No Mercy 9 Drag Radial Racing Coverage from South Georgia!

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“We stared an X275 championship points series last year and have added Ultra Street for 2018 to increase sponsorship awareness and increase car counts for promoters and fans alike and give the racers something to shoot for and motivate the competition. This year we have Neal Chance and Precision Turbo and Engineering sponsoring the X275 Championship Series and Vortech Superchargers sponsoring Ultra Street Shootout Series with Brian Keep leading Ultra and Shane Heckel number one right now in X275. This event is a bigger points event with a thirty two car field. We have a couple of make up dates scheduled due to rain outs with the ODRC in Bradenton being one likely location with one other probably out west a bit with the venue to be determined.” – John Sears. You can find further information on the official series Facebook pages  X275 Championship Series

It’s been a hot one today as well with threats of rain and a very light sprinkle this afternoon but not any where near enough to dampen the Sunday finals of No Mercy 9 here at South Georgia Motorsports Park. We have a first time winner here in PTC Radial vs the World with Jeff Naiser taking the win from the pole in his NRC powered nitrous Camaro. We are posting the final round sheets on all classes and will have more editorial content and photos posted later tonight as we go through our notes and over four hundred images from today’s action.

PTC Radial vs the World was off the chain this weekend with upsets of several big names out early in competition and the turbo cars all bowing out in round three leaving just nitrous and blowers to vie for the win with three racers left in who never won here before, Alex Laughlin, Jeff Naiser and Paulo Giust with Jamie Hancock in as a previous winner representing for the nitrous guys. The Aussie Jeremy Martin exited this round as well in a loss to Laughlin but scored his best run, a 3.904 at 204 to Laughlin’s low of the round 3.787. It will be a happy trip home for Martin and crew for sure after such a great weekend for them. The semis would wind up with nitrous cars and blowers facing off as it should be with Laughlin again going low for the round, earning lane choice with his 3.802 win over Hancock’s 3.812. Naiser pushed the tree against Giust with a .010 reaction and scored the win with a 3.85 as the blower car struck the tires at the hit.

Naiser put up a .017 light in the final needing every bit he could beg or steal to try and win. Laughlin was off with a .049 running a pinch slower than his prior round ET, a 3.808 but it was no good as the NRC crew stepped it up with a 3.792 at 197 when he needed it to score his first win here at SGMP in Radial vs the World. “We come out here, every run Kenny made good calls, perfect calls, the car went down the race track as fast as we needed to go. I did my job letting go of the button and steering to the finish line. I can’t thank everybody enough, all my crew and my mom and dad, Jimmy and Annette, they just sitting back waiting for the phone call you know. My most critical round was against that blower car (Paolo Giust) car in the semis, I mean they are all critical, he had run just as fast as I did in the day time. Racing during the day is really tricky, especially with a nitrous car. You need to get all you can down low cause it’s hard to outrun them on the big end so we sacrificed a lot down low to make sure we got down.” – Jeff Naiser

KBX/Precision Turbo X275 was a tough field as always with a lot of cars bunched up in the 4.40’s and a very tricky surface with track temps soaring well over 140 degrees and bouts of rain later in the day. We follwed up with Shane Fisher and Ron Rhodes, John Keesey and several other racers in the class this week. Once in round three everyone who made a run but Kenny Hubbard was in the forty’s with Keesey setting low for that round at 4.439 in a hole shot loss to Rob Goss’ Procharged 2009 Challenger, 4.464. The semi pit Fisher and Rhodes and Goss and Hubbard. This time Fisher would set the 4.430 low ET driving around Rhodes 4.47 with the turbocharged KBX top end charge at 167 MPH. Goss got by Hubbard with a 4.97 snagging a lucky break with bother racers pedaling.

