The final day of racing is upon us here at No Mercy 8. It’s going to be a mad dash to try and beat the weather and the racing is ready to begin.
Scotty Guadagno’s calling card for many years has been his fourth-generation Camaro known as “Jet Blue”, but things have changed. As a class racer, Guadagno was always a tough customer, but now he’s striking fear into the heart of the No Time racing world with his new car known as the “Party Wagon”. This Jerry Bickel built Camaro is already ruffling some feathers and Guadagno is okay with that because his team is all about having fun at the track.
Picking up this new car was actually not in the plans for Guadagno, but things fell into place and he rolled with the hand he was dealt. “I really wasn’t looking for a car, but found this one when a friend had it for sale and we struck a deal on the car. It has gotten to the point where my blue car really doesn’t fit in anywhere anymore so it made sense to try something new. We wanted to do some big tire and Pro Mod racing, so this car just fit that perfectly. We’re going to do local stuff with this car when it comes to Pro Mod, no PDRA or anything like that, it’s all about having fun for us,” Guadagno says.
The Camaro is powered by one a Scotty’s Racing Engines 904 cubic-inch engine and is set up to become a 940 cubic-inch monster with the swap of a crankshaft. Guadagno also plans on using either a two, or three-speed transmission after he starts to feel the car out. The plan is to have the Camaro ready to run multiple combinations depending on the conditions at the track.
The No Time racing came about for Guadagno as a way to get laps on the car, have fun shine getting ready for some serious racing in 2018. “The plan is after the New Year we’re going to start testing hard in January, but not for Radial vs The World in February, we will be preparing for the $101,000 race in March that we’ve already entered. We’re going to spend a few months really testing hard to see what the car wants and the goal is to run at the front of the pack at that race, even win it if things work out,” Guadagno explains.
You will see Guadagno’s Camaro in Pro Mod trim soon doing some testing at Orlando and Bradenton before he begins the process of getting ready for his shot at radial tire glory this March.
Lyle Barnett has had a wild weekend in the Toothjerker but is working towards a No Mercy win. "We struggled this week and is unusually for us. We loosened the front end up to get on the tire and it did that big time. It went into the wheel stand and I couldn't see the wall or track, but the car is getting a new nose and paint job so I decided to stab back in it and get the round win. Pete got us tuned up and we went a 4.21 for round two so we're ready. As long as I'm on the tree I think we're going to give Hustead a race in the semi-final round." Thrashes going on everywhere in the pits before heads-up racing begins…DeWayne Mills has been to the semifinals many times at Duck X races so he’s no stranger to what it takes to win on the biggest radial tire stage. ” We’re sure not turning it down, as long as I’m on the tree we should be in good shape. I think it’s going to take mid 3.70s to even have a chance. If you look at the sheet you see 4-5 cars in the 70s and I don’t see anybody backing down at this point.”
We stopped by Ben Curry's pit this morning and spoke with his step father Roy Kees about the teams weekend. They run a 1969 Yenko themed Nova in Limited 275 running in the high 4.70 range based out of Ruston, Louisiana. “We changed the gear before we came here and changed a few things here chasing the tune up and running a little off our usual 4.70 numbers but had a good weekend anyway before going out this morning, we swung at the fence this morning and got a couple of plugs early in the run but still managed a 4.76. I gotta thank Kenny Hubbard for helping tune the car and NRC for the power and Menscer shocks.” Roy Kees. Ben has experience in bracket racing and took over driving the Nova this year after Roy got shut down by the Dr. with a leaky heart valve requiring open heart surgery. “ It was long, it was hot, having some car trouble but did the best we could thanks to a good tuner and my dad taking care of the car, and we had fun” Ben Curry Josh Klugger has a bye into the finals of Pro 275 in his first time on the little tire. “We have already gone the fastest pass at weight for the class with a 4.04 while qualifying in RVW for the class record. We haven’t tried to push it to hard and very consistent making a string of runs in the 4.0s to 4.10 range. I’ve had less steam in a sauna so hopefully the weather cooperates and doesn’t get much worse” – Josh Klugger. From left to right, Josh Klugger, Johnny Drama and Steve Cooks.
Dewayne Mills faced off with the Scotty Cannon/Alan Pittman entry in the semi final scoring a win with a 3.75 at 208 to Pittman's 3.83 at 193 MPH. “We did good in qualifying and freshened the engine for eliminations and it's all been going good. Josh and Jamie been doing a good job and my wife has been helping out with whatever and putting up with me this weeknd. Just thank God it's all goin good. We been running 208 to 209 and it's getting a little hot, the water grains are up and it should be an interesting final. We didn't come for second, that's a fact..” - Dewayne Mills Steve Jackson faced off with Daniel Pharris in the semi final of PTC Radial vs the World scoring a .952 60′, 3.78 at 197 with a quick pedal to keep the front end down on his way to a win with Pharris loosing traction and slowing to a 4.37 at 165 setting up a turbo vs blower final with Dewayne Mills’ Golden Gorilla.
