The marathon that has been No Mercy 7 is in the home stretch, as we’ve reached the final day of competition here in South Georgia. Five classes completed their first rounds last night, and we’ll be picking right back up where we left off and rolling right on through until the champions are crowned. Keep it right here on Dragzine for same day coverage presented by Fuel Air Spark Technology!
Troy Pirez, Jr.’s Mustang can be seen already running away from Ron Walker and his Pontiac GTO in the first round of Ultimate Street last night, as he took the win with a 4.83.Paul Falcon took his ’98 Pontiac Firebird to a round one win in Ultimate Street over Florida runner Troy Fredrickson, 5.20 to a slowing 9.59.
Shawn Ellington and the world famous 'Murder Nova' are moving on to round two of Pro 275 after a strong wheels-up 4.3-second pass.
In its debut race, Eric Leeper (left) put his gorgeous new Mustang in the second round of Pro 275 after opponent Scotty Gaudagno, the favorite in this pair based on qualifying numbers, broke on the starting line and could not make the run.
Lyle Barnett, who was seriously injured in a fiery crash here at No Mercy one year ago, received a huge round of applause last night as he was welcomed back to SGMP by announcer Lee Serbring and Donald Long. Barnett announced that he’ll be back behind the wheel as planned at Lights Out in February.Donald Long and Stephanie Sapp have been working their tails off all weekend long to make this event go off without a hitch.
It was all hands on deck in the Alepa Racing pit area after Daniel Pharris torched the block in fiery fashion at the No. 1 cylinder in his second round victory in Radial vs The World. Despite assistance from some of the best in the business, including Steve Petty, Eric Dillard, Josh Ledford, Mark Micke, Mark Woodruff, and a host of others, an attempt to bandage the wounded powerplant -- including robbing parts from the engine they damaged earlier in the week -- the effort was abandoned and opponent Barry Mitchell will take a single into the semifinals.
Nitrous X, RvW, and Leaf Spring Results
Round one of Nitrous Express Nitrous X featured eight pairs with Lake Wales, Florida’s Matt Schlein put an .027 reaction up against Doug Casselman who is based out of Andrews, South Carolinawho put up a 4.93 at 141 for his efforts. Schlein will advance to round two to face number one qualifier Shawn Pevlor. Robert Rogers from VP Fuels was paired with Rick Shelby with both racers having identical reaction times but Rogers was the one that went A to B scoring the round win. Micheal Hicks set low ET for the round with a 4.68 at 149 and will face Aiden Chavis next round.
In Strange Engineering Xtreme Leaf Spring California’s Kevin Wallauer advanced over Ray Ladnieer scoring a 4.70 at 153 after giving up the light. The other Cali racer left in the class is Armen Maghdessian who wheelied his way to a 5.03 on an opponent broke bye.
Maghdessian's flamed out '57 is a frequent flyer here at SGMP and always a crowd pleaser with it's stunning graphics.
The two will face off next round with Wallauer having lane choice. In the upset of the round Jack Dykeman had trouble at the line with the car rolling the beams as he went on the trans brake giving Port Orange, Florida;s John Paterno to advance in his 67 Chevy II. Bobby Flippen also hung out the hoops in his S-10 scoring a 4.98 at 148.
Yellow Bullet Nationals winner Nova Joe Albrecht is running well here this week scoring sixth in qualifying and coming away with a round two win over Tim Kincaid’s wheel standing Pro Mod Corvette after a little push back after the burnout.
Dewayne Mills put up a 3.83 at 209 easily earning top MPH for the round in a good match with Frank Soldridge from PSI Speed Solutions who scored a 3.94 at 196.
Sitton earned a win over Josh Klugger who struck the tires early, as did several other racers this afternoon, including Steve Jackson, who got lucky as Chris Daniels crossed the center line after getting loose near 100 feet out. The Scotty Cannon-owned entry of Alan Pittman got an opponent broke bye as Jamie Hancock’s car would not fire in the water box.
Cannon and Pittman gave the Hancock team ample time and called them selves broke as the car refused to cooperate. Joe Albrecht took the third round win over Rodney Whatley who struck the tires in the former Jeckyl Camaro, now in the Fast Forward Innovation camp.