Fisher had lane choice taking the right lane but it could not hold the tires and he slowed to a 4.81 at 159, not near enough to stay in front of Goss’ 4.526 at 163 MPH. “My most important round today had to be the finals, all the other rounds kinda go by the wayside when you win, I had my first hole shot victory against John Keesey. It was a total team effort, I never won here before and two in a row after winning the NMCA Indy, two in a row is unbelievable, a dream come true. This race is the epitome of all races, winning here is like winning the Superbowl the best competition comes here, to win here is indescribable,overwhelming with emotion, happiness, joy, it’s hard to put into words” – Rob Goss Crew for Team Goss is Bruce Maichle and Southern Speed Racing’s Wade Hopkins.

Don Lamana earned top qualifier in Pro 275 before running the table in the class with a little lucky from bye runs eventually meeting up with Ziff Hudson in the final. Ziff had struggled keeping his car hooked up but definitely has what it takes to get work done qualifying second in class and scoring a 4.24 in round two eliminations. Pasadena, Texas based Todd Moyer qualified thirteenth and made it trough to the semi finals on a no show bye by Dr Dan Boyko, testing the track surface to no avail to a 5.61 at 91 MPH. Lamana was off pace a bit with his reaction times giving up a lot to Moyer’s .006 with a .055 but drove by with a 4.29 at 191 to Moyer’s 4.46 setting up the final round with Ziff Hudson, Lamana would have lane choice and chose the right lane. Hudson took the advantage at the tree with an .013 light but failed to stick to the track slowing to a 5.10 at 103. Lamana had a little tire shake down track but drove through it to earn the event win with a 4.52 at 191. This weekend’s team includes Crew Chief Matt Larue, Chris Patton and his wife, Mark Michlovitz, Andi, and Tim and Amy. “We created four or five tune ups when we got here because we had not run the car since we put it back together and lucky enough we got enough day time tune up data to use get the car set up. During the day here we were not going to go four Oh’s on Sunday, the track was different every round so it was all about picking the correct tune to go A to B. That was the tricky part you know” We raced who we raced but we beat who we raced, had a couple of buy’s that worked out for us, there was definitely some luck involved because we didn’t go A to B on a few of those rounds either” – Don Lamana

Limted Drag Radial had some great racing with Daniel Pharris earning top qualifier and scoring two 4.219 runs in rounds two and three making his a threat to any in the other lane in these tough conditions. It was Martin who had low ET in round two with a 4.16 and Gargus right behind with a 4.17. Round three saw Martin and Gargus improve with Martin advancing then running a phenomenal 4.09 in the semi on the hunt to take out Pharris who scored a 4.16 to show he was game for a fight.

Number two qualifier Justin “Red” Martin took the win in Limited Drag Radial against number one qualifier Daniel Pharris after earning critical lane choice on his semi final single, a record setting 4.09 at 189 MPH “Out most critical round of the day was probably round three against Paul Gargus. We needed to know that we need to able to go fast in the final against Daniel and that really helped us to figure out what we needed to do. We used that to let it eat in the semi final bye running a 4.09 at 189 MPH for the record. We came down here Wednesday, had an engine that was tore apart, no rods or pistons in it. My engine builder Pete Harrell brought all the parts down here and we assembled it on Wednesday, qualified number two, set the record, won the race, I have no idea what else to say.” Justin Martin Sponsors on the car include Motion Raceworks, Professional Auto Care, M&M Transmissions, Garrett turbos, Harrell Engine and Dyno, Menscer Motorsports, Cameron’s Torque Converters, VP Racing Fuels and Mac Fab Beadlocks.

