedtech nitrous, Proformance Transmissions, AMS 2000 and BRE carburetors.
Scotty Guadagno has supported this series from the beginning earning his fifth final round appearance this weekend and finally coming home with the win for team Jet Blue. “These races are by far, one of a kind. Whether you love Donald, or hate him, this is the Superbowl of small tire racing, say what you want. Even if you don't like small tires it's a killer race, we got cars going three seventies, guys like Scotty Cannon, Frankie Taylor, who'd have thought that before these events?” - Scotty G. Guadagno qualified number one with a 4.06, just one hundredth off from his best on any tire for the long time OL 10.5 and Drag Radial racer. On the other side of the ladder it was Don Lamana out Hudson, Florida with a new combo prepared at his and Mark Michlovitz' Pro Fab Performance Plus for Limited Drag Radial by Pro Line Racing, fed by twin Garrett turbos prepped by Forced Induction and tuned by Wade Hopkins at Southern Speed with Pro Fab's Matt LaRue as crew chief. His car ran flawless this week scoring number two qualifier and running quicker every pass, running a 4.12 on a single in the semis but the finals where he deep staged looking for the better reaction. He got that with an .029 to Scotty's .056 reaction, though it may have cost him as he slowed to a 4.16 to Scotty's event winning 4.11.
Ultimate Street has become a solid 4.70 class with Shawn Pevlor earning top qualifier ahead of Tony Alm who earned a berth in the finals against Rodney Ragen who took out the wheel standing and double entered Pevlor in the semi finals with his 4.712 for class record ET. Tyler Crossnoe had a great debut weekend with his new car making it to the semis to meet Alm, running his best of weekend 4.79 at 147 in the match. Ragen was here last year with an NA combo. He now has a KBX combo in a Bill Pettis set up chassis put together by KBX. He picked the car up Wednesday scoring a 4.92 off the trailer and never looked back. In the final Alm was away first with a big holeshot, earning the event win with a 4.78 at 146 to Ragen's quicker 4.74 at 154.
Leaf Spring was all about Jason Digby's 1969 Dodge Dart driven by Lyle Barnett from Robbins, North Carolina here at Lights Out 8. Barnett suffered major injuries in a fire here last year racing in Radial vs the World and if there ever was a team deserving of a win and driven to get it this is it. Barnett scored the Leaf Spring record at Bradenton just a few weeks ago at the US Street Nationals and lowered it repeatedly here this week settling at a 4.24. The Jeff Burns built HED tuned machine was consistent in eliminations running easy 4.30's when needed and meeting up with the Ducky Johnson driver John McDonough in the final. The determination and work ethic of the Barnett's team is without question the story of the year after coming back from such a tragedy and earning a win here at Lights Out 8. Outlaw 632 is a fast growing class with a wide variety of cars competing on big and small tires, stock suspension to former mountain motor Pro Stock cars running side by side. Here the radial is favored due to the tight track conditions with several big tire racers now making the switch including top qualifier and new record holder Ken Quartuccio, with his 4.284 Saturday night. He took himself out in round two with a red light easing the minds of some other racers in the hunt. Number two qualifier Dominic Augustine was running consistent 4.40’s weeding his way through the field and making opponents nervous as both Mike Oldham and Cory Cox out of the Voss racing camp went red looking for an advantage. Kenny Hubbard was on the other side of the ladder qualifying fourth, running a best in this class of 4.400 at 160 over Jim Aldous in round three overcoming Aldous’ .017 reaction, 4.51 performance. The final would be two small tire cars with Augustine taking the starting line with a .041 to Hubbard’s .077, though he slowed to a 7.59 after spinning the tires while Augustine put up a 4.403 at 156 to earn the win.Nitrous X had thirteen cars in class with Jeff Carpenter going number one, runnign a 4.661 with his Induction Solutions equipped. 88 Mustang based out of Sweetwater, Tennessee. Troy Pirez Jr landed second with a new combination from Fast Forward Race Engines. Shawn Pevlor, Casey Smith and Matt Schlein rounded out the top five. Number eleven qualifier Zane Owen would earn the first round win over Smith and take out Schlein in round two leaving himself and the top three qualifiers left for the semi finals. Pirez and Pevlor met there with both racers on point leaving together and running side by side to the stripe where Pevlor nudged out the Seffner, Florida racer with a .041, 4.710 at 149 to Pirez’ 4.727 at 146. Carpenter would put up a 4.709 at 149 to best Owens setting up the final with Pevlor who has struggled keeping his front end on the ground. In the final it would be Pevlor away by a large margin hurting his chance at a win. Pevlor would put up a 4.709 at 155 in his BES/Nitrous Outlet powered ride to earn the win over Carpenter’s 4.779 at 148 MPH.Zane Owen had two cars here this weekend also running in 6.0 Index where he met with Ricky Pennington in his 1971 Nova. Owen was .002 on the tree against the always tough Pennington. Both competitors were racing the stripe hard with Pennington coming away with the win with a 6.01 at 107 to Owen’s 6.07 at 117 MPH.Open Comp went five rounds with Georgia based Ken Grant meeting Andre Nunez from San Juan Peurto Rico in his turbo charged S-10. Grant earned the win running a 6.604 on his 6.60 Index at 111 to Nunez’ 5.996 on his 5.97.