Final Event Results
Mills had lane choice going into the RVW final with Steve Jackson and was favored on paper with a more consistent car this weekend but you never know what will happen with these cars. They were the first pair out once we got to the finals and the surface had been good all weekend so it was anyone’s guess what the Killin Time Racing crew would throw at the Shadow 2.0. Jackson was out first with an ..022 reaction but Mills was already out front before Jackson banged the blower past the 330′ to earn the back to back No Mercy 7 and 8 wins.“These guy brought it, my job was to soak my finger in some Red Bull so maybe it will react a little quicker. He had a .022 light to my .040 so I gave up a little bit there but Jamie and Tim had a killer tune up in it and she cycled down through there, we had him reeled in about two hundred feet out and he wasn’t make it to the stripe ahead of me at that point. These guys had it sped up in the heat of the day and if it spun it wasn’t that big a deal but it’s always nice to win, we didn’t come to lose. We needed to throw us a bone after moving to the Hemi over the winter and struggled getting a handle on it but sometimes you have to take a step back to go forward and she’s running good now. We have great people behind us with Pro Line Racing, Jamie Miller, Tim Davis and Josh Watson and my wife Tara and daughter Kallee, shoot man I love it when a plan comes together. We ran a best ET here last year and again today, save the best for last and got her done.” DeWayne Mills. Photo courtesy Chris SimmonsThe semi finals of X275 featured Shane Heckel against Tyler Stubbe in an all Texas match up first with Heckel taking the starting line advantage by .023. The pair were tied together to the stripe with Heckel earning the win with a 4.490 to Stubbe’s 4.495. Mean Dean Marinis met with number thirteen qualifier Alan Felts who was running in the low 4.50’s throughout eliminations before striking the tires against Marinis.
“We mopped em up, swept em up, did whatever we had to do, it was a good race, glad they moved it up and we got it all in. Some tight competition out there and want to say congrats to all the guys that qualified, all the guys that showed up here. Track was best it's ever been, on point all weekend. The sun was beating it up and it held whatever we put down. We are constantly testing making things better for the nitrous boys, thanks to Sebastian at AMS we have come a long way.” - Dean Marinis. Marinis uses BES horsepower with a Proformance Transmission and NCRC lock up converter, UPR, ATI, AMS 2000, Book Racing Carburetors and Speedtech Nitrous. Limited Drag Radial had twenty four cars make the call for round one with number eighteen qualifier Bill Futch going low ET in a win over Jack Green. Shane Stack took that position for round two with a 4.19 with Lyle Barnett and Futch scoring a pair of 4.21’s of their own taking out Richard Reagan and Jody Voyles respectively. Round three saw Stack and Futch face off with Futch spinning the tires and Stck showing a 4.208 at 181. Travis Esselman also laid down a 4.20 that round earning lane choice over Scott Husted in the semi finals. Husted put his fourteenth qualified Dunedin Lanes sponsored Mustang in the final on a holeshot .035 reaction to Esselman’s .097 earning a win with a 4.28 at 180 to Esselman’s quicker 4.22 at 184 setting up the final round with Shane Stack who had the earned single that round. Stack got away first in his trusty Monte Carlo with Husted kicking the tires a few feet out after a long difficult weekend and Stack going on to win and getting loose down track and working the steering wheel to keep it off the wall slowing to 158 MPH on a 4.28 ET.“That LDR series is a whole of fun, it’s one thing to have races to go to but that points thing, it gives you something to look forward to and strive for at each race. You get close to the end it really works on your nerves, can’t sleep..it was a lot of fun, lot of good guys in this class. We struggled the first three racers but found ourselves these last three and really did well, locking up the series championship last night. The .28 in the final was the slowest pass all weekend where she slipped the tirea bit and moved over towards the wall, besides that we ran anywhere from a 4.19 to a .26.” It’s been eleven years since Shane has won a championship and this is his first win here at SGMP No Mercy or Lights Out event so this one is especially sweet for the Shane and the Stack Racing crew.Limited Drag Radial Runner Up Scott Husted.Pro 275 had a lot of broken cars in round one with Don Lamana setting low ET and personal best for the round with a 4.10 at 182. Round two saw Josh Klugger ego low ET for the round with a 4.10 of his own and Lamana timing out while staging against Charles Potter, a tough break for Team Pro Fab after preparing upgrading the car over the summer and some engine issues repaired this week by Pro Line Racing after pulling the engine here at SGMP. Ziff Hudson dispatched with Jeff Shawver with a 4.14 to Shawver’s 4.29. Round three saw some tight racing and low ET’s with four of six cars running 4.17 or better and Hudson, Klugger and Richard Reagan making it through to the semis. Once there is was Reagan the slowest of the group going A to B in a win over Ziff Hudson with another consistent mid 4.30 pass and Klugger setting low ET again with a 4.07 at 194 on his bye run. The final saw Reagan kill the tree with a.006 when he needed it the most and spun and slowed to a 5.76 to Klugger’s very safe 4.24 at 194 MPH to earn the class win in his first time ever on the 275 tires after wrapping up the NMCA Radial Wars Championship.