DXP 235 Winner is Jonathan Insley He runs a 1995 Mustang with a 440 inch Windsor with a Nitrous Express plate system and RPM Transmission powerglide with an Ultimate Converter Concepts converter. The engine is from Toby at Cunningham Motor Works in Charleston, West Virginia. Thanks to Kuntz and Company for the cylinder heads, a killer set of Brodix Track 1’s. The chassis was built by Rogue Race Cars and we did the fabrication work in house. My most important moment today was against Martin Connelley in round two, he is a tough tough competitor, probably the toughest guy in the class. When you beat those guys you beat the best they have a great crew, I mean I’ve got a great crew but beating those guys made our day a little bit easier. My crew is Matthew Riley who wired the whole car, he’s a great mechanic and fabricator, Greg Harrell, Matt Jarrell and Jason Anderson. I want to give a big shout out to Elite Automotive in Indianapolis Jason’s shop, awesome on tuning, he is a big reason we got the car where it is today as far as getting the chassis lined out and the tune ups set up. Pushing me to get out there and get it done. He is usually always the bug that’s in my ear.” – Jonathan Insley They had a two car team here this weekend qualifying number one and two with Anderson scoring top qualifier.

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Houston, Texas based Jeff Naiser put his NRC Racing Engines and Cylinder Heads powered, nitrous huffing Jerry Bickel Race Cars 69 Camaro on the pole in PTC Radial vs the World with a 3.762 at 190 MPH with Kenny Hubbard making the tuning calls on the car. Naiser ran it just past the 330′ on their first qualifier running an easy 3.84 then skipped the second session in the afternoon, choosing to go for it later in a night qualifying session.

“We ran it through and it nipped a piston in the lights. We started Sweet 16 with this 954 engine have had some troubles keeping it happy and found some issues half way through our season so we are basically starting over. It shows a lot of promise, we just have to work on it a little too much. This is probably the last race for it for the year and we’ll go through it over the winter to prepare for next year. Kenny tunes on the car, I just have to let go of the button- Jeff Naiser

The engine is topped off with Nitrous Outlet system and filled with Wiesco pistons and GRP rods. The car was built for PDRA in 2013 but it’s difficult to run that series based out of Texas so it sees more duty here at SGMP the past couple of years. Naiser advanced to round two beating David Wolfe’s 4.08 at 201 with a 3.86 at 185 and will face Tim Kincaid in round two.

Jarrod Wood was tasked with driving the Jeep for car owner Bill Schurr this weekend, who owns Paramount Performance which specializes in late model Chrysler performance transmissions such as found in the Hellcat, Demons ect and is based in North Carolina. Kevin Mullins normally drives but had heart surgery recently and is out recuperating a few weeks, so Wood, who purchased Mullin’s red Mustang last year and scored the first and only three second run in Australia three weeks ago and was tasked and flew over to get behind the wheel. The Jeff Miller built Jeep is powered by a TKM built Gen III Hemi sporting four hundred cubic inches fed by a Garrett 85 MM turbo. It’s backed by an in house built TH 400 and a Paramount converter. There is just a handful of runs on the car to date and it has been sitting waiting on parts for about a year. “ I been racing twelve months with Kevin’s car on radials and twelve months before that in his HQ One Tonner Sport Yute street truck, I have to thank Eric Scarborough from TKM, Bill Schurr and my dad Terry Wood.” Jarrod Wood   From right to left, Bill Schurr and Jarrod Wood.

Round One Elimination Results

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Vinny Larosa has his Plymouth Duster here for Outlaw 632 action with lots up updates from Tube Chassis Designs including a full suspension upgrade and ride height change to lower the car several inches. Voss Racing Engines is now on board with a new power plant which the team tested at Galot Motorsports Park prior to coming here to get a few laps on the new piece, which is a twin to Voss own engine and pulls within fifteen horsepower on the dyno. Larosa has been a 4.65 and 4.64 so far this weekend running .038 jets while dialing the car in. The plan was to put a little more in for the next session and it sure put the heat to it as he climbed the ring gear early in the run, getting on the bumper with all four wheels off the ground.