Day three in progress here at Lights Out 8 though we are under a bit of a rain delay this morning shortly after finishing up round three of Outlaw 632. Stay tuned to Dragzine as we bring you the latest from the news from the track and in the pits.
The track set up a meeting for all media this morning at 9 AM to make sure only official media had special armbands and signed the a waiver going forward to clear up any confusion by staff and VIP folks in the secured areas due the sheet amount of credentialed media here at Lights Out 8.
The track staff has worked hard prepping and cleaning up assorted spills and crashes this week and it's not over yet. Some of the staff from left to right, Toby, Ralph, Kane Daley, Kurt Johnson from Total Venue Concepts, Jamie Luke and Keith Wilkerson. At left you can clearly see the rubber being put down by the Total Venue Concepts rotator. Jordan Lazic, Mark Jakab and Roy Lazic (from left to right) made the trip from the west coast of Canada with the “Radial Flyer” 1968 Nova owned by Jay Siverson to compete in Pro 275. The car is powered by a 648 cubic inch Big Duke style Chevy backed by a Rossler transmission and topped with two stages of NOS with a Holley EFI system. They had a twisted route to get here via Arizona to meet up with some other people and some testing time in Memphis, overall a seventy-one hour drive. They definitely win the continental driving long distance award to get here. Lazic is sitting sixteenth in class with a 4.75 at 153 MPH. The crew also changed the injector position in the intake here on site with the assistance of Mac Fab to weld new bungs in the intake at a lower position resulting in the improved performance.
The top two qualifiers in class are Ken Quartuccio, shown at left, and Dominic Augustine, which is the same pair that were in the finals recently at Bradenton's US Street Nationals in January with Augustine earning the win there. Quartuccio is a recent convert to radial tires and the first car to run in the 4.20 zone with his 4.295. Neither racer improved this morning. A fan favorite is this 1937 Chevy owned by Mike Oldham. The car enjoys full street legal status with tail lights and turn signals and sees actual street duty quite often. He is qualified with a 4.88 at 140 MPH so far in eighteenth position.Johnny Pluchino is the highest qualified big tire car scoring a 4.371 at 160 to land third in this morning’s third session for the class.Shannon Poole’s new car is our favorite here this weekend and a real head turner with the arrest me red paint job. He sits fifteenth with a 4.82 at 150 and is still working out the new ride.Steve Jackson and the Killin Time crew put the Shadow 2.0 in the record books scoring a 3.737 in last nights Radial vs the World qualifying. “This race is crazy, it’s turned into a home run derby and I love it, that’s my kind of racing. I don’t think where the record is now it will stay, and I think you’re gonna have to go faster than that to win and I hope we have a little left in the tank. The car is out of Rick Jones Quarter Max built Camaro with the BAE Hemi drive train out of the Mustang, it fought us for a couple of days we got it iron out and now it’s hauling ass. We have a good repeatable hot rod that does what I tell it to. The 60′ on the run was a .978, the best that we’ve been. I don’t know if anyone else has faster, I don’t pay attention just work on other folks catching up.” – Steve Jackson.We saw via Facebook Kenny Hubbard was looking for an adjustable ring compresser and ropped by the pits to check op on the Texas racer to find he was just fine and asking for his pit neighbor Thomas Patterson who hurt a piston in his earlier qualifying run in Outlaw 632. They were had finished the internal repairs and were wrapping up torquing down the heads.
