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After all of the tireless winter nights of preparation and smack talk, it’s finally time for the baddest radial tire racers in the land to throw down at the sixth edition of “The Night The Lights went Out In Georgia” at the South Georgia Motorsports Park, and as always, along with our good friends at Comp Cams, we’ll be bringing you same day coverage all weekend long!
People are slow getting set up this morning with temperatures still below freezing just after 9 at just 31 degrees with a 28 degree real feel so says my Accu Weather app. This hardcore crew camped out all night in the back 40.
Robert Babtista made the trek from Massachusetts to be here after taking a year off to regroup and get some weight out of the car with some carbon fiber parts from Ultra Carbon. He runs in X275 with an F1X Procharger feeding into a Mason’s Race Engines small block Chevy.
Mike Fratena had to work on the car this morning after pulling several rocker stand bolts out. They were just getting things back together when we dropped by their pits. Fratena has run well so far this year in Ultra Street trim running several passes in the 5.0 range with his single turbo small block Chevy.
This gorgeous 64 Fairlane is owned by Lester Combs and driven by Jason McGrane out of Greenwood, Indiana. The car features a 585 cubic inch big block Ford from BES and runs naturally aspirated in Ultra Street. They were switching to the MT Pro 275 this morning when I dropped by. Look for this car in a future feature here at Dragzine.com.
It’s nice to see Ron Clark back with his crowd favorite Bugzilla.
I stopped by the Nitrous Express set up in the vendor area and spoke with Mike Abney about their new pressurized water/meth injection system as well as their single entry crossbar Ultimate Street legal plate. The Injection System using pressure from your nitrous or C02 bottle to inject the liquid under high pressure and remove the electric pump from the system, reducing strain on the battery. Chris Isbell poses with the fully plumed big chief intake shown at left.
The track staff has been working on the track for a few hours already this morning getting the track ready to race on. We should be ready for testing around noon today. Due to the cold weather it's looking like there will be no qualifying round today.
Jacky McCarty is here with a brand new car out of his own McCarty Performance shop. He runs a single Precision turbo combo in X275 with a Cox Racing Engines small block. They were making some adjustments to the rear suspension this afternoon.
Louisiana based racer Jeff Colletta runs X275 and was here last year for the No Mercy 5 event creating controversy with the cold nitrous “apparatus” installed on his car and several others. His last event was at Holly Springs Fall Brawl though he did do some testing at No Problem Raceway in December with good results.
Jason Digby has Chad Branson driving while his P101 Dart is down and holds the record for stock suspension Mopar with a 4.66 @ 153 on leaf springs. In the off season the car was lowered and rewired completely along with adding a chin spoiler and a poly-carbonate grill shield for some aerodynamic help. Digby and crew are set to run Outlaw 632 and Leaf Spring this weekend. The engine is a 610 cubic inch big block Mopar topped with Predator heads done by Jeff Burns Racing Engines out of Tupelo, MS with Kevin Neal tuning the nitrous. Crew Chief and fabricator is Michael Gough with a special thanks to Lyle and Mark Barnett for assisting and helping get Digby’s program on to the next level.
Ed Haddock is here with this gorgeous mid eighty’s Chevy step side. Haddock runs Pro Modified in PDRA and is here this weekend having some fun. His wife Jenna Haddock will be racing in 6.0 Index powered by a 434 small block by Buck Racing Engines.
People may not recognize Gary Bunch this weekend as he has shed the pink paint scheme for brown, a Toyota Tundra color. Shown is Gary and his wife Wonda Bunch.
Josh Schwier purchased this car from Adam Vetter last year and has Chris Fenn driving in Ultra Street. It's been several months getting everything squared away and they had their first event at Orlando for the SHRA's Southern Thunder inaugural race running a best 5.04 at 140 MPH. The combo is a 363 cubic in small block Ford with a single turbo. Sponsors include TRZ Motorsports, Lugo Motorsports and John Balinsky from On A Budget (OAB) Racing. Check the unique graffiti paint job, it's sure to have people talking this weekend. Chris Fenn pictured.
Don Lamana and the Pro Fab Performance PLus crew are here and ready. Don has a Proline Racing small block Ford racing X275 and recently ran in the 4.60's at the US Street Nationals. Since then they have lowered the ride height and installed a new rear housing built in house.
Shawn Pevlor has switched over to Nitrous Outlet for the 2015 season. He had a couple of passes yesterday with promising results. Last year at No Mercy Pevlor won Ultra Street and was in the final of Nitrous X when the race was called for running up against the curfew.
Rob Corujo yanked the wheels for a second before losing traction on this run. The track is cold and has been tricky for most racers testing today so far.
Lamar Swindoll is based out of Houston, Texas and is also running Outlaw 632 this weekend after switching from leaf springs to ladder bars. He has a new engine from Taylor Lastor Engines which is a 615 conventional head big block Chevy.
Rich Bruder did not have trouble running straight down track to the tune of 4.68. Rob Valden (far lane) however did not.
UPS has been here three times already delivering parts to the tower. They will be here multiple times making deliveries through Saturday.
Mac Fab Beadlocks is already working on customer beadlock conversions today and will be hard at it through the weekend.
The official shirts will likely sell out again so get yours early.
Team Z Motorsports has their traditional corner spot set up. They offer a full line of suspension components as well as a full chassis shop and assorted other parts. Powder coating is available in a wide variety of colors for any metal parts.
Well you will never guess who we ran into in tech this afternoon. None other than Ron Fisher and his son Jacob. You may remember Ron’s previous Chevelle that graced the Flowmaster Muffler poster dragging the bumper. Well he is back with another Chevelle, this one has a blown big Chevy built at Scotty’s Racing Technology in Spring Hill, Florida. The blower and fuel system are from Mike Janis and it’s backed by a Neal Chance Racing Converter and Proformance Racing Transmission sending the power back to a 9.5 inch Mark Williams full floater rear. The Chassis was built by Robert Coady at Category 5 Race Cars and this is the debut weekend for the car.
Shawn Pevlor went right down A to B with a 5.08 at 139 late in the test session this afternoon.
With the scheduled testing to stop at 5 PM we ended just a little early as Brendan Mills got into left side wall while paired with Kevin Mullins. Brendan is ok but the car is worse for wear and looks to be unrepairable here at the track. Tough break for the Mills team.
The Bruder brothers have a new engine combo from Disomma Racing topped with Visner Engineering billet heads and intake manifold. The car also had a visit at Crazy Don’s for some chassis changes. Dave Klaput’s Proformance Transmissions supplied a new three speed unit and Marty Chance designed a converter to math the new set up. Also new is a Fuel Tech engine management and Davis Technologies Profiler box. Rich’s 4.68 at 158 was the third pass since the changes.
Even though Stuart Henry’s Radial Tour is delayed some the Australian crew is here at Lights Out 6 supporting the sport.