Steve Jackson went for one of the wildest rides in the history of radial tire racing in the quarterfinals of Radial vs The World, as The Shadow began to wheelstand near alf track in his matchup alongside DeWayne Mills. With wind underneath the 3,000-plus pound car, it floated on its parachute pack for several hundred feet before pirouetting and crashing down rear bumper first in the guardrail, sending it into a violent roll before sliding to a stop on fire. As the fire grew more intense, Jackson came rolling out of the car and signaled to the medical crew that he was okay.
Here are a few shots from an on track perspective. You can see the butterflies mostly closed as Jackson pedaled the car in the second photo. The third one he is back on the gas with the tires planted trying to keep up with Dewayne Mills.
“It was unfortunate, unexpected and painful” Steve Jackson said after the crash. 'The car was for sale, and now it's still for sale but it's cheaper... It was pretty tough, I've wadded up a couple of 'em, but that was pretty substantial there, that'll make the top ten.” The crowd was silent as we all waited for word Stevie Fast was ok, he is one of the most popular drivers in radial racing and everyone here and watching the feed was relieved to hear the good news. Hannah Sanders would advance again in round two of Induction Solutions Ultimate Street as Bart Tobener spun at the hit in his new ride.The Ridenour Rocket driven by Tony Ridenour is a stable here at Duck X events. He faced off with Phil Hines this round and they were neck and neck till the tires let loose on Ridenour’s Camaro soon after the sixty foot.
Round Two Results
In the semis of PTC Radial vs the World it would be Joe Albrecht vs Barry Mitchel with Albrecht coming away with the win as Mitchel was forced to pedal from a wheel stand. A common occurrence here this weekend and in the closing rounds. Mills was to face off with Alan Pittman who developed a leak and was forced out for safety reasons. Albrecht will have lane choice with his 3.823. The final of PTC Radial vs the World was insane as Joe Albrecht and Dewayne Mills both ran in the 3.70’s with Mills scoring a 3.765 at 209 to Albrecht’s 3.781 at 200.00 for the quickest side by side drag radial pass in history. Albrecht was leading to half track but Mill’s 209 MPH freight train scooted by taking the win.Semis of Outlaw Drag Radial put Phil Hines and Shawn Ellington together and they had a great match with both drivers scoring 4.38’s. Hines was a touch quicker earning the round with a 4.385 to Ellington’s 4.386 in the Murder Nova. Ron Hamby was paired with Mustang Mike Modeste in the other half of the ODR Semis coming away with the win after Modeste had to pedal the car after the front end came up just a bit too far down track. The final set as Ron Hamby with lane choice and Phil Hines with the ET advantage going to Hamby’s nitrous huffing C4 Corvette. Hines put up another 4.45 doing his part but Hamby ripped off a 4.12 at 177 to earn the win as the 2016 ODR No Mercy 7 Champion. Pro 275 was another single for a final with Don Burton’s car unable to crank forcing a forfeit and Hamby doubling up in Pro 275.The Precision/KBX 275 final pit Sean Lyon against Shawn Fisher in an all turbo battle. Fisher got away first with both cars making good runs. Fisher led the whole way scoring a 4.422 at 168.16 to Lyon’s game 4.505 at 162.98 runner up finish.Shawn Pevlor bested Robert Rogers in the semi final of Nitrous X scoring a 4.61 at 156 to Rogers improved 4.78 at 144. Chris Witzel out of Shelby North Carolina will be Pevlor’s opponent in the class final. Pevlor and Witzel left together with Witzel getting the front end up and Pevlor eased out front. He took about a car length lead and stayed there scoring a 4.599 at 155.76 to earn the event win to Witzel’s 4.709 at 149.33.The Semis of Ultimate Street was Troy Pirez Jr. who earned the win over Chris Lancaster on a red light start and running a 4.79 at 145 MPH, his best shot of the weekend. He will face Joel Greathouse who has lane choice with what may be an Ultimate Street record 4.72 at 149.95, low ET of eliminations. In the final it would be Pirez taking the win with a 4.80 after Greathouse struck the tires in his KBX Mustang.Ron Rhodes met with Jeff Plemmons in a battle of Chevy’s for the Xtreme Leaf Spring Finals. Both cars staged but when the tree lit up it was all Rhodes as he powered his way to a 4.501 at 155.45 MPH and the victory earning yet another championship for the Rhodes Custom Auto team.Dominic Augustine ran well with his small tire 65 Chevelle in Pro Fab/Commando OL 632 snagging a win over Ken Quartuccio who lost traction early in the run. Phil Smith faced off with Mike Oldham’s 37 Coupe sending him home with a 4.51 at 159. The semi finals came to Smith vs Wallace and Augustine vs Patterson with both Smith and Augustine going out with wheel stands for both cars setting up the final with Joe Wallace and Thomas Patterson. Joe Wallace earned the win in OL 632 on a single running a 4.40 at 164 MPH as Thomas Patterson was unable to make the call for the round.