Brad Fournier is running Ultimate Street with his 1986 Camaro based out of Orlando, Florida. He is on the new MT SS 275 and scored a 1.12 60' yesterday in qualifying, the best to date we have heard about on the new tire. He is qualified nineteenth so far and looking to get into the fours this weekend. The car sits on TRZ suspension all around with a front cross member from Atillio DeRosa's AA Perforamnce Power comes from a Nelson Competition small block Chevy with Wilson Nitrous plate system.
Jason Spinks in running X275 based out of Milton, Florida with his 1972 Chevelle he purchased back in 1994 and started racing it around 1997. Since then it has progressed to what he has now, inspired by attending a past race here where he fell in love with X275. He took about 5 years off racing the car on the build with Ricky Shelby Fabrication handling the cage upgrades and the other fabrication. Jason does his own engines, transmission and rear ends and is an automotive mechanic by trade working at Escambia Car Care. The Spinks Racing engine is topped with nitrous from Induction Solutions. David Adkins put his ls powered 63 Impala in the threes last night with a 3.97 after running several four oh’s this week. The crew from left to right, David Adkins, T.J Grimes, Kyle Homik and Jake Fox.
Final Qualifying Results
The qualifying sheets below are the latest available to us as the tower had a computer go down a few hours before we were finished. The classes that include ladders are up to date, Radial vs the World, X275, Outlaw 632 and Outlaw Drag Radial. Extreme Leaf Spring and Nitrous X are not the final qualifying sheets. We will have those tomorrow when they are available.
Nitrous X Q2, X275 Q3/final.
Outlaw 632 Q3 and Ladder, Ultimate Street.
Leaf Spring, Outlaw Drag Radial final Q and Ladder.
Ayres and Pearson were the first pair down in PTC Radial vs the World round one eliminations with Pearson bursting flames under the car passing 150 feet or so and pulling over as Ayres went down with the best run of his weekend scoring a 4.20 at 174 MPH. Keith Haney was paired with Kye Kelly with Kelly hiking the tires early in the race and doing his best to ride it out without lifting too much and slowing down significantly. Haney was able to ear the round in the exciting match with a 3.92 at 193.Alan Pittman went on to round two after his match with Billy Banaka. Both cars left hard but Banaka struck the tires and got out of shape quickly, then drifted across the track and doing a great job of wall avoidance and gettign the car stopped.Steve Jackson faced off with number 32 Carl Brunette in the ECO Tech powered ride of Carl Brunet. Brunet put up a valiant fight with his own 4.21 but fell to the Shadow 2.0 running a 3.82 at 198 MPH.DeWayne Mills met up with Marty Stinnett in RVW and taking a hard loss after striking the tires very early in the run. The crowd was quite displeased at the upset though Stinnett scored a nice 3 second pass on the run.Jeff Sitton also took an upset loss after he also could not hold on to the track. Mark Micke who had struggled in qualifying with wheel stands and managed an A to B run first round.
We are back at it for day three of official qualifying for Lights Out 8. The weather cooled off last night giving racers a hard time with the cool track temps aggravated by repeated stoppages and track clean up. Stay tuned in to Dragzine as we bring you the best same day coverage going.
The fence is lined with people today and the stands are quite full today with people from across the world on site to catch the action.