“We couldn’t have done it without the crew, it was an unbelievable weekend especially for the first time out on 275’s. Jamie Miller and the Red Hat Mafia just picked away at it and picked away at it, we had a bracket car all weekend and the weather was absolutely wretched this weekend. Wade did the most incredible job keeping the track up, it didn’t get greasy once all weekend. I gotta thank Garrett Turbo, Pro Line Engines, Proformance Transmissions, Pro Torque, Mickey Thompson Tires, Fuel Tech, VP Fuels, Menscer Motorsports, I’m sure I’m missing some right now. I just didn’t see this happening, just an incredible weekend. We just came off winning our world championship with NMCA, that was sweet but this is just as sweet. We went to the finals in the last three races winning two out of three. This is the last race for us for the year and we have another car being built that we will have out some time next year. I’m just going to enjoy the winter and see how the cards play out next year with everything” – Josh Klugger
Once into the semi finals of Ultimate Street it was Mark Rogers with a bye and Shawn Pevlor paired up with Joel Greathouse on the other side of the ladder. Rogers ran it hard to a 4.738 at 148 looking for lane choice and earned it cutting an .002 light in the process. Greathouse ripped off an .017 for his efforts putting him out front of Pevlor early in the run. Both cars ran hard with Greathouse extending his lead to the stripe with his best of eliminations 4.744 at 148.95 to Pevlor's 4.752 at 147.88. “We got here late and really wanted to test but with the weather pushing things up we didn’t have a chance. We unloaded and ran pretty good but had issues about every run with something being broke or fixed but we prevailed. Had a good semi final against a good friend and nemesis Shawn Pevlor. In the finals both cars strike the tires and it’s up for anybody at that point. I hesitated myself and took my chance because I knew if I got right back in it it would probably spin the tires again, and it stuck and went and got the win. I have to thank John Kolivas, Justin McChesney, Ben Thomas, the whole group, everybody worked hard this weekend to get us in the final.” Greathouse runs out of KBX Performance with Pressurized Solutions and Bennett Racing Engines and uses Pro Torque converters. Photo Courtesy Chris SimmonsOutlaw 632 had some tight competition with twenty seven cars in class and top qualifier Ken Quartuccio rolling through the beans in round two allowing a bit of relief to the rest of the field. Dominic Augustine based out of Mooresville, NC set low ET in that round with a 4.35 over Stefan Patterson and Florida based racer Jim Aldous earning a win over Robert Martin’s 67 Chevelle with a 4.446. He met Shannon Wix in round three ending his weekend after falling of to a 4.50 to Wix’s 4.43 at 161. The semis saw Augustine and Kenny Rodriguez paired up and Wix facing off with John Cipolla from East Islip, New York. Augustine earned lane choice with a 4.35 and Wix improving to a 4.41 at 161. He put up an .011 reaction in the final to Augustine’s .067 but slowed to a .48 at 160 and wasn’t able to hold off the hard running 65 Chevelle of Augustine running a 4.39 at 161 to earn the event win.Limited 275 had a good showing of twenty six cars with Josh Minzenmayer earning top qualifier in a very competitive class with most cars in the 4.8 to 4.9 range and a handful in the 4.70’s. Minzenmayer was clearly consistently set low ET for the round before falling off in round four to a 4.93 on a single and low ET for the round going to Ralph Howard’s 4,712 at 148 in his win over Derek Lewis. Once in the final it was clear Mizenmayer was hurt and the team pushed the car forward and Josh took the tree under his own power after no burnout earning the runner up finish as Howard (far lane) ran right down the track to a winning 4.737 at 148.Nitrous X had several double entered cars in class with Shawn Pevlor the number one qualifier. He faced down NMRA racer Aaron Bates in round one. Casey Buschmeyer scored a win over Zane Owen and Matt Schlein moving on to the next round with a 5.07 at 120 over Forrest Kennedy. Schlein had a single to the final with Christopher Witzel not able to make the call to the lanes and Pevlor running a 4.69 to earn his place in the final where number one and three qualifiers met and Pevlor earning the class win over Schlein who banged the engine approaching half track with Pevlor scoring another 4.70 to take the win.