The rain showers that cut the action short yesterday here in South Georgia have moved out of the area and with that we’ve been greeted by sunny skies for the conclusion of qualifying and the opening round of eliminations at No Mercy 7. Keep it right here on Dragzine for same day coverage presented by Fuel Air Spark Technology!
Well we have a bit of sad news to report this morning with Mary Robinson into the wall after banging the blower off the engine in the delayed PTC Radial vs the World qualifying held over from Friday. He was out of the car quickly on the top end and ok to race for another day.
Ziff Hudson scored a record pass in Pro 275 yesterday running a 4.05 at. He debuted the car last October in Orlando testing just before Lights Out 6 running a 4.15 there. His previous best was a 4.10 here in February. The Keziah/Mitchell team just received the car back from some upgrades at Racecraft Inc. Power comes from a TKM engine force bed by a Precision turbo, Billet Atomizer 800 injectors with an FT 500 engine management backed by a trans and converter from Cameron. “Tonight and the first round of eliminations in RVW we are going to try to go three nineties on that little tire, we are using that class for testing, I think we'll go a .99, that's our goal is to get in the threes on the Mickey Pro 275.” Ziff Hudson. Shawn Pevlor improved on his 4.60 with a 4.57 in Nitrous X and is also running in X275 this weekend. BES ran a new CNC program through his heads just before the Yellow Bullet Nationals which he won in Ultra Street. Pevlor runs RPM Transmissions and Trick Flow Heads with help from Salvato Designs.Steven Fereday ran a personal best 3.92 and fighting some ignition gremlins. They will be looking for 3.80’s once the ignition issues are straightened out in the LMR Camaro. They run a 572 ci PLR 481X, an AMS 2000 boost controller, M&M Trans and Pro Torque converter. The car is owned by Fereday and Dave Lewis.Bric Briehan from ARC and Steve Kanner from Commando Racing are with Diesel the Rottie representing and raising money for charity with a bean bag toss event in the manufacturers midway. All proceeds go to the American Cancer Association and the American Diabetes Association.
Justin "Big Chief" Shearer made a career best pass on radials and his first trip into the 'threes' with a crowd-pleasing 3.99 at 190 mph in the Crowmod in today's third round of Radial vs The World to position himself 21st in the order. There are now 23 cars in the three-second range, and Scott Gaudagno is currently anchoring the 32-car field with a 4.207 with one session remaining. Reigning Lights Out champion Keith Berry and Brad Edwards are among those outside the show. Dean Marinis and Rich Bruder have been trading the pole in X275 back and forth in the two sessions that have been contested thus far, and Marinis once again got the upper hand this morning, edging out Bruders’ 4.439 with a 4.437. A total of 55 cars have taken a shot at the racetrack in X275, with Michele Kato playing gatekeeper to the field with a 4.696.Driving the world’s quickest radial tire car, Texas Jeff Sitton has cranked off a best of 3.836 at 200 mph this weekend behind the wheel of Steve Jackson’s Pro Nitrous Camaro to position himself fifth in the Radial vs The World order.
While the hurricane-induced weather kept the crowd away on Friday, that certainly isn't the case today, as fans have packed South Georgia Motorsports Park for the final day of qualifying. Neal Chance Converters’ own Marty Chance is sittng comfortably in the top half of the X275 field in his Mustang with a 4.528, which is currently ninth in the order.While it was pleasing for the photographers, Jamie Stanton’s wheels-up launch this morning forced him to lift early during X275 qualifying. After two rounds, Stanton is well outside the field with a 6.13 best, good for 52nd out of 55 cars.
