Saturday

It’s been ten years for us here at SGMP with the Radial Revolution and Duck X Productions and we have built up a family of racers and fans like no other, at least from my perspective. There is so much to cover here it’s impossible to get it all in. From the fastest cars and well known names like Stevie Fast and Dewayne Mills and Brian McGhee to the new comers, here for the first time, the future stars of the sport. The companies that help to make it all happen like PTC, Mickey Thompson and Mac Fab Performance Beadlocks. We talked with Mac Fab owner Tommy Kirk this morning to get a little back ground on the company who has been a pioneer in the sport and a supporter of our kind of racing from the beginning and was founded about fifteen years ago. Kirk actually owns several different businesses unrelated to drag racing many are not aware of, including me before this interview. One of those is Alotech Inc. which manufactures on site water purification systems used in disaster relief and in the third world where clean water is not widely available and does contract manufacturing. Another venture is CTI Systems which builds robotics for for assembling printed circuit boards working with Ford, GM, Tesla and Apple, Samsung and others. It’s pretty interesting that the guy I met at the race track has a business that worked on parts of the phone I am using for this interview. Interesting times indeed.

Kirk filled a niche in the market with his lightweight design beadlock starting out making a few pieces for locals. About two years into it I got hooked up with Tom Kundrik at Mickey Thompson and meeting Donald Long about a year later and becoming as essential part of this racing community, racing family, doing on site beadlocks here at Lights Out III.

“We were the first company to do beadlock conversions on site, and this, for me, the beadlock stuff, it keeps me around my racing family, Tommy, Buddy Legath, Mark Menscer, we’re very close we talk every week. You know Lyle Barnett, when he was really young and wanted to drag race I put him in one of my cars the first time he ever went down the race track,a nd you know when he was int hat fire, if it wasn’t for that racing family it would have been so much worse. You would not believe the outpouring of help and support that people gave to Lyle and and his family. We had a guy come up talk to us last night telling Lyle how he admires him for fighting and coming back to race and being a good ambassador to the sport and for safety. It means a lot and that’s why we keep doing it. I mean it’s not a not for profit company, but we take the funds from Mac Fab and put it right back into the sport and into development and sponsorship.” – Tommy Kirk. From left to right: Brad Marsh, Tommy Kirk and Aaron Brown.

Another pioneering company that is heavily involved with the sport is Menscer Motorsports, founded by Mark Menscer. His work in the industry has been instrumental to radial racing and allowed racers to put down incredible amounts of power that folks ten years ago never thought would be possible. Menscer came up in dirt late model and modified racing through his family with his grandfather being one of the first few members of NASCAR. Menscer as an AFCO distributor and wanted to start re-valving and tuning their his own shocks in the early 2000’s and went to AFCO to be trained and certified as a service center. The vast majority of the products Menscer sells are manufactured by AFCO as a private label parts kit and the shocks are assembled in house and dyno tuned for specific needs of the customer.

“It was a total accident getting involved with drag racing.” Mark told us. “I went to a race to hang out about ten years ago and there were some racers there that needed help so we did a set of shocks for them and helping tune the car with them. It was Steve George and Eddie Briggs was helping him, and this is funny casue it goes full circle, those shocks are still on the same car and it’s here in the pits driven by Alex Laughlin today, which was an Outlaw 10.5 car owned by Danny Humphries before Steve bought it. It’s been around the block with Woody owning it, then with the Bad9er team.” When we asked Mark about his thoughts on the ten year anniversary he said he’d been contemplating about the performance level. “Folks come here twice a year and with the exception of once or twice throughout the history of this thing, every time we show up here we break records and these guys go faster. There is practically no other segment of motorsports where the evolution of class performance has grown like this. I think it was Lights Out IV that Kevin Fiscus was the first to run 4.30’s, or set the record, I think Scotty G had gone a .34 up north and just a few later these guys are running 3.60s. At every threshold we said ‘ Aww man, that’s it this is gotta be tapped out there is no way we can go any faster, there’s gotta be a limit.”

Mark has owned dirt cars but said he is not a driver and the team won several championships with Jeff Smith driving. It takes a lot of money to campaign competitive cars and he decided to get out of racing and focus on the business. Menscer Motorsports was founded officially in 2006. “ It’s been crazy, I came here years ago thinking it would be really cool to work with one or two Radial vs the World cars, I love these radials, the guys that do this…to have gone from coming here wishing and hoping to get a few customers to being, very well represented, it’s a dream come true man, it’s an honor, it’s very humbling.” Mark Menscer

Dustin Jackson Jumps From Diesel Racing To Radial vs The World

Dustin Jackson cut his drag racing teeth behind the wheel of his 1994 Ford Lighting truck that has a triple-turbo diesel combination under the hood. The truck is pretty quick, but Jackson wanted to step into something a bit faster. To hit his speed goals Jackson purchased David DeMarco’s 1984 Buick Regal that features one angry screw-blown Hemi.

