“Big Daddy” Dewayne Mills and reigning Radial Wars champion Keith Berry lined up in nighttime qualifying at the NMCA World Finals held last weekend at Summit Motorsports Park in Norwalk, OH and fired the shot heard ’round the radial world! The pair bumped in, launched and unleashed the quickest side-by-side pass in Mickey Thompson Radial Wars history, lighting up the scoreboards with a 4.02 for Mills alongside Berry’s 4.08! By our records, that run may also be the quickest side-by-side radial race ever, regardless of the venue. Mills locked down the class elapsed time record, while also ripping off an incredible 201.07 mph trap speed, good for the speed record in the class, as well.

Both cars feature twin turbo ProLine Racing engines, though they take noticeably different approaches to going fast. Mills’ Golden Gorilla relies on PLR’s venerable 481X-headed Outlaw 572, which is listed as producing 4,000+ horsepower on ProLine’s website, though it seems very likely the actual number may be well north of there. Berry’s sleek black C5 Corvette relies on one of the baddest small-block powerplants on the planet, a 454-inch mill, built especially for Berry by PLR, that features MAST’s wicked Mozez heads. This combination is rated at 3,300 horsepower, but also allows Berry to run at a lighter minimum weight, thus leveling the playing field for the small-block screamer.

Berry went on to win the World Finals along with his second consecutive Radial Wars championship, making him the ONLY champion the young class has ever known. Mills, who ran very well at the races he attended, missed much of the season while his car was being repaired at Larry Jeffers Race Cars after taking severe damage in a crash earlier in the season. Mills himself has also been battling some medical issues lately, but is back driving the wheels off of his hot rod. Also, thanks goes to PLR’s Bud Hodge for providing us with the info on the engines in this pair of radial badasses.

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