Chad Opaleski has struggled a bit recently keeping the front end down with his Fast Forward Race Egines built Procharged Hemi powered 1966 Chevelle. Today he sent the front and rear shocks to Menscer for some maintenance, a re-valve on the rear shocks and added some weight to the nose for the second round of Radial vs the World qualifying. Here John Mellon is working on the front shocks replacing the oil and seals before checking them out on their shock dyno at the Afco/Menscer Motorsports display and service trailer on manufacturers midway. Outlaw 632 racer Jim Aldus bolted on drag radials for the first time this weekend getting one clean pass so far running a 4.59 at 159 MPH yesterday. He will put an A to B tune in the car for today’s qualifying session then deal with going faster once he is solidly in the field. Aldus hails from Jacksonville, FL with power from Scotty’s Racing Technology in Spring Hill, Florida. Sponsors that help with the program are local businesses Performance Welding, and Precision Carpet Cleaning.There is always an interesting mix of cars here at Duck X events and this 1965 Skylark is a fine example. The car is owned by Cam Motions Steven Balusik from Tarpon Springs, Fl and is powered by a Fast Forward Race Engines LS topped with Dart heads and a Nitrous Outlet puck system. He is entered in 6.0 index and racing for the first time here at SGMP. We detailed the engine build over at out sister publication Engine Labs back in 2015 with Project Escalation making 700 HP on pump gas. He ran a 5.88 at 114 for a personal best ET and nabbing a 1.29 60′ for the hard launching Blackbird. He runs a Extreme Automatics overdrive trans with a Circle D converter.
Barry Mitchell made a test run in OL275 scoring a 3.78 on the pass. Once back at the trailer the team went right to work tearing into the engine to asses a problem. We will have more reporting on that later as the crew was busy, and tight lipped. His team mate Ziff Hudson has had troubles spooling the mustang and has yet to make a good pass in qualifying. They went right to work in the lap top looking for issues that are causing the problem. Steve Jackson put the Shadow 2.0 on top of PTC Radial vs the World this morning with a 3.78, his first full pass we witnessed.X275 had some action in qualifying with several racers in the 4.30’s. Here Dean Marinas scored a 4.30 at 162.At the end of the X275 session it would be Rob Goss at the top of the ladder with a 4.380 at 164.53. He can do better as this wasn’t really a clean pass.
Ryan Milliken from Hardway Performance in Fort Walton Beach, Florida has a new car this year after running his Cummins powered Dodge Ram here last year. The super clean Chevy II was purchased from Mickey Tessner then fitted with a new Cummins combo similar to his last engine dropping 1,000 in the car swap. The class rules allow for nitrous in straight 6 equipped cars, which helps building boost and adds a significant dose of power. Milliken ran a 5 teen with a soft tune earlier this week and he will be looking for some high four second runs once he gets some tuning done on the new combo.
The newest creation of the Pro Fab Performance Plus in New Port Richey, Florida is the Jeepenstein 2.0 finished just in time to debut here at Lights Out 8 entered in Extreme Leaf Spring. Owner Bob Stuller is based out of Tarpon Springs, Florida and qualified with a 5.74 at 137 in the first full pass on the new ride. The original Jeepenstein was powered by an AMC 360 on nitrous and ran some high 5 second runs with Bob competing in Lakeland Dragstrip's Cash Days program. Bob dropped the AMC engine, deeming it “too costly to go fast” and enlisted MPR to build a proper combo opting for a proven small block Ford few by a single turbo from Forced Inductions. “I have to give a big thanks and shout out to Kenny Ford and the folks at PTC for getting me back up and running with a fresh transmission.” Scotty G repeated his earlier 4.06 for a clean qualifying pass in Outlaw 275 running 181 MPH through the lights earning top qualifier in class after one session.
Shawn Ayers drives for Fletcher Cox who has his brothers car here who had passed away about a year and a half ago. The “Gold Dust” Fox body is a tribute to Dustin Runnels, son of Dusty Rhodes, WWE and WWF character Goldust, who Trell Cox was a long time fan of. The car is powered by a small block Ford with a single turbo out front and running in Pro 275 here this weekend where he qualified in class with a 4.36 at 145 on the first full run on the car.
Round One Qualifying Results Continued
RVW, Ultimate Street.
Outlaw 632, Outlaw Drag Radial, X275. Mark Woodruff moved up to second in RVW with a 3.835 at a new record 212.69 MPH out the back.
