There are no free lunches in the world of Pro 275 racing, and at South Georgia Motorsports Park (SGMP) you have to earn every round win with hard work and guts. Don Lamana knows this first-hand: he’s won big at SGMP and he’s also had some pretty tough days at the office. Lights Out 10 is another opportunity for Lamana to show why his Pro Fab Performance Plus Mustang is one of the quickest cars in Pro 275 racing.

In 2018 Lamana showed up to Lights Out 9 with a combination that he and his team were still trying to learn. That set the stage for a difficult outing as they battled parts failures that included knocking the rods out of their engine. Lamana and his team bounced back big from that adversity to win three of the five races they entered and claim the 275 radial tire record at one point, too.

Coming into Lights Out 10, Lamana has a pocket full of data that will allow he and his team to make more precise tuning calls when they hit the track.

“We learned a lot at Lights Out last year. That allows us to come into the race this year with a better baseline. After a year’s worth of passes and data, we aren’t going to be feeling around in the dark to kick off the season. That will allow us to have more control over what we need to run with the car based on the conditions.”

The success that Lamana experienced in 2018 made it easier for him to leave his Pro Line combination alone for this season. This offseason the team only needed to have their engine freshened up while Mark Micke went through his transmission that mates to a ProTorque converter to put the power down.

Since Lights Out 10 is one of the more challenging races a team will face, Lamana has developed a specific approach to preparing for the event, qualifying, and eliminations.

“We use the test sessions before qualifying to see where we’re at with the weather conditions and track. This gives us an opportunity to see what the car will do during the day when it’s sunny, in the evening when it’s cool, and give us a game-plan for all conditions. Knowing this gives us data to see how fast we can go under the conditions since we’re usually racing first round in the heat of the day,” Lamana explains.

Having a solid understanding of what it takes to prepare for Lights Out 10 gives Lamana’s team a sharp focus. They know coming in there are some tough cars in the Pro 275 class that are capable of winning the race. With that in mind, Lamana and his team are ready to take on the challenges this race lays out.

“The weather is going to have to work with us and we need to keep the mechanical failures to a minimum. During the February race you can see 70-degree temperatures during the day and 40 at night, so that will change your tune-up. We make the decision as a team while we look at the weather, track, and who we’re racing to make the best call possible. As long as I do my job as a driver and we make the right call for the track conditions we’re going to be in the hunt,” Lamana says.

You can see Don Lamana take on all the best racers the Pro 275 class has to offer at Lights Out 10 February 15-18. All of the racing from South Georgia Motorsports Park will be shown live RIGHT HERE on SpeedVideo.com. This broadcast is brought to you by presenting sponsor COMP Cams along with ProCharger, Lithium Pros, FuelTech, FAST, SpeedWire, Edelbrock, and Billet Atomizer Injectors.