Concord, North Carolina racer Ziff Hudson etched his name into the history books and forever earmarked the inaugural Wooostock event at South Carolina’s Darlington Dragway when he drove his turbocharged Ford Mustang to the first three-second run ever recorded over an eighth of a mile on 275 drag radials on Saturday.

Hudson clocked the long-awaited, barrier-breaking run — one that he and everyone else knew was merely a matter of when and not if — during Saturday’s qualifying rounds, going 1.06 to sixty-feet, 2.714 to half track, and a magical 3.990 at 198.59 mph out the back door. Then, for a little insurance, he turned around and did it once more with a 3.992-second, 199.20 mph lap.

The towing company purveyor had already seen the three-second zone in his absolutely gorgeous Fox body Mustang previously, when he carded a 3.96-second career best run — on the larger 315 drag radials — but had largely focused his efforts on the Pro/Outlaw 275 arena and the race to the three-second zone on the smaller tire. At No Mercy last fall, he set a new class standard (and became the first racer on 275’s into the four-oh’s) with a 4.05 and then improved it another four-hundredths with a 4.01 in testing on Orlando in January, setting the stage for his foray into the sub-four-second zone.

The radial racing veteran, who for years piloted a unique Mercury Zephyr, went all-in in his effort to climb to the top of the radial tire food chain a year ago, unveiling the sleek new Mustang with a TKM-built powerplant and a large 118 mm turbo between the fenders. He wasted little time in accomplishing his goal, quickly supplanting class kingpin and the previous odds-on-favorite for the three-second dead, David Pearson, as the man to beat in 275 radial tire racing. And now, the honor is all his.

Hudson (right) with engine builder and tuner Kevin Mullins.

Fortunately, the 200 mph mark and, potentially, the five-second barrier in the quarter-mile are still up for grabs for those skinny-tire racers motivated to make history of their own … but they’d better hurry up, because Ziff isn’t slowing down anytime soon.