Jackson jumped right into the radial tire deep end and made the trip to Lights Out 10 with the Regal. The car had to be rebuilt after a testing incident and he wanted to be sure the car would still be able to run at the front.

“We had an issue testing the car and it sustained some significant damage. The car has been rebuilt from the ground up, we stripped it to the frame rails and redid everything. We went with Darren Mayer for the blower and engine again so it makes plenty of power. We tried to keep the car the same as it was before since it was working so well,” Jackson explains.

Going from a turbo diesel truck to a screw-blown Hemi is a pretty dramatic change. While Jackson’s truck is no slouch, the Hemi-powered radial car is a totally different animal.

“Driving this car is pretty fun for sure. With the diesel truck you have turbo lag and with this car its instant power at the touch of a foot on the throttle. It’s like night and day between the two and this car is just a blast to drive. I know they say once you drive a screw-blown Hemi you won’t want to drive anything else, and they might be right because so far I’m digging this,” Jackson says.

Having fun driving the Buick is a big bonus for Jackson, but it has taken some adjustment to get used to the new combination. Jackson had to learn the nuances of controlling a blower motor and how to deal with getting the car staged.

“The staging is a bit different because with the truck I have to bump in to build boost. With this car, I stage like a nitrous car and put my foot to the floor. Driving wise this is different because it makes more power and there’s a lot more G-forces felt. It’s been an interesting learning curve feeling out how it reacts. I got my license in a Funny Car and that acts differently than this in some ways, but it still is instant power. Compared to the truck it requires a lot more finesse because it just makes power instantly,” Jackson says.

Bringing a car out to a big event like Lights Out for its maiden voyage has been a good experience for Jackson so far. He is enjoying the atmosphere the race provides while getting to mash the loud pedal in a 3,000 horsepower machine.

“We want to keep everything together and not have any big issues. We want to run in the 3.70s at some point this weekend. We’ve been able to run a 3.82 and based on the data if we can get a clean run it should run in the 70s no problem. It’s just a balancing act right now because as we try to add more power it wants to wheelie.”

Rickey Brantley Goes From The Dirt To The Drag Strip

Rickey Brantley grew up at the dirt tracks around Georgia racing with his family. The time spent in the dirt was something that Brantley enjoyed, but ultimately when his family stepped away from the sport he was left with a void that needed to be filled with fun and horsepower. Brantley’s friends applied some peer pressure and that helped influence him to pick up the sport of drag racing.

When Brantley decided to start drag racing he ended up purchasing a 1964 Ford Futura with a 408 cubic-inch small block Ford engine. He found the car in Athens, Georgia and purchased it from a gentleman who was getting out of racing. Selecting a 1964 Futura wasn’t a random act for Brantley, the car had some sentimental meaning to him.

“My mom and dad race a car just like this on the dirt track for 15 years. Drag racing seemed like a lot of fun so we decided to give it a try. I had never drag raced ever and this is my first actual race, before this we just had the car out for testing one time,” Brantley says.

So far Brantley isn’t regretting his decision to pick up drag racing at all. He went all in and purchased an RV so his whole family could come to the track and enjoy the racing with him. Brantley has learned his friends weren’t lying when they told him how much fun drag racing is.

“When you’re up on the line with the car on the chip waiting for the tree to drop its the greatest feeling ever. We were going to actually go to a round track race last week and my buddies suggested we should just come here and race so here we are. It was a great decision because I’m having the time of my life. My goal for the weekend is to just to win a round. If I won a round of racing I would be so happy I would fall off the trailer,” Brantley explains.

Final Qualifying Sheets

The Thrillbilly Shane Stack is a longtime radial tire racer from the ORSCA days and still a top contender his Monte Carlo. He set a new personal best this weekend running a 4.12 at 182 to land fourth in Limited Drag Radial. Stack is an Alabama native running a twin turbocharged 572 cubic inch big-block Chevy with precision 88’s out front and a two speed TH400 behind the engine. The chassis was upgraded over the winter from the main hoop forward with double framerails and a strut front end by Chris Terry Racing. Shane has been to every DuckX event but two through the years and caused a bit of controversy in 2009 with the innovative rear suspension and frame work done at the time during the stock suspension days of Outlaw Drag Radial. His car and the Scranton Brothers build really pushed the limits of the intent of the rules at the time but was allowed into competition and as they say, the rest is history. Shane will run the events here and follow the Limited Drag Radial points series again this year looking for another championship to match the one he earned in 2017.