Round 2/3 Qualifying Orders
Jerry Gunter has his new combo solidly in the middle of Procharger Pro 275 with a 4.73. He will be looking to improve later but in is in. The nose of the Zombie Wagon is just in the corner putting Dean Vallese two spots back in sixteenth.Nitrous X Racer Matthew Schlien carried the wheels out in the heat of the day. He sits sixth in class with a 4.97 with one qualifying session left.Pro 275 racer Eric Leeper has struggled with trans issues this weekend. Certainly one of the best looking cars on the property.Jason Richards is a longtime participant here at Duck X events with his ’68 Camaro based out of Gastonia, North Carolina. His 4.38 put him tenth in Pro 275.Kevin Wallauer based out of Victorville, California is qualified sixth in Strange Engineering Xtreme Leaf Spring with a 4.80 at 150 MPH.Ron Rhodes is top qualifier so far in Leaf Spring, as if that is a surprise for the oft double entry team. A 4.51 is the time to beat in the final round.Ron Walker out of Naperville, Illinois runs this beutiful 64 GTO in Ultimate Street with a nitrous combo. He has struggled this weekend and is last on the sheet.Mike Oldham is sporting new paint on his Suncoast Chassis built ride. He was sitting out of the field with a 5.11.Scotty G has run consistently on 275’s so far with a pair of 4.19’s this weekend.
Keith Berry has been struggling all weekend long with his new combination and entered the final session of RvW on the outside of the field looking in. Unfortunately, his hopes ended with tire spin just beyond the christmas tree. Berry may still make the show however, as an alternate for Marty Stinnett and Marty Robertson, both of whom are out of competition for the weekend. Judging by his reaction, Phil Shuler must have liked what he saw while assessing the South Georgia Motorsports Park starting line before his driver, Steve Jackson, made his final qualifying attempt.Alan Pittman, driving the Firebird owned by Pro Modified legend Scotty Cannon, punched into the RvW field in the team’s radial tire debut at No. 29 with a 4.081 best.Mustang Mike Modeste is pulling double duty in his ProCharger-fed Mustang this weekend in both Pro 275 and Outlaw Drag Radial. He’s fared better in ODR with a third-best 4.22, but has mustered only a 5.85 for the 24th spot in Pro 275.Alabama’s Mike Jones closed out Outlaw Drag Radial qualifying inside the top eight with a steady 4.35 at 176 mph.
Joel Greathouse and Troy Pirez Jr. sit atop Induction Solutions Ultimate Street with Greathouse having a full tenth advantage over the nitrous fed Pirez. 4.777 leads the class.
Brian Keep Right lane) from Ft Meyers, Florida landed just ahead of Valeri Clements in her Lights Out debut. Keep's 4.88 is at or near his best run to date. The South Carolina based Clements landed fifth with her 4.92 at 143. Odessa, Florida resident Troy Fredrickson put his Pro Fab Performance Plus Built Camaro at tenth in Ultimate Street running a 5.17 at 135 MPH. He runs an LS based engine in the car.Armen Maghdessian is one of the Cali crew out here for some racing and a good time. he is running in Strange Engineering Xtreme Leaf Spring and scored fourth of seventeen cars with a 4.61 at 156 MPH. A nice hit for him.Ken Quartuccio is sporting fresh paint and some minor upgrades sionce we saw the car here last year in Pro Fab/Commando Outlaw 632. He managed sixth in class and will be paired with a familliar face with Dillon The Kid Voss in round one tomorrow.
Final Qualifying Results
We have yet to wrap qualifying for Procharger UPR RK Racecraft Pro 275, Strange Engineering/Moroso/Quarter Max Xtreme Leaf Spring or Nitrous Express/Ultimate Converter Concepts/Salvato Designs Nitrous X.
Strange Engineering Leaf Spring, Nitrous Express Nitrous X
Day is slowly turning to night here at SGMP as we wrap up the final round of qualifying in the index and heads-up categories, and that's welcome relief from the 90-degree heat and nearly 110-degree track temperatures that the fans and racers have had to deal with throughout the day. Radial vs the World will be the first category out for eliminations, and per the plan, we'll run until curfew at midnight. Daniel Pharris reeled off low elapsed time of the race in his opening round win, carding a career best and SGMP radial track record lap of 3.791-seconds.Alan Pittman pulled off a definitive upset when he downed Mark Micke in the opening round with a 4.09 after Micke lost traction right at the hit and coasted on down the 660.Justin Shearers’ weekend came to an end in the first round of Radial vs The World at the hands of Josh Klugger, but he didn’t go without getting the applause of the crowd one last time with this low earth orbit wheelstand.