Scotty Gudagno waded his way through the NT 29 Class meeting up with J.R. Gray in the final earning a decisive win putting a gap on the orange Camaro.
“Everything was good you know..all the years coming here and this is my sixth final and two class wins in a year so we are feeling really good about that and the new car with two wins with it in two events debuting in Milan a month ago. The track was killer, It was so good having Wade do his magic a hundred percent, at hot as it was here this weekend the track was unbelievable. Big shout out to Donald for putting on this deal and with Big Country and letting us in come in with this thing, we are fortunate enough we won so I gotta thank both of them. The car was flawless this weekend, we didn't have to touch it really in four days, every thing is great right now.” - Scotty G.
6.0 Index Winner Todd Comer in the far lane took the class win over Hunter Burgess’s 66 Chevelle in a very tight match with just .001 separating their reaction times and Comer running a 6.033 to Burgess’ 6.035 making it just a .003 margin of victory, probably the closest race here this weekend in any class.
X275 and Ultimate Street
Radial vs the World and Pro 275.
Open Comp and Nitrous X.
Outlaw 632 and Limited Drag Radial.
Limited 275
6.0 Index. Today is the day, eliminations begin here at No Mercy 8. The track crew at SGMP is getting the surface ready for a full day of racing.
What goes up, must come down, and it's usually a rough landing here at SGMP...
Cynthiana, Kentucky based racer Andrew Johnson recently purchased this Jerry Haas built 57 Chevy recently swapping in the Procharged Alan Johnson Hemi from the teams Top Dragster. Has raced Top Dragster for 10 years in NHRA Division three as part of a father/son team before moving over to Top Sporstman with the new car with an eye on some radial racing. This is the first weekend on the tire with a best run so far of 4.01 at 186 MPH putting him eighteenth in PTC Radial vs the World after three rounds. The car went for the sky in round three qualifying bending up the wheelie bar and some other minimal damage. The crew had the bar repaired by when we dropped by the pits later and said they would be good to go for round one eliminations this morning in the weather induced early start of eliminations Tropical Storm Nate. Andrew uses FTI transmissions and converters with Comp Sync fuel injection. This unique build has a steel roof and quarters and is a titled car with a VIN, surely things you don't see too often at this level anymore.
David Pearson has been a fixture at South Georgia Motorsports Park whenever there is a Duck X Promotions race going on. He can usually be found towards the top of the qualifying sheet and going deep into the rounds on race day. At Lights Out 8 this past February, Pearson had a rough time, to say the least when his famous Fox Body Mustang experienced a devastating engine fire and crash that put him on the sideline until now.
Things went sideways for Pearson at Lights Out when a simple part failed and set into motion a chain of events that would lead to his Mustang going up in flames and tagging the wall. “A distributor belt broke and that totally messed up the timing of the motor, burnt a head gasket and then started the fire. The head and block both had to be welded up and repaired after the failure occurred. It didn’t hurt a piston, just trashed the block and head pretty bad so we got really lucky there. As for the body damage, I just pushed the quarter panel out and called it a day, I haven’t even had the new nose painted yet,” Pearson says.
The level of damage was pretty serious and led to Pearson taking an extended break from racing just to recharge. “I literally threw the motor in the car right before we decided to come to this event. The car had been sitting in my garage and actually had a thick layer of dust on it. For me, feels good to be back at the track and racing after the break, though,” Pearson explains.
Getting back to the track for Pearson really wasn’t a small feat at all and he appreciates the help he received. “It cost a lot of money and took a ton of help from friends and family to get the car put back together. Bennett helped out a lot to get the motor put back together and if it wasn’t for them this would never have happened,” Pearson says.
Overall, the only big change Pearson made to the car and engine for No Mercy was switching from M1, back to gasoline and the car seems to be responding. For Pearson and his team, this is more about performing well as a tribute to a fallen friend. “We really wanted to come to this event and do well for Mustang Mike. He was a huge influence and taught us so much about racing, I wanted to do good for him and keep his memory alive,” Pearson explains.