“LDR is a really good class, Chad is running good he went a 4.13 yesterday, there is four or five that are all pretty tight.” Shane said. “I remember back then it was a 4.80 class, I think Ridenour or Kolivas won the first one and Wolfe won the first one here running 4.40’s and now that won’t even get you into the top class.” Stack set the radial record in 2007 or 08 down in Immokalee, Florida at the Tomato Nationals with a 4.85. In fact Shane won the very first Drag Radial event Donald Long put on down at Sunshine Dragstrip meeting David Reese in the final. A highlight for Shane in 2018 was Winning Huntsville. “I guess winning at Huntsville at the end of the year last year, It’s my home track and I always seem to struggle racing there, I get down there and it’s just parts breakage and struggle and we won the fall race there and that was a really good deal for us.”

Brian McGee has spent some time away from radial racing concentrating on his family and doing a little grudge racing, taking a win last year at the Orlando World Street Nationals in the N/T class. He mentioned to us that we may see him back here and he did make the show, right on top of Pro 275 with a 4.05 at 184. His Mustang is the Worlds Fastest Nitrous Stock Suspension Car and he has picked up right where he left off as a a top contender in the radial tire game. Big Country was in the pit giving a hand and another set of eyes on the data. “We’re looking at a different angle to see if we were missing anything; they have a similar set up and use the same EFI Technologies ECU as we do. Jeff helps us regularly but we got here and I just asked Corey a few questions about it and next thing you know he is over here and helping pretty good.” Brian said. His crew this weekend is Marshal Daniels shown at left with Connor and Brian McGee.

Round One Results

Round one of Radial vs the World featured a whole bunch runs in the 3.70s with Daniel Pharris, Kevin Rivenbark and Alex Laughlin dipping into the .60’s and Pharris with low ET of 3.681. Keith Haney put Quartuccio’s Serial Killer Corvette out in a close match — Haney’s 3.81 and .007 reaction time to Ken’s 3.85. The all-Texas battle between eighteen and fifteen qualifiers Taylor Lastor and Jamie Hancock went to Lastor with a .006 tree and 3.76 to Hancock’s .033, 3.78 with both racers clocking 198 MPH through the lights. Mike Decker II made it through to represent the Decker/Mobley team driving around Norman Bryson with a 3.79 at 199 to Bryson’s 3.82 despite his .013 holeshot.

X275 had eighteen cars run 4.50 or better in round one with Chipley’s Florida’s Patrick Clenney at low ET with a 4.35 at 165 in his win over Taylor Lastor. Power Automedia’s James Lawrence advanced over Jamie Hancock running a 4.44 to Hancock’s 4.70. With the slowest winning car in class Manny Buginga’s 4.63 at 157 over first time Lights Out Participant John Pryor round two is set up to be a full field of tight competitive matches with the likes if Shane Fisher, Kenny Hubbard, John Keesey and crowd favorite Ryan Milliken’s turbo diesel Chevy II.

Round Two/Three Results

As we reported earlier this weekend Ken Quartuccio has a new engine for 2019 and has switched to an FT600 with FT Spark coil on plug ignition. He qualified sixth with the new combo and scored a 4.293 at 166 in round two of Outlaw 632 earning a win over Chad Anselmi and will move on in the program. The East Side Auto Transport team tested last week with good results and the car is doing everything it’s supposed to at this point here at SGMP. “I gotta to thank Tony Bischoff at BES and Justin Carmack from Carmack Engineering for their part in our program. Both of them have been instrumental in our progress along with Chris at C&S who has been our engine builder since we purchased this car. I could not ask more from my, family, my crew, and all those involved with making this team what it is today.” – Ken Quartuccio.

Dillon Voss qualified number two in OL 632 based out of Live Oak, Florida.He has the earned single fro round two scoring a 4.286 at 167 to score top MPH for the round. Voss runs a big tire clutch combo and has struggled here in previous years but looks on track to go rounds with their 2017 Corvette. The team competes in PDRA and ran the full season in 2018 with plans to continue in the series this year. it’s always tough for slick tire cars here with so much glue put down and runnign a cluth in these conditions just makes it more difficult but the team has persevered and worked hard at developing the combo.

Number one qualifier in OL 632 was Jim Aldous with a 4.26, he is still in and scored a 4.29 at 164 in a round two win over Scott parson out of St Thomas, PA. Aldous runs a Scotty’s Racing Technology big Chevy topped with 14.5 degree Frankenstein heads massaged by V&M with induction Solutions nitrous. Jim described his round two match as “Scary, it was really close at the line. I guess I was asleep on the steering wheel, we beat him by .024 at the stripe and it was a little too close for comfort for me.” Jim and Stacy Covey (at left) from Performance Welding  spent the last four months updating the car to Shag Nasty version 2.0 and it’s running well so far. The team is hungry and in the hunt for a win here at Lights Out 10.