Round 1 Eliminations Results (to be continued Sunday morning)
It’s day three of qualifying here at the South Georgia Motorsports Park, and barring a run-in with Hurricane Matthew that’s presently working its way up the coast of Florida, we’ll be reeling off a pair of sessions today as we lead into the weekend. Keep it tuned right here to Dragzine throughout the day for updates. As always, a big shout to Fuel Air Spark Technology for their support of our same day coverage!
Jason Digby is debuting a brand new combination here this weekend in his Leaf Spring Dodge Dart, making the swap from nitrous to a turbo. Eric Yost redid the front and rear half of the chassis, along with the interior, firewall, and other components, giving Digby a fresh palette for his new setup. The Predator-headed, de-stroked Chrysler mill measures 547 cubic inches and is now paired with a 118mm Precision turbo, built by Jeff Burns and now tuned to Peter Harrell. Digby felt he'd reached the ceiling with his nitrous combo, and given that many of those he races with were already running turbo setups, it was an easy decision to go that route in order to share data and knowledge. With the new chassis setup, he can now run the car in Limited and Outlaw Drag Radial, providing him more options to race in the future. Daniel Pharris made another stellar low 3.80 lap this morning, a 3.82, in the third session of Radial vs The World.Justin “Big Chief” Shearer JUST missed the three-second zone in the Crowmod on Thursday night, clicking off a career best 4.01 on a nice and straight lap. Barring some significant changes in the qualifying order, Shearer will almost certainly make the qualified field after coming up just short at Lights Out back in February.Mike Hupp is still the No. 1 qualifier in Outlaw Drag Radial with his 4.20 from last night, but his weekend was put in some jeopardy when he broke a transmission on today’s second round. Hupp and crew were still pulling the transmission to assess the damage at press time.
Billy Midnight and crew were yanking the motor from the Phil "Corndog" Smith-driven Firebird following the second session of Outlaw 632 this afternoon. According to Billy, the engine endured some punishment in advancing to the recent King of the Streets final round, which led to torching a head today. Smith is currently fourth in the field with a 4.47. "I came here for one reason, and that's to beat every one of these big tire cars with our little radial," Billy said. Larry Roach has his 1964 Chevy II back-half car here for the first time this weekend competing in It’s powered by an AJ 481 from Mike Janis topped with a PSI C rotor screw that was campaigned by Jason Hamstra before he went to a Hemi engine. They have made some hits at Piedmont and Shady Side testing the combo using a Bruno/Lenco trans and NCRC converter. Roach is based out of Alta Vista, Virginia. The car was run previously with a big block Chevy roots combo on 28’s at No Prep events for a couple of years before the switch as Larry has wanted a screw blower for some time now. “I have to thank Donny Holdren at DRH Performance for tuning and all his help with the car, Tracy Ramsey, my wife Sara helps out, she keeps us all together” – Larry RoachTim Kincaid powered into an impressive wheelstand in the third session of RvW and was forced to shut it down early.Pro 275 racer Jerry Gunter has brought out his gorgeous Camaro with an all-new Alan Johnson small-block powerplant with a C-rotor screw blower on top. With just six passes on it, Gunter has been a 4.68 best so far this weekend.
In Pro Charger 275 last night Ziff Hudson had put up a 4.11 at 186 earning top MPH for the session and first place on the sheet. That would not be for long though at Matt Moore scored a 4.10 later in the session. Scotty G sits third with a .19.
Shawn Pevlor shocked everyone going a 4.601 at 150 MPH in Nitrous Xpress Nitrous X, a good bit ahead of Robert Rogers' second place 4.84 at 142.
Marty Stennett went for a ride after the stripe sliding around to the right side and getting flipped over on the rook by a strong headwind. He got out of the car under his own power and is basically ok. We are part way through this round and under a rain delay for the time being.
