World renowned radial tire race promoter Donald Long has been putting his money where his mouth is for nearly a decade now, hosting the “Woodstock” of drag races in the heart of South Georgia—but come next spring, he’ll be stepping into uncharted territory with the introduction of the richest heads-up racing payday in the sport with a one-of-a-kind event reserved for the Radial vs The World contingent.
Revealed today via social media in true Donald Long cut-right-to-the-chase fashion, the Mickey Thompson Performance Tires & Wheels Sweet 16 will award $101,000 to the winner. Planned tentatively for next March, just weeks after his Lights Out 9 event, the Sweet 16 will be contested at South Georgia Motorsports Park.
While the winner’s share of the purse is enough to get everyone in the sport talking, for Long, it’s as much about proving what he, SGMP’s Ozzy Moya and Wade Rich, and the baddest radial racers in the world can accomplish in a perfect racing scenario.
“Every time we leave Valdosta somebody puts on a race, and basically, you get three or four of the baddest cars and they’ll sit around until one or two o’clock in the morning and then everybody wants to prep the track for four cars and then say ‘look at us, look how fast we can go.’ We’re always trying to give 500 cars a good track and not just 16 or 20. So I want to do this for the guys in the class. We’re going to draw all the baddest people, we’re going to prep this track, and I don’t care if takes 300 gallons of glue to do it,” he says.
The event will feature just a single eliminator, with a 16-car qualified field and potentially a second chance race for what Long suggested may be a $5,000 to $10,000 winner’s payout, depending on the number of entries at $2,000 a pop. Just 500 spectators will be permitted entry, making it a truly exclusive racing event unlike any other in drag racing.
The race date is now slated for March 22-24, 2018, with testing and qualifying taking place on Friday and eliminations on Saturday.
UPDATED LIST: Those already locked-in include Steve Jackson, DeWayne Mills, Marty Stinnett, Mark Simmons, Taylor Lastor, Dean Marinis, Barry Mitchell, Norm Bryson, Andrew Alepa Racing, Chris Daniel, Keith Haney, Mark Woodruff, Isaac Preston, Frank Soldridge, Frankie Taylor, Scotty Cannon, Nick Agostino, and Jamie Hancock, Bryan Markiewicz, Fletcher Cox/Shawn Ayers, Chris Kneece, Rodney Whatley, Steven Fereday, Mark Micke, Bill Lutz, David Reese, Marty Robertson, Jeremy Evans, Kyle Huettel, Reggie Rabbit, Larry Roach, Ryan Martin, Joe Albrecht, Tommy Passalacqua, Jeff Naiser, Eric Gustafson, Tim Kincaid, Bankston Boyz Racing (two cars), Jason Hoard, Jerry Mitrovic/Sliskovic, Todd Tutterow, David Monday, Tommy Rainer, Mo Hall, Tom Bailey, Ziff Hudson, David Mallory, Dwayne Watkins, Paolo Giust, Josh Klugger, Enzo Pecchini, Leroy Nabors, Tylor Miller, Mark Kyger, Kye Kelley, Ruben Tetsoshvili, Randy Lambert, and Ronald Fisher.
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