Jeff Sitton, a relative newcomer to the radial racing world, fired a warning shot to the Radial vs the World field preparing for Duck X Productions’ No Mercy 6 that nitrous cars are not to be taken lightly! In pre-race testing – so no, it doesn’t officially “count” for those keeping score at home – Sitton wheeled the Killin’ Time Racing fourth-gen Camaro known affectionately as ‘Hyde’ to a 3.98-second elapsed time at the South Georgia Motorsports Park on Wednesday evening.

In a class where the record elapsed time has been swapped between forced-induction combinations for a couple of years now, Sitton’s blast puts nitrous injected hot rods squarely in the pool of cars hoping to take the No. 1 spot from Jason Michalak and become the next addition the three-second radial club. With Steve Jackson calling the shots and a big bankroll backing the KTR team, it seems almost a certainty that Sitton and Jackson – piloting the screw-blown Mustang he won with at Duck X’s February race– both will leave SGMP as official members of the three-second fraternity.

Hyde, appropriately named after the sinister Edward Hyde of “Jekyll and Hyde” fame, has been a key figure in the grudge racing world — where car names are often more widely-known than the actual drivers’ names — for several years. He recently made the transition to Radial vs the World competition, much like Jackson’s grudge-turned-class Mustang, known as Shadow.

Both cars showed immediate potential, with Stevie landing a semifinal finish at last year’s No Mercy before winning RvsW at Lights Out in February. Sitton made a big splash earlier this year when he ran in the 4.0-second zone in his first race on radials at a Radial Tire Racing Association event at Tulsa Motorsports Park back in July, where he took home runner-up honors in a race that saw the finals completed after the Oklahoma Sunrise.

Be sure to follow along with Dragzine’s own Chevelle Rob as he brings you all the action from No Mercy this weekend with our Same Day Coverage, brought to you as always by the fine folks at Comp Cams! Thanks also to Hans Pierre Jr. of FreeLifeFilms.com for the excellent video footage!