httpv://youtu.be/gD2gtK3jk6E
Video credit: TheRacingVids
A 4.07 at 181 for Chad Opaleski will likely move him up a couple of spots in PTC Radial vs the World. That’s a new best for him and continuing improvement for the team with Rob Zarc tuning.Barry Mitchell is running well with his new combo built by Tim McCamis Race Cars powered by BAE Hemi topper with a Hammer Superchargers Roots blower tuned by Todd Tutterow. He did not improve this session but was fifth last night with a 3.84 at 189. Today’s third round hit was a 3.87 at 191. He has been as fast as 196 MPH this weekend.Mitchell was paired with Dwayne Mills who set low ET with a record breaking 3.79 at 208.88.Mark Micke and Larry Roach were paired up with Micke going 3.85 at 205 which was no help to him but a good a to b pass, Roach scored a 4.06 at 196 improving on last night’s 4.20 at 171 in his twin turbo charged 63 Nova.Joe Albrecht improved on his earlier run with a 3.83 at 196 this session, a new best for the Resolution Racing Tuned AL-LEE Installations owned GTO. You can just see Tim Wiley’s fender in the corner of the shot as he was hanging the front end high.Unfortunately, due to persistent sprinkles and a strong northerly wind from Hurricane Matthew to our Southeast, racing action has been called for the day. The plan is to begin tomorrow morning with the Index categories and then continue on with the session of Radial vs The World that was partially run this morning.
Mark Woodruff dropped a valve in his Sonny's powerplant in the third session of RvW this morning and was busily preparing to drop a spare motor into his Corvette this afternoon. Woofruff has been a best of 3.92 this weekend, which is a career best run. Along with the Woodruff camp, Andrew Alepa’s team was also changing out a motor this afternoon after damaging the rods on their 3.82-second lap. Alepa pointed out the externally visible damage to the oilpan, but was unsure of whether the rods were broken or bent. Regardless, a new Pro Line bullet will be powering the car in the morning.Marty Stinnett’s fortunes went from the highest of highs to the lowest of lows during his run this morning. After cranking off a career best and small-block radial record pass of 3.88 — a number he says he joyously saw on the scoreboard as he went through the traps — the car turned left and took a violent tumble in the shutdown area. Stinnett said the strong headwind was “certainly a contributing factor,” but alluded to some nose-heavy weight balance as a possible element that led to the accident. Nonetheless, the likable driver said he had no ill effects from the crash, and is already receiving an outpouring of support from those here at SGMP, who have been buying up tee shirts in mass quantities and even offering parts for the rebuild effort. Showing the prowess of his new small-block Chevy combo, his 2.581-second 330-foot clocking is thought to be the quickest ever for a radial car, although that’s unconfirmed.
Round 2 Qualifying Orders
The calendar pages have turned to October, and in South Georgia that can only mean one thing — No Mercy. Once again, the baddest radial tire racers in the nation have made the trek from near and far to partake in Donald Long’s Woodstock-like affair deep in the heart of Georgia, and with a record $60,000 payday on the line in Radial vs The World, the action on the race track should be as fierce as anything the radial world has ever witnessed. A special thanks to the folks at Fuel Air Spark Technology for their support of our same day coverage!
Eric Leeper has a new ride for it’s race debut fresh out of AC Carcraft. If you remember Leepper ran an all black Ford Lightning pick up a few years back in X275. He has since sold that with this car being a three year build in the making for Pro 275, and one gorgeous car. Eric made one pass yesterday but had trouble and blew the transmission. As of this morning the team was awaiting Troy from M&M Transmissions to freshen it up and will install a new PTC converter. There is open testing today with Qualifying to start at 6 PM this evening.
The Mustang is powered by an MMR built 5.4 DOHC Mod Motor with a Precision Pro Mod 94 out front and Fuel Tech FT500 engine management.
Travis Esselman is out with a new Corvette from Steve Bruce Race Cars here for PTC Radial vs the World. Esselman builds his own engines at his Hanger 18 home shop backed by an RPM built transmission with Haltech Engine Management wired by Haltech and tuned by Patrick Barnhill from PTP Racing. The engine is 540 cubic inches fed by GenI Precision 88's with 550 Billet Atomizer injectors. The headers and turbo hot and cold side was built in house as well as much of the other fabrication and aluminum work at Hanger 18 with help from long time friend Travis Linden. Marty Robinson suffered some engine damage last night after dropping a valve. We stopped by their pits this morning to find the crew wrapping things up and dumping in some fresh oil in the Carl Stevens built Extreme Racing Engines Hemi preparation for installing the intake.
“I'm just here to compete this weekend, I hear the track is on kill and there is going to be a lot of good cars in X275, it's going to be a tough field, lotta fast cars here, so we're looking forward to it and just need some luck this weekend” Shane Fisher. Fisher runs out the KBX Racing camp.