The plan for eliminations is simple for Pearson, starting tapping into the power that he hasn’t used yet and go rounds. “The car felt slow at the start of the event and went a 4.17, but it has a lot more in it that we are going to bring out. It will run some 4.00s in Pro 275 trim this weekend for sure. Our plans are to just race the track and go A to B as much as possible to win,” Pearson says.
Look for Pearson to fly the Mustang Mike flag with pride this weekend as he marches his own car towards a big victory at No Mercy in the Pro 275 class.
Ken Quartuccio sits on top of Outlaw 632 with a 4.29 at 170 though he did improve on that ET while testing in RVW scoring a 4.27, also at 170. The team struggled the last two races here due to o ring failures in the ¼ turn valves used in the nitrous line causing bits to clog the filters to the solenoids. Yes they were replaced after the first time. Yes, there are no longer ¼ turn valves anywhere near the car this weekend along with new bottles and lines. Look for the East Side Performance crew to hurt more feelings here at No Mercy 8 in the C&S Performance powered, Jamie Miller tuned machine.
Cameron Johnson has his new grudge car out this weekend after a thrash session to make repairs after bending it up a little doing initial testing in South Carolina's House of Hook. “The Warden” was built in house at Pro Fab Performance in New Port Richey, Florida. The build took about eight months to complete and just over a week to repair cutting the rear section off and replacing that, control arms, quarter panels and too many other things to list. Johnson sends a big thanks to Darren Zuccaro for the use of the shop for repairing the car, Don Lamana, Mark Michlovitz, Matt Larue and Troy Fedora from Pro Fab, Andrew Richards and many others who helped with time and parts. Jamie Hancock is assisting with the tunes in the car via wi fi from home with his new baby and family and Cameron earned a win vs The Memphis gangster last nights grudge session.
Lil Country had a match with Bodie and the California crew earning the win in a very tight battle after a long day waiting for parts and getting new pistons in for the match. The 28/29 NT Grudge class is filled with capable cars this weekend with plenty of opportunities for side wagers and hurt feelings. Scotty G and Team Jet Blue has a new car that has put the class on notice and already made waves in the community and may, or may not be responsible for some racers absence here this weekend.
California based racer Jeff Kyle has been racing the Limited Drag Radial series with this being the last race in the series here this weekend. The car is a former X275 car formerly owned and driven by Wes Whittle and is a former class winner here. The car is powered by Bennet Racing with the KBX/Pressurized Solutions team doing the turbo piping and chassis upgrades. “I want to give a special thanks to John Kolivas, John Bennett, Derek and Drew with team KBX, M&M Transmissions, Pro Torque and my brother Quinn who is the crew chief and in the end makes it go, he is the top guy for sure and integral to our success.” Jeff Kyle
Bringing a new car to a big race can be a trying experience for even a seasoned team, especially when the new car blues set in when you’re attempting to make the field. Fortunately for Jeff Sitton, he is part of Killing Time Racing and they don’t show up with to a race without being prepared. Sitton’s new Jerry Bickel Camaro is a thing of beauty and is going to be running anywhere it can fit in.
Sitton’s old car Hyde was a fearsome nitrous machine but wasn’t really built for radial tire racing. With that in mind, Sitton commissioned a new car to be constructed that would be more capable to run on the small tires. “A lot of what went into the car came from our experience racing on small tires. We had already spent a lot of time radial racing so we knew what corrections needed to be made with the new car. A lot of engineering changes had to be made on this car going from the last one to get it right.” Sitton says.
The new car has some interesting attributes to it that are going to serve it very well as Sitton starts to put the laps in racing anywhere he can. “Both my car and Stevie’s car are close, but one car has some better characteristics than the other in different areas. The safety innovations on the new car were actually prompted by Stevie. Since this car is going to go race big tire stuff, we wanted to address what could happen when you blow a tire out, so we added some protection in the driver’s area,” Sitton says.
Sitton goes into further detail about how much better the new car is to drive and what changes were made to the motor program. “We did put some thought in this blower motor setup we’re running now. We haven’t run it long enough to see if the improvements we made are worth it yet. We wet to Darlington with the car two different weekends to test, so it has nine runs on it and the car lined out fairly quick. It’s a night and day difference between the new car and old car. This one is built to handle radials when the old one wasn’t. You can feel it when you drive the car, it’s smooth and just a lot easier to get down the track,” Sitton explains.
After No Mercy, Sitton is going to start doing more testing on the Camaro to get ready to run a variety of classes. “We’re going to hit testing hard and fast for sure very soon. The car is going to be run in the PDRA and NHRA at some point after this. We are going to start testing it on big tires after this race so we can get it figured out for Pro Mod racing. It will be run in the PDRA Pro Boost class, and then later in the season next year we are going to run some NHRA with it,” Sitton says.