He pedaled the car but bounced it and wound up in a violent spin but avoiding any wall contact. He is fine, the car and engine maybe not after the incident as it was a long clean up. Well check back with Vinny and crew later but it’s definitely going to make the highlight reel. The team this weekend is Aaron Cashwell, Clyde Lovette, Scott Voss and Corey Voss. The car was campaigned in the 70’s as “The Feather Duster” in Dayton Production Altered and is the first recorded conversion to a Chevy engine in 1974 with a bored DZ 302 and four speed transmission with Vinny purchasing it in 1995 though it was no longer in that same configuration. Purchase isn’t really the right term as he traded his Grand National for it plus some cash.

Tim Kincaid is running Radial vs the World and has been here three times with the Corvette Pro Mod, errr RVW car. He just missed qualifying for the Sweet 16 here in march but did score the win in the second chance race netting a 5K payday. Kincaid has been racing since high school starting out in bracket racing. He first real race car was a back halved 1970 F100 running 6.60’s in the eighth mile with a big block, later switching to a 114 MM rear mounted turbo around 2010 and running down in the five teen range. This Corvette was built by David Munday Race Cars and is powered by a Brad 8X topped with Chuck Ford roots style blower. New to the car this weekend is a Liberty 5 speed transmission with a quick drive lock up converter. “We are learning the new transmission, it looks like it’s gonna be better just gotta get our ducks in a row” – Tim Kincaid

John Keesey suffered some engine damage at the Ohio Valley Prize Fight disrupting his plans to attend the Yellow Bullet Nationals but made it here and finished assembling the car on site. KBX’s Justin McChensey does the tuning with the engine from the KBX team but the car was built by Keesey at his Airport Automotive shop. It’s fed by a Forced Inductions turbo and backed by an ATF Speed trans and converter. The car is the fastest hi port headed engine running 4.36 at a best ET last year in Memphis.

Keesey, like many of us, got started street racing and in the grudge world before graduating to heads up events about ten years ago with a big block Procharged 1969 Camaro in Outlaw Drag Radial with instigation and help from Frank Soldridge. Keesey purchased this car about nine years ago to run in Ultra Street and did well in the class. “I put it all together to run Ultra Street, the new beginner heads up class, an inexpensive class you can go out and have fun with, as we started going faster the rules held us back a little bit and I decided to move to X275 and let it eat and here we are.” John Keesey

Maypearl, Texas based Leroy “The Blood” Nabors is racing in Radial vs the World this week and has a non profit ministry using drag racing as a tool to get their foot in the door with hospitals and schools to give kids hope that are dealing with fatal illnesses. It’s a working farm and retreat in central Texas with two locations in Maypearl, and Purmela, raising assorted species of deer and antelope, some of which are endangered species, where families and others can come and relax, and talk to others who understand the illnesses and roller coaster of hospital visits, long term care and loss that a family may have. Nabors lost his own son Hunter to Cystic Fibrosis a year ago, a disease that hits close to home for me as I was diagnosed with CF at 17 years old and was fortunate enough to receive a double lung transplant in 2004. Hunter got his father involved in drag racing in 2014 and it wasn’t long before Leroy was racing in the NMRA. For more information you can visit www.ggtgdaily.com.

“I have less than twelve complete passes in the Corvette and we have been a 3.84 so far. We have a new Profiler box in the car and the self learning box. Scott Brasket is our crew chief, he maintains the car, the engine, basically runs our whole racing program on the Corvette. Last year we ran NMRA with a car purchased from Charles Hull in Street Outlaw, finishing third in points for the year with lots of help from KBX and Scott. We sold that back to Charles and bought the Corvette and also have a 2014 Camaro ran by Mike Janis and are looking at running NHRA Pro Mod next year. Our ministry’s goal is to give people the tools they need to be successful in life and also have a community service program. We work with children and families to give them the strength and endurance to get through the difficult times.”  – Leroy Nabors

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The Aussies are here, the Aussies are here? We have multiple Austrailian based teams here but only one with a full on right hand drive car in this 1979 VB Holden Commodore with main sponsorship for the ride here sponsored by Will Cauchi owner of Hunter Kitchen King. The car is owned by Jeremy Martin from Newcastle, Australia and powered by a PLR 481X and fed by twin Precision 98 MM turbos with tuning by Josh Ledford. This is the first event the car has been on a radial tire putting up a 4.23 at 187 in his first qualifying attempt today. Jeremy purchased the car for one thousand dollars nearly fifteen years ago and started hot rodding it up soon after buying it. It’s had a turbo charged 308 Holden engine making 1,000 horsepower but quickly tired of head gasket maintenance as the Holden engine only has four head bolts per cylinder.

