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We are back at it for day three of official qualifying for Lights Out 8. The weather cooled off last night giving racers a hard time with the cool track temps aggravated by repeated stoppages and track clean up. Stay tuned in to Dragzine as we bring you the best same day coverage going.
The fence is lined with people today and the stands are quite full today with people from across the world on site to catch the action.
Chad Opaleski has struggled a bit recently keeping the front end down with his Fast Forward Race Egines built Procharged Hemi powered 1966 Chevelle. Today he sent the front and rear shocks to Menscer for some maintenance, a re-valve on the rear shocks and added some weight to the nose for the second round of Radial vs the World qualifying. Here John Mellon is working on the front shocks replacing the oil and seals before checking them out on their shock dyno at the Afco/Menscer Motorsports display and service trailer on manufacturers midway.
Outlaw 632 racer Jim Aldus bolted on drag radials for the first time this weekend getting one clean pass so far running a 4.59 at 159 MPH yesterday. He will put an A to B tune in the car for today’s qualifying session then deal with going faster once he is solidly in the field. Aldus hails from Jacksonville, FL with power from Scotty’s Racing Technology in Spring Hill, Florida. Sponsors that help with the program are local businesses Performance Welding, and Precision Carpet Cleaning.
There is always an interesting mix of cars here at Duck X events and this 1965 Skylark is a fine example. The car is owned by Cam Motions Steven Balusik from Tarpon Springs, Fl and is powered by a Fast Forward Race Engines LS topped with Dart heads and a Nitrous Outlet puck system. He is entered in 6.0 index and racing for the first time here at SGMP. We detailed the engine build over at out sister publication Engine Labs back in 2015 with Project Escalation making 700 HP on pump gas. He ran a 5.88 at 114 for a personal best ET and nabbing a 1.29 60′ for the hard launching Blackbird. He runs a Extreme Automatics overdrive trans with a Circle D converter.
Barry Mitchell made a test run in OL275 scoring a 3.78 on the pass. Once back at the trailer the team went right to work tearing into the engine to asses a problem. We will have more reporting on that later as the crew was busy, and tight lipped. His team mate Ziff Hudson has had troubles spooling the mustang and has yet to make a good pass in qualifying. They went right to work in the lap top looking for issues that are causing the problem.
Steve Jackson put the Shadow 2.0 on top of PTC Radial vs the World this morning with a 3.78, his first full pass we witnessed.
X275 had some action in qualifying with several racers in the 4.30’s. Here Dean Marinas scored a 4.30 at 162.
At the end of the X275 session it would be Rob Goss at the top of the ladder with a 4.380 at 164.53. He can do better as this wasn’t really a clean pass.
Ryan Milliken from Hardway Performance in Fort Walton Beach, Florida has a new car this year after running his Cummins powered Dodge Ram here last year. The super clean Chevy II was purchased from Mickey Tessner then fitted with a new Cummins combo similar to his last engine dropping 1,000 in the car swap. The class rules allow for nitrous in straight 6 equipped cars, which helps building boost and adds a significant dose of power. Milliken ran a 5 teen with a soft tune earlier this week and he will be looking for some high four second runs once he gets some tuning done on the new combo.
The newest creation of the Pro Fab Performance Plus in New Port Richey, Florida is the Jeepenstein 2.0 finished just in time to debut here at Lights Out 8 entered in Extreme Leaf Spring. Owner Bob Stuller is based out of Tarpon Springs, Florida and qualified with a 5.74 at 137 in the first full pass on the new ride. The original Jeepenstein was powered by an AMC 360 on nitrous and ran some high 5 second runs with Bob competing in Lakeland Dragstrip's Cash Days program. Bob dropped the AMC engine, deeming it “too costly to go fast” and enlisted MPR to build a proper combo opting for a proven small block Ford few by a single turbo from Forced Inductions. “I have to give a big thanks and shout out to Kenny Ford and the folks at PTC for getting me back up and running with a fresh transmission.”