When it comes to racing Sitton doesn’t mix his words at all, this team is hungry and ready to take on anybody. “We’re going to come full throttle and hit it hard, this car is going to surprise some people after we get it sorted out. I would love to get some grudge racing in too, we’ll race anybody, anytime, anywhere,” Sitton says with a smile.
Andrew DeMarco brought his “White Girl Wasted” Mustang to SGMP for some X275 action after running the class at this years Yellow Bullet Nationals for the first time. He is doing well with his new engine combo from ABT Maching scoring two final round appearances since NMCA Joliet. “We never even thought about running this class but Vortech sent us an X275 legal blower which we tried at Yellow Bullet with my crew guy Jay talked me into running. We did pretty good running a 4.48 and lost in the finals there and come to find out we found a broken converter which had been hurt for about twenty runs or so. “We went a 4.45 last night and pulled a little power out for first round today. I think we have potential to go 4.40 or so now once its all said and done, it went 1.08, 2.92 which is pretty stout, so far so good. We plan a full NMCA schedule next year with some X racing on top of it.” - Andrew Demarco. “White Girl Wasted” doing the “Blowflex” in X275 round one elims this morning earning a berth in round two with a 4.52 at 158 shown at right.
Dean Marinis qualified number one in X275 yesterday with Dean feeling a little miss on the run. Inspection found it needed some TLC and the crew put a piston in it over night and it's firing all eight now scoring a round win with a 4.44 at 168 over Dan Christopher. Marty Chance landed third in X275 qualifying running this weekend after suffering some damage to the other piece last weekend. “We had a few things going against this weekend after scattering the engine testing last Saturday. “We had another engine from Disomma on the shelf I have had most of the year but no data or tunes ups with it so we threw it in and decided to fumble around with it ourselves…Things are starting to fall in line after testing here this week finally running a 4.42 in round one qualifying and we are on to round two eliminations today.”Outlaw 632 racer Jim Aldous broke in the 4.40’s this weekend for the first time making the Shag Nasty Racing crew happy. He started out with a 4.49 and improved a bit before hurting a piston/rings on Tuesday. After the repair Jim scored a 4.43 so everything is good to go for eliminations where he will try to go a little better depending on track conditions. Aldus uses Scotty’s Racing Technology horsepower topped with Induction Solutions nitrous, Proformance Transmission and Pro Torque Converter with Proformance Welding and Precision Carpet Cleaning on board as sponsors. From left to right; Dave Kennedy, James, Stacey Covey, Anna Taylor and Jim Aldous.
Updated Qualifying and Round Sheets
Nitrous X, OL 632, Pro 275, Pro 275 Ladder.
Nitrous X ladder. LDR Ladder, Limited 275, X275 Round 2.
In round two of PTC RVW Mark Micke pulled a .975 60' on his way to a round win over Barry Mitchell scoring a new best 3.76 at 201 to Mitchell's 3.82 at 192. He met with Daniel Pharris in round three but struck the tires at the hit with Pharris rolling out to a 3.79 at 210, a very solid run for the round. Steve Jackson got by Keith Haney’s Enigma running a 3.82 to Haney’s 3.89 in a very close race. Jackson went on to set low ET with a 3.750 at 198 against Tim Slavens, who ran a nice 3.84 at 205 but was -.001 red ending his weekend earlier than he would have liked.Dwayne Mills paired with Jeff Sitton who had to pedal his car after the front end came up early in the run. Mills scored a 3.75 at 208 MPH on the run to advance to the semi-final round.Marty Stinnett was paired with Alan Pittman in RVW round three and did his job in the tree with a .045 reaction to Pittman’s .088 when the tree dropped. However, Stinnett lost traction early in the run and had to pedal the car to a 4.26 at 185 in a losing effort to Pittman’s 4.011 at 189 MPH.Ron Hamby was paired with Kenny Hubbard in Pro 275 earning the round win with a 4.43 but, lost the hood in the lights after a massive nitrous backfire. It just may be a long night for Ron and crew to prepare for Saturday with the multi-class entered Corvette.In Ultimate Street George Farkouh earned a hole shot win over Tony Alm with both racers scoring identical ET’s. His .031 bettered Alm’s .043 reaction time.A nice 4.21 at 181 in Limited Drag Radial for Lyle Barnett in the Tooth Jerker Leaf Spring Mopar owned by Jason Digby. Barnett has had his hands full today earning the prior round win as he had to drive through double wheelie at the top end.Things got busy at SGMP as soon as the gates opened today. Racers were lined up as far as the eye can see going through tech and getting ready to take their two qualifying shots today.
