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It’s the one we’ve all been waiting for, as radial racers and fans from around the world re-convene at the South Georgia Motorsports Park for the eighth edition of “The Night The Lights Went Out In Georgia”, where $50,000 will be on the line in the headlining Radial vs The World category. As we have for each of the last eight years, Dragzine will be on hand bringing you all of the behind-the-scenes coverage from one of drag racing’s most prestigious heads-up shindigs!
Ontario based racer Paolo Giust has a new car built for Radial vs the World by G Force Race Cars here for it’s race debut going by the name of “Black Betty” . Giust has been active in Pro Mod and Pro Boost with the PDRA recently where he drove his MSR powered C7 Corvette finishing eighth on the 2016 season. This car currently has the engine and B&J Quick Drive trans combo from the Vette with Menscer shocks out back and Chris Bell prepped struts up front. Jim Salemi and Jeff Pierce are tuning the car.
Fastmover Motorsports owner Chris Matters has his long term build finished with one lap under it's belt with Kevin Fiscus behind the wheel. The car is an original 2006 Saleen with power from an RGR built Ford GT Supercar 5.4 liter engine fed by a mid frame 85MM GEN II Precision turbo backed by an ATF 3 speed TH 400 transmission. Fiscus lifted as planned on the initial hit scoring a 4.85 making the team, and Chris very happy with the 1.17 60' and 3.13 half track numbers showing 4.6X potential already. Matters has deployed four times as active duty Navy during the six and a half year build causing significant delays. “This may be the only race I get to this year but the car will be campaigned and maintained by team FKR for the X275 season.
Street Outlaws New Orleans racer Shannon Poole scored a 5.15 on his first pass with his new Corvette which has been referred to as “The car with no name”. The car is powered by a Poole Speed big Chevy topped with plenty of nitrous from Induction Solutions. Shannon will be running Outlaw 632 this weekend.
Tyler Crossnoe is running his new car this weekend with a best so far of 4.89 after just 10 passes. Drew Sims from Pressurized Solutions was just setting the intake back on after an intake gasket repair this morning.
This GTO is running in the small block No Time Shootout this weekend driven by Derrick Ford out of Maryland. The team recently sold their OL 10.5 operation and is going Pro Mod racing so came down for a little fun with the HFR built car using an Alan Miner built Pontiac engine.
Our first action shots of Lights Out 8 are of Don Lamana who moved over to Pro 275 for this weekend and scored a new best 4.13 at 182 MPH this morning after running a 4.37 and a 4.23 yesterday for the Pro Fab Performance Mustang. The car is powered by a Pro Line Racing big Chevy topped with Frankenstein heads and twin Precision turbos with Haltech Engine Management. Other companies involved with the program include Salvato Designs, Real Street Performance, M&M Transmissions, Pro Torque and RC Components wheels.
Killin Time Racin's Jeff Sitton went right down Broadway, carrying the front wheels just a bit from fifty to 150 feet or so but not touching the “Safety Bars” running a 3.89 at 198 MPH. The team struggled some with this car at the US Street Nationals in Bradenton but were trying some new things Steve Jackson had told us. We will have more from the KTR crew later today.
Steven Fereday got into a wheel stand in Radial vs the World round two qualifying coming down hard around half track and flames bursting under the car on impact. He was able to get the car stopped and extract himself for the still burning car, thankfully without injury.
Billy Banaka is driving this Firebird now owned by Mike Bankston, seen pictured right, since July after purchasing it from Jason Harris where he competed in PDRA Pro Nitrous. It's Billy's first time on radials this weekend with five hits so far. Starting off with a 4.26 and running a best 4.03 at 195 last night.
Lyle Barnett, Jason Digby and the team are making progress on the car scoring the Leaf Spring ET record in Bradenton and putting a 178 MPH pass here at SGMP today earning the top MPH for a Leaf Spring car.
Round One Qualifying Results
We were able to get just three classes finished for round one qualifying, running up against the eleven PM curfew during Radial vs the World after a couple of incidents on track and an extensive clean up due to an oil down. Outlaw 632, Outlaw Drag Radial and Ultimate Street were able to finish their sessions today. The run order is tentativly staying the same with PTC Radial vs the World to wrap up, then X275, Pro 275, Leaf Spring, Nitrous X and No Time.
Tony Alm scored top qualifier after one session in Ultimate Street running a 4.76 at 147 MPH, just ahead of Tyler Crossnoe’s debut 4.771 qualifying pass.
Brian Keep ran a nice 4.84 at 143 landing in fifth position for the Nitrous Outlet HRE powered entry.
Daddy Dave Comstock from Street Outlaw scored top qualifier in Outlaw Drag Radial with a 4.215 at 176. There is a bit more to this story though as Dave and Lil Country in Apocalypse was a little grudge match set up for round one qualifying in ODR. The pot rose over $5,000 before the pair made it to the line. Comstock went red on the tree giving up the 5K, sitting number one with Swanstrom at fourth with his 4.255 at 172 has to ease the pain just a little bit though.
Ziff Hudson is on the hunt for the threes but had an issue in tonight qualifying session. He pedaled the car and it started climbing the ring gear right away forcing him to lift.
Josh Klugger had a bit of a scare last night after the exhaust caught the carbon fiber fender on fire on the top end. Team mate Kevin Fiscus also had an incident driving for Andrew Aleppa where the Corvette sustained significant fire damage. Klugger qualified in RVW with a 4.03 but there is no official sheet yet.
Greg Trapnell based out of Australia brought his Holden HQ Monaro over two years ago for Dragweek and wound of leaving it stateside to race and fly back and forth for various events. He is entered in X275 this weekend running a 582 ci Chevy with NX Nitrous fogger. He has a unique induction set up running a Holley Dominator EFI with old school Hilborn Stacks.
The Bruder Brothers shocked a lot of people debuting their new roots blown combo. This will be their second outing with the car including initial testing. They have struggled some but that’s not unexpected. The car looked good on a planned short pass and should provide some usable data for the team.