Baton Rouge, LA racer Jason Brock has his Skinny Kid Race Cars built RVW 2004 Mustang on the property and has made some consistent runs this week. He is qualified fifth so far with a .976 60' 3.902 at 189 MPH, a personal best and ran a 3.905 at 191 on his last qualifying run. The car is powered by a TRE 960 Chevy engine and backed my an M&M three speed transmission. A Holley Dominator engine management system runs the Precision injectors with the 5 nitrous systems from Switzer Dynamics. The car was formerly campaigned by Don Walsh Jr in Pro 5.0 and has a stock wheelbase sitting at 2380 pounds. Tom Baily is driving the Skinny Kid Hurst Olds after convincing Keith to put small tires on the new car that he campaigned last year on big tires. The only full run so far was a 4.32 at 185 putting him twenty-sixth in the field. The engine is an AJ Hemi topped with a PSI C rotor screw built by Billy Briggs.Paolo Giust ran well so far scoring a 4.02 at 189 putting him solidly mid pack in RVW in his debut weekend for his “Black Betty” Camaro which delivered here to the track by G Force Race Cars. He slowed slightly to a 4.04 last session and will be looking for the three second zone later tonight.
Frank Meshaw looked to be on a solid run till a bang came from the car on the top end and clearly getting some fluid under the car as it slid sideways and into the wall. He was out of the car quickly and word is he is uninjured if a bit shaken up. Lyle Barnett has piloted Jason Digby’s Dart to repeated record setting performances the past few weeks and it’s no exception here today as the car has gone quicker every run. He is the top qualifier in Extreme Leaf Spring now dropping the record to a 4.244 at 181 MPH, certainly an impressive feat on the oldest automotive suspension system around.Tony Alm put his car on top of Ultimate Street with a 4.76 at 147 MPH, significantly ahead of some other heavy hitters in the class so far. Tyler Crossnoe, Shaen Pevlor, Mike Freeman and Brian Keep round the top five.Barry Mitchell moved himself right up to the top of the class in the final session of the day with a 3.738, resetting his own record here tonight at Lights Out 8. Not to be outdone Steve Jackson took over number one spot with a 3.737Â just a few pairs later.Tim Kincaid earned a place in the field with this 3.99 at 169 in round the round two session.
Round Three Qualifying Results
PTC Radial vs the World, Pro 275.
KBX/Precision X275, Leaf Spring.
Frank Soldridge and Tim Kincaid were paired up late in RVW qualifying with Soldridge suffering what appears to have been some engine damage, oiling the track in the right lane. Soldridge had struggled getting the new combo figured out finally scoring a 3.96 at 181 in the previous session. Frank pulled over safely and stopped without incident beyond the necessary clean up time, about an hour before we were back racing. Jody Voyles has swapped hit nitrous small block for a PLR twin turbo combo and moved up to Outlaw Drag Radial. This is the debut event for the new set up and the team has uncovered and repaired several new car gremlins here testing this week. He has improved to a 4.49 at 169 on his final hit today in the PTC Radial vs the World class.
It’s the one we’ve all been waiting for, as radial racers and fans from around the world re-convene at the South Georgia Motorsports Park for the eighth edition of “The Night The Lights Went Out In Georgia”, where $50,000 will be on the line in the headlining Radial vs The World category. As we have for each of the last eight years, Dragzine will be on hand bringing you all of the behind-the-scenes coverage from one of drag racing’s most prestigious heads-up shindigs!
Ontario based racer Paolo Giust has a new car built for Radial vs the World by G Force Race Cars here for it’s race debut going by the name of “Black Betty” . Giust has been active in Pro Mod and Pro Boost with the PDRA recently where he drove his MSR powered C7 Corvette finishing eighth on the 2016 season. This car currently has the engine and B&J Quick Drive trans combo from the Vette with Menscer shocks out back and Chris Bell prepped struts up front. Jim Salemi and Jeff Pierce are tuning the car.