Jeff Naiser made a clean hit last night in Radial vs The World in his NRC powered Camaro. The 903 cubic-inch engine still has a lot left in it and the team plans on using the power when they can. "The plan this weekend is to be consistent run high 70s low 80s. The first session we went up there with a conservative tune-up down low to get in and now we're going to get after it. Today it's going to be in the sun so we will have to race the track in the first session and turn it up in the second." Ultra Street standout Joel Greathouse made the trip to No Mercy trying to expand on his performance from the Yellowbullet Nationals. “We hurt an engine earlier this year so we haven’t made many races. The engine program has been great so the only thing we really played with was the cam profile that’s it.”
Ron Hamby has pulled off the double victory at Lights Out before in two different classes and he's here at No Mercy to do the same. "We're here to double up again in LDR and Pro 275. For both classes we really just change tires and play with weight and that's it. The car has been 4.12 with this big Pat Musi engine in it so we have the power to win again for sure, we will just have to control it." John Keesey has put a lot of time into upgrading his Mustang and the results are beginning to show early in the weekend here at SGMP. “Right now we’ve started off at Yellowbullet and just found a lot of things that needed to be changed like the stator in the converter and the rearend. At this event, we’re starting over again and have been creeping up on it again. I really want to see it touch the .40s and with some chassis adjustments, it should be there.
TJ Gatlin and his crew had their hands full with a major engine thrash this morning. They were trying to get everything buttoned up before the first round of qualifying in X275 today. Jason Rueckert is leading the LDR class after round 1 of qualifying and is already bringing some race tactics into his approach for the rest of the weekend. “We’re debating on if we’re going to go out for the day session or sit it out for the night session. I think we’re going to be in cloud conditions for the rest of the event so I want to have my go-to tuneup for that.”
Dustin Mewbourn had a bad day at the office driving for Tommy Rainer in his Radial vs The World Camaro. At the top end of the track his car experienced catastrophic drive shaft failure that broke the tail shaft of the transmission, destroyed the drive shaft tube, and covered the inside of the car with fluid. Thankfully, Dustin was okay after this scary accident.
Brian Keep has left the fold and gone Procharger in his 1998 Camaro over the summer after finally tiring of the maintenance and upkeep on a small block nitrous combo. Brian pulled the trigger and went for the boost using the same engine as before from Hameetman Race Engines with new Diamond pistons and Total Seal rings on the fresh build. The blower is driven by an ATF Gear Drive and backed with an ATF Trans and Converter. He scored a 4.98 on his second full run and is qualified seventh in Ultimate Street with a 4.901 at 143.58 today. “ We learned it's got plenty of power, it's plenty of room to go to the top of the class, we changed to a Haltech engine management system, I gotta thank Haltech and Victor there for all the help with the new system, we took the time on the dyno and learn what we needed to learn to make it work. Does everything we asked it to. I been wanting to go with the blower for a while now and went right to M1 and the blower, the boost is a lot of fun and we are just getting into it.” - Brain Keep From left to right, Mark, Charity fro Nauti Chick Racing and Brian Keep. Temple, Georgia based David Reese has been running local no times races with the Corvette recently while testing radials on the car preparing to come here. His first test pass here was a 3.86 and he left it alone for last night’s qualifying repeating the .86. “I’m blessed with my younger brother being able to fund the car and take it were I want to go with it, we plan to be here in February and again in March for the $100,000 invitational. I want to thank my wife Mandy for putting up with all this stuff and being there to support, Terry Parise who does all my engine work, and Chuck Ford who handles the blower. ” David ReeseMarty Stinnett shocked the crowd with the run, scoring a 3.77 at 197 to move up to number one in Radial vs the World round two qualifying.
Marty Stinnett is fresh off a runner up season with NMCA Radial Wars before coming here this weekend. “We had ideas to take off a few pounds, up the turbos to some 94 MM units and push the car a little harder and it’s working very well so far” says tuner Wade Hopkins from Southern Speed Racing. The team worked hard racing NMCA this year and it payed off with a runner up finish on the season. Intent on coming to No Mercy 8 to play hard and run with the big boys the crew went to work removing weight and changing to the Garrett 94 MM turbos and generally going over the car with a fine tooth comb. They scaled the car, put on a new rear wing to aid down force them before they knew it were changing quite a few more things than they thought going in. Whatever they did payed off with a 4.771 at 197.33 MPH in the second session of Radial vs. the World.