Chris Groves has one NMRA event under his belt this year where he struggled with a broken strut until Jacky McCarty loaned his to Groves after being eliminated from competition. He tested at Holly Springs in X275 trim with those and has fresh units in place this weekend from Mark Menscer. There was one round of PTC Radial vs the World qualifying last night with twelve cars in the three second zone so far.Daniel Pharris leads RVW after one session with a 3.807 at 211.49 MPH in the Aleppa Racing 2014 PLR powered Corvette.Jeff Sitton earned second spot on the sheet with a clean 3.846 at 199.32 for the Killin Time Racing nitrous entry.Team M&M has two cars in the top ten with Woodruff sitting seventh so far running a 3.92 at 207 on the fourth run since the rebuild., a new best for him. Woodruff and crew had a thrash session to get here making repairs from an accident recently. “I hand it to all the people that helped out, Larry Jeffers Race Cars, Rob Mathias, Precision Turbo, Mickey Thomson, M&M Transmission, Bill Lutz at Central Ohio Insurance. Gotta have insurance on those race cars, without those guys we wouldn’t be here. The whole crew stepped up and made it happen.” – Mark Woodruff. For his part Mark Micke sits third with a 3.84 at 205, which I believe is also a best for Jason Carter’s Malibu.“Big Chief” aka Justin Shearer went right down A to B scoring a 4.11 at 187 in his Butler Performance powered 1968 Crow Mod Firebird.Taylor Lastor sits nineteenth in RVW with an easy 4.22 at 148.Steve Jackson left hard but climbed the right gear a bit forcing him to lift off the throttle. He costed through to a 4.89 landing thirtieth this session. Marty Robinson near lane.We stopped by Gainsville, Georgia’s Shannon Hamilton’s pit who is here running in X275 this weekend and has a booth set up for their Cecily Mcree Hamilton Memorial Scholarship Fund www.bringit4cec.org. The fund was established after their daughter was tragically killed in a car accident with her boyfriend in early 2015. Shannon took some time off from racing to regroup through a grieving process and had spoken with Cecily’s Other Dad Josh and he mentioned how Cecily talked to him about there being no scholarships for cheerleaders like there was for other sports like football and baseball, and the idea was born. The organization is 501(c)3 with 100% of the raised funds going to the scholarships and has raised $30,000 thus far. The group is also interested in promoting safe driving for teens and also promotes the BRAKES (Be Responsible and Keep Everyone Safe) organization founded by Top Fuel racer Doug Herbert after he lost his two young sons in a car accident in January of 2008. The Put On The B.R.A.K.E.S. (Be Responsible And Keep Everyone Safe)is a non-profit 501(c)3 whose mission is to prevent injuries and save lives by training and educating teenage drivers and their parents about the importance of safe and responsible driving. www.putonthebrakes.org.Shannon’s car is powered by a William Blackney built 588 cubic in big block Ford with an Inductions Solutions fogger stuffed with about five hundred horsepower worth of jet. It’s backed by a Sid Neal glide and NCRC converter. Strange brakes stop the car with their struts up front and Menscer’s out back.
Despite not making a run in the second session of Radial vs The World, Daniel Pharris remained atop the field with his career best 3.80 from Wednesday night. Pharris gained a lot of company in the three-second zone -- 19 more cars to be exact -- and leads Mark Micke (right) by just two-hundredeths after he too made a career best run of 3.82 tonight. Valerie Clements, making her debut in Ultra Street this weekend, had the front end WAY up in the air on her first qualifying hit this evening.Rich Bruder clicked off a 4.46 to pace the 57-car X275 field early on, but was unseated in the final few pairs down the racetrack by Mean Dean Marinis and his 4.44.
Round one of Nitrous Express Nitrous X featured eight pairs with Lake Wales, Florida’s Matt Schlein put an .027 reaction up against Doug Casselman who is based out of Andrews, South Carolinawho put up a 4.93 at 141 for his efforts. Schlein will advance to round two to face number one qualifier Shawn Pevlor. Robert Rogers from VP Fuels was paired with Rick Shelby with both racers having identical reaction times but Rogers was the one that went A to B scoring the round win. Micheal Hicks set low ET for the round with a 4.68 at 149 and will face Aiden Chavis next round.
The two will face off next round with Wallauer having lane choice. In the upset of the round Jack Dykeman had trouble at the line with the car rolling the beams as he went on the trans brake giving Port Orange, Florida;s John Paterno to advance in his 67 Chevy II. Bobby Flippen also hung out the hoops in his S-10 scoring a 4.98 at 148.