He made low nine second runs at 150 MPH with the combo before stepping up to a 540 CI big Chevy with a 114 single turbo. Jeremy worked that combo to some 6.90’s at 200 MPH for a while before getting hooked up with Proline and scoring the 481X that has powered the car for nearly four years. He was the first four door car to run a five second pass, the first steel body car and first and only Commodore to accomplish the feat in Australia, or anywhere. The car was built by Craig Burns at SCF Race Cars and as done all the upgrades to the chassis, which was front halved during the swap to the Proline mill. Jeremy was the winner of the fifty thousand dollar to win Grudge Kings event a few months back, the first big payout event of it’s kind in Australia. He is a mobile mechanic working on coal mining equipment in the Hunter Valley and has his father and all his mates here in the states to have fun and a bit of a go here at SGMP. Pictured from left to right: Jason Crofts, Jeremy’s father Charlie Martin, Bodie Duncan, Will Cauchi, Jeremy Martin, Jason Martin, Isaac Martin and Aaron Stoddart.

The Quartuccio crew is basically a big family and has stepped up to OL 10.5 and Radial vs the World with the teams new car built by Skinny Kid as envisioned by Jamie Miller. The team’s performance has been outstanding so far with four wins in six races and two semi final round appearances. Right now he sits fourth in class with a 3.93 at 201 MPH. The car has an M&M Transmission and converter feeding the power back to a Carson Innovation’s third member. Mark Menscer specked shocks. The body was molded by Skinny Kid and laid by Synergy Composites. Ken and Denise’s’ daughter Kaitlin does the between round maintenance on the engine.

They planned to have their Camaro here but it was not quite finished from the repairs after several wheel stands at the Sweet 16 here in March. Plans for the Camaro will have Kaitlin driving it in OL 632 with Ken behind the wheel for Limited Drag Radial. Ken had to pedal the car out of a wheel stand this session running a little soft tune up but not expecting the track to have much bite with the higher surface temps here in Georgia. The car is in OL 10.5 trim running 88 MM turbos this weekend, they want to get a good handle on everything with the new car before making turbo changes to keep up with the Jonses running bigger 98, or 106 MM units. “I have to thank my family for all the support and all the guys on the crew for going above and beyond to keep everything together. Running a car like this is a step up from what we did in Outlaw 632 and they haven’t missed a beat.” Ken Quartuccio.

Memphis based Mark Campbell runs this clean Mustang in LDR powered by a small block Ford and single Precision 94 MM turbo. It’s a brand new engine combo for the car with just three full runs on it before getting here this week. Mark is a sales rep for Comp Cams and built the entire car himself and tunes it via the F.A.S.T. XFI 2.0. The transmission is all TCI products. The previous engine combo was a nitrous set up running in the low fives. A timing malfunction with the track caused him to not get a timeslip but his data shows about a 4.90, so it’s so far so good for the new bullet.

He has had this car about seven years, messing around with it as a street deal running in the eleven second zone for a while before getting bit by the go fast bug. He has been at Comp Cams for about four years after moving south from Canada and had a full service shop doing engine work and car builds before that. Campbell started out driving Super Comp dragster at 16 and has piloted everything from street cars to Pro Mods and a TAFC owned by Harold Farvette. He was qualified earlier with a 5.16 sitting twelfth in LDR.

Qualifying Sheets