“We took the weight out of it we run for NMCA, got a new wing on the back, it’s feels good yeah, Southern Speed Racing does all the chassis work and set up on the car actually, believe it or not, as well as it was working we changed a bunch of things on it. It was amazing it was working at all. That Jeff Burns Racing Engine small block Chevy there, Dave’s Proformance Transmission, Wade Hopkins at the lap top tuning it, brother she’s getting it, we’re pretty tickled, the Lord’s blessed us, no doubt about it.” said Stinnett. Elaborating further he said, “Woo Hoo! What do you say? A small block just went a 3.77!!” – Marty Stinnett.
Another NMCA competitor Mark Woodruff is here this weekend with a fresh piece from Nelson Competition topped with new billet heads from Sonny's. This unit measures 570 inches compared with the 522 he has been running. He went 3.86 at 203 today with the A to B tune in it and comparing data he should have a hot rod once the new beast is unleashed. “We have Joe O from Hyperaktive, Jamie Miller is doing the tune up on the car, we put a new FT 600 in it, just put all new gates and blow off valves and 106 MM turbos. It should make about another twenty five pounds of boost and eight hundred more horsepower than out NMCA legal set up in this trim.” Mark Woodruff. Fresh off a season championship with the NMCA in Radial Wars Josh Klugger sits on top of Pro 275 with a 4.08 at 191 MPH from last nights session. Watch out y’all team FKR is coming. Johnny Drama (front) with Steve Cooks shown.Ken Quartuccio got in on the RVW round two session scoring a 4.29 which he would repeat in Outlaw 632 qualifying landing number one in class with a 4.293 at 170 MPH.Shawn Pevlor goes a 4.74 in Ultimate Street going number one in the second round. Shawn runs Haltech fuel management, RPM Transmissions, Nitrous Express plate and a BES engine topped with a Wilson Manifolds Fat Mouth throttle body, VP Fuels and ICE ignition with Kevin Neal assisting with the nitrous tunes.
Round Two Qualifying Sheets
Final Qualifying Results
Drag radial racing’s elite return to the South Georgia Motorsports Park this week for a 2017 encore performance with the eighth running of Duck X Productions’ No Mercy.
The action is underway here at No Mercy with a change in the schedule. Due to the pending weather the choice was made to try and run a full round of qualifying tonight.
Tim Slavens had a rough start to his weekend here at No Mercy in his Radial vs The World Camaro. "We tried to lean it a bit more out on the top end and it pushed a head gasket out so that burnt the head a bit. The motor could be run with just a gasket change, but we have the spare here so we changed it out. " Tony Alm blew a head gasket during testing on his new 351 cubic-inch Ford engine. The fresh turbo mill has only been to the track one time prior and Alm is still trying to work on getting the engine sorted out.
Andrew Alepa has his C7 Corvette back at the track with Daniel Pharis behind the wheel after it took flight at Tulsa earlier this year. "We had the front half of the car removed and redone after the crash. From the firewall back the car was actually fine and nothing got damaged so that was a big plus so we didn't have to dig into the back half of car. I had to get another one-off front clip made and since the car was down we added a carbon fiber roof and some other parts. Larry did a great job with the car and we tested with it in South Carolina and it did well."
Nate Miskulin is in full thrash mode on his LDR Camaro after an engine problem turned into a fire during testing. "The number four cylinder lost fire and it forced some of the extra boost out the back of the head and caused a fire. The head and gasket were damaged so we're trying to get it fixed here. The car has been faster than a 4.32 and with all the changes we've made it should run in the low four -second range if we get it fixed."
Terry Barkley is here to run Radial vs The World and is trying to make some progress this weekend. The team is doing some maintennce before for the first round of qualifying to make sure the car is ready to go. During testing the car went a best of 3.92 with a light tuneup so there is even more on the table for the team.
Vinny LaRosa had a piston add its own ventilation hole during his second test run today. "The tune-up on the car was spot on so we think the piston might have had a fracture in it already and just let go. We have some fresh pistons on the way and plan on making the first qualifier on Thursday." Dean Marinis picked up where he left off from Lights Out going number one in X275 with an impressive 4.40 pass.Limited Drag Radial points leader Shane Stack landed in the second spot during Q1 with a 4.264 pass, right behind number one Jason Rucckert who went a 4.263
Round one of Radial vs The World looked a lot like a game of home run derby as the session unfolded. Each pair seemed to get quicker with Jeff Siton ending up number one with a 3.77 followed closely by teammate Steve Jackson and DeWayne Mills.
One thing is for sure, the surface at South Georgia Motorsports Park was on point tonight!