Fastmover Motorsports owner Chris Matters has his long term build finished with one lap under it's belt with Kevin Fiscus behind the wheel. The car is an original 2006 Saleen with power from an RGR built Ford GT Supercar 5.4 liter engine fed by a mid frame 85MM GEN II Precision turbo backed by an ATF 3 speed TH 400 transmission. Fiscus lifted as planned on the initial hit scoring a 4.85 making the team, and Chris very happy with the 1.17 60' and 3.13 half track numbers showing 4.6X potential already. Matters has deployed four times as active duty Navy during the six and a half year build causing significant delays. “This may be the only race I get to this year but the car will be campaigned and maintained by team FKR for the X275 season. Street Outlaws New Orleans racer Shannon Poole scored a 5.15 on his first pass with his new Corvette which has been referred to as “The car with no name”. The car is powered by a Poole Speed big Chevy topped with plenty of nitrous from Induction Solutions. Shannon will be running Outlaw 632 this weekend.Tyler Crossnoe is running his new car this weekend with a best so far of 4.89 after just 10 passes. Drew Sims from Pressurized Solutions was just setting the intake back on after an intake gasket repair this morning.This GTO is running in the small block No Time Shootout this weekend driven by Derrick Ford out of Maryland. The team recently sold their OL 10.5 operation and is going Pro Mod racing so came down for a little fun with the HFR built car using an Alan Miner built Pontiac engine.Our first action shots of Lights Out 8 are of Don Lamana who moved over to Pro 275 for this weekend and scored a new best 4.13 at 182 MPH this morning after running a 4.37 and a 4.23 yesterday for the Pro Fab Performance Mustang. The car is powered by a Pro Line Racing big Chevy topped with Frankenstein heads and twin Precision turbos with Haltech Engine Management. Other companies involved with the program include Salvato Designs, Real Street Performance, M&M Transmissions, Pro Torque and RC Components wheels.
Killin Time Racin's Jeff Sitton went right down Broadway, carrying the front wheels just a bit from fifty to 150 feet or so but not touching the “Safety Bars” running a 3.89 at 198 MPH. The team struggled some with this car at the US Street Nationals in Bradenton but were trying some new things Steve Jackson had told us. We will have more from the KTR crew later today.
Steven Fereday got into a wheel stand in Radial vs the World round two qualifying coming down hard around half track and flames bursting under the car on impact. He was able to get the car stopped and extract himself for the still burning car, thankfully without injury.
Billy Banaka is driving this Firebird now owned by Mike Bankston, seen pictured right, since July after purchasing it from Jason Harris where he competed in PDRA Pro Nitrous. It's Billy's first time on radials this weekend with five hits so far. Starting off with a 4.26 and running a best 4.03 at 195 last night. Lyle Barnett, Jason Digby and the team are making progress on the car scoring the Leaf Spring ET record in Bradenton and putting a 178 MPH pass here at SGMP today earning the top MPH for a Leaf Spring car.
Round One Qualifying Results
We were able to get just three classes finished for round one qualifying, running up against the eleven PM curfew during Radial vs the World after a couple of incidents on track and an extensive clean up due to an oil down. Outlaw 632, Outlaw Drag Radial and Ultimate Street were able to finish their sessions today. The run order is tentativly staying the same with PTC Radial vs the World to wrap up, then X275, Pro 275, Leaf Spring, Nitrous X and No Time. Tony Alm scored top qualifier after one session in Ultimate Street running a 4.76 at 147 MPH, just ahead of Tyler Crossnoe’s debut 4.771 qualifying pass.Brian Keep ran a nice 4.84 at 143 landing in fifth position for the Nitrous Outlet HRE powered entry.
Daddy Dave Comstock from Street Outlaw scored top qualifier in Outlaw Drag Radial with a 4.215 at 176. There is a bit more to this story though as Dave and Lil Country in Apocalypse was a little grudge match set up for round one qualifying in ODR. The pot rose over $5,000 before the pair made it to the line. Comstock went red on the tree giving up the 5K, sitting number one with Swanstrom at fourth with his 4.255 at 172 has to ease the pain just a little bit though. Ziff Hudson is on the hunt for the threes but had an issue in tonight qualifying session. He pedaled the car and it started climbing the ring gear right away forcing him to lift.Josh Klugger had a bit of a scare last night after the exhaust caught the carbon fiber fender on fire on the top end. Team mate Kevin Fiscus also had an incident driving for Andrew Aleppa where the Corvette sustained significant fire damage. Klugger qualified in RVW with a 4.03 but there is no official sheet yet.
Greg Trapnell based out of Australia brought his Holden HQ Monaro over two years ago for Dragweek and wound of leaving it stateside to race and fly back and forth for various events. He is entered in X275 this weekend running a 582 ci Chevy with NX Nitrous fogger. He has a unique induction set up running a Holley Dominator EFI with old school Hilborn Stacks. The Bruder Brothers shocked a lot of people debuting their new roots blown combo. This will be their second outing with the car including initial testing. They have struggled some but that’s not unexpected. The car looked good on a planned short pass and should provide some usable data for the team.