Scotty G repeated his earlier 4.06 for a clean qualifying pass in Outlaw 275 running 181 MPH through the lights earning top qualifier in class after one session.
Shawn Ayers drives for Fletcher Cox who has his brothers car here who had passed away about a year and a half ago. The “Gold Dust” Fox body is a tribute to Dustin Runnels, son of Dusty Rhodes, WWE and WWF character Goldust, who Trell Cox was a long time fan of. The car is powered by a small block Ford with a single turbo out front and running in Pro 275 here this weekend where he qualified in class with a 4.36 at 145 on the first full run on the car.
Round One Qualifying Results Continued
RVW, Ultimate Street.
Outlaw 632, Outlaw Drag Radial, X275.
Mark Woodruff moved up to second in RVW with a 3.835 at a new record 212.69 MPH out the back.
Baton Rouge, LA racer Jason Brock has his Skinny Kid Race Cars built RVW 2004 Mustang on the property and has made some consistent runs this week. He is qualified fifth so far with a .976 60' 3.902 at 189 MPH, a personal best and ran a 3.905 at 191 on his last qualifying run. The car is powered by a TRE 960 Chevy engine and backed my an M&M three speed transmission. A Holley Dominator engine management system runs the Precision injectors with the 5 nitrous systems from Switzer Dynamics. The car was formerly campaigned by Don Walsh Jr in Pro 5.0 and has a stock wheelbase sitting at 2380 pounds.
Tom Baily is driving the Skinny Kid Hurst Olds after convincing Keith to put small tires on the new car that he campaigned last year on big tires. The only full run so far was a 4.32 at 185 putting him twenty-sixth in the field. The engine is an AJ Hemi topped with a PSI C rotor screw built by Billy Briggs.
Paolo Giust ran well so far scoring a 4.02 at 189 putting him solidly mid pack in RVW in his debut weekend for his “Black Betty” Camaro which delivered here to the track by G Force Race Cars. He slowed slightly to a 4.04 last session and will be looking for the three second zone later tonight.
Frank Meshaw looked to be on a solid run till a bang came from the car on the top end and clearly getting some fluid under the car as it slid sideways and into the wall. He was out of the car quickly and word is he is uninjured if a bit shaken up.
Lyle Barnett has piloted Jason Digby’s Dart to repeated record setting performances the past few weeks and it’s no exception here today as the car has gone quicker every run. He is the top qualifier in Extreme Leaf Spring now dropping the record to a 4.244 at 181 MPH, certainly an impressive feat on the oldest automotive suspension system around.
Tony Alm put his car on top of Ultimate Street with a 4.76 at 147 MPH, significantly ahead of some other heavy hitters in the class so far. Tyler Crossnoe, Shaen Pevlor, Mike Freeman and Brian Keep round the top five.
Barry Mitchell moved himself right up to the top of the class in the final session of the day with a 3.738, resetting his own record here tonight at Lights Out 8. Not to be outdone Steve Jackson took over number one spot with a 3.737 just a few pairs later.
Tim Kincaid earned a place in the field with this 3.99 at 169 in round the round two session.
Round Three Qualifying Results
PTC Radial vs the World, Pro 275.
KBX/Precision X275, Leaf Spring.
Frank Soldridge and Tim Kincaid were paired up late in RVW qualifying with Soldridge suffering what appears to have been some engine damage, oiling the track in the right lane. Soldridge had struggled getting the new combo figured out finally scoring a 3.96 at 181 in the previous session. Frank pulled over safely and stopped without incident beyond the necessary clean up time, about an hour before we were back racing.
Jody Voyles has swapped hit nitrous small block for a PLR twin turbo combo and moved up to Outlaw Drag Radial. This is the debut event for the new set up and the team has uncovered and repaired several new car gremlins here testing this week. He has improved to a 4.49 at 169 on his final hit today in the PTC Radial vs the World class.
