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The rain showers that cut the action short yesterday here in South Georgia have moved out of the area and with that we’ve been greeted by sunny skies for the conclusion of qualifying and the opening round of eliminations at No Mercy 7. Keep it right here on Dragzine for same day coverage presented by Fuel Air Spark Technology!
Well we have a bit of sad news to report this morning with Mary Robinson into the wall after banging the blower off the engine in the delayed PTC Radial vs the World qualifying held over from Friday. He was out of the car quickly on the top end and ok to race for another day.
Ziff Hudson scored a record pass in Pro 275 yesterday running a 4.05 at. He debuted the car last October in Orlando testing just before Lights Out 6 running a 4.15 there. His previous best was a 4.10 here in February. The Keziah/Mitchell team just received the car back from some upgrades at Racecraft Inc. Power comes from a TKM engine force bed by a Precision turbo, Billet Atomizer 800 injectors with an FT 500 engine management backed by a trans and converter from Cameron. “Tonight and the first round of eliminations in RVW we are going to try to go three nineties on that little tire, we are using that class for testing, I think we'll go a .99, that's our goal is to get in the threes on the Mickey Pro 275.” Ziff Hudson.
Shawn Pevlor improved on his 4.60 with a 4.57 in Nitrous X and is also running in X275 this weekend. BES ran a new CNC program through his heads just before the Yellow Bullet Nationals which he won in Ultra Street. Pevlor runs RPM Transmissions and Trick Flow Heads with help from Salvato Designs.
Steven Fereday ran a personal best 3.92 and fighting some ignition gremlins. They will be looking for 3.80’s once the ignition issues are straightened out in the LMR Camaro. They run a 572 ci PLR 481X, an AMS 2000 boost controller, M&M Trans and Pro Torque converter. The car is owned by Fereday and Dave Lewis.
Bric Briehan from ARC and Steve Kanner from Commando Racing are with Diesel the Rottie representing and raising money for charity with a bean bag toss event in the manufacturers midway. All proceeds go to the American Cancer Association and the American Diabetes Association.
Justin "Big Chief" Shearer made a career best pass on radials and his first trip into the 'threes' with a crowd-pleasing 3.99 at 190 mph in the Crowmod in today's third round of Radial vs The World to position himself 21st in the order. There are now 23 cars in the three-second range, and Scott Gaudagno is currently anchoring the 32-car field with a 4.207 with one session remaining. Reigning Lights Out champion Keith Berry and Brad Edwards are among those outside the show.
Dean Marinis and Rich Bruder have been trading the pole in X275 back and forth in the two sessions that have been contested thus far, and Marinis once again got the upper hand this morning, edging out Bruders’ 4.439 with a 4.437. A total of 55 cars have taken a shot at the racetrack in X275, with Michele Kato playing gatekeeper to the field with a 4.696.
Driving the world’s quickest radial tire car, Texas Jeff Sitton has cranked off a best of 3.836 at 200 mph this weekend behind the wheel of Steve Jackson’s Pro Nitrous Camaro to position himself fifth in the Radial vs The World order.
While the hurricane-induced weather kept the crowd away on Friday, that certainly isn't the case today, as fans have packed South Georgia Motorsports Park for the final day of qualifying.
Neal Chance Converters’ own Marty Chance is sittng comfortably in the top half of the X275 field in his Mustang with a 4.528, which is currently ninth in the order.
While it was pleasing for the photographers, Jamie Stanton’s wheels-up launch this morning forced him to lift early during X275 qualifying. After two rounds, Stanton is well outside the field with a 6.13 best, good for 52nd out of 55 cars.
Round 2/3 Qualifying Orders
Jerry Gunter has his new combo solidly in the middle of Procharger Pro 275 with a 4.73. He will be looking to improve later but in is in. The nose of the Zombie Wagon is just in the corner putting Dean Vallese two spots back in sixteenth.
Nitrous X Racer Matthew Schlien carried the wheels out in the heat of the day. He sits sixth in class with a 4.97 with one qualifying session left.
Pro 275 racer Eric Leeper has struggled with trans issues this weekend. Certainly one of the best looking cars on the property.
Jason Richards is a longtime participant here at Duck X events with his ’68 Camaro based out of Gastonia, North Carolina. His 4.38 put him tenth in Pro 275.
Kevin Wallauer based out of Victorville, California is qualified sixth in Strange Engineering Xtreme Leaf Spring with a 4.80 at 150 MPH.
Ron Rhodes is top qualifier so far in Leaf Spring, as if that is a surprise for the oft double entry team. A 4.51 is the time to beat in the final round.
Ron Walker out of Naperville, Illinois runs this beutiful 64 GTO in Ultimate Street with a nitrous combo. He has struggled this weekend and is last on the sheet.
Mike Oldham is sporting new paint on his Suncoast Chassis built ride. He was sitting out of the field with a 5.11.
Scotty G has run consistently on 275’s so far with a pair of 4.19’s this weekend.
Keith Berry has been struggling all weekend long with his new combination and entered the final session of RvW on the outside of the field looking in. Unfortunately, his hopes ended with tire spin just beyond the christmas tree. Berry may still make the show however, as an alternate for Marty Stinnett and Marty Robertson, both of whom are out of competition for the weekend.
Judging by his reaction, Phil Shuler must have liked what he saw while assessing the South Georgia Motorsports Park starting line before his driver, Steve Jackson, made his final qualifying attempt.
Alan Pittman, driving the Firebird owned by Pro Modified legend Scotty Cannon, punched into the RvW field in the team’s radial tire debut at No. 29 with a 4.081 best.
Mustang Mike Modeste is pulling double duty in his ProCharger-fed Mustang this weekend in both Pro 275 and Outlaw Drag Radial. He’s fared better in ODR with a third-best 4.22, but has mustered only a 5.85 for the 24th spot in Pro 275.
Alabama’s Mike Jones closed out Outlaw Drag Radial qualifying inside the top eight with a steady 4.35 at 176 mph.
Joel Greathouse and Troy Pirez Jr. sit atop Induction Solutions Ultimate Street with Greathouse having a full tenth advantage over the nitrous fed Pirez. 4.777 leads the class.
Brian Keep Right lane) from Ft Meyers, Florida landed just ahead of Valeri Clements in her Lights Out debut. Keep's 4.88 is at or near his best run to date. The South Carolina based Clements landed fifth with her 4.92 at 143.
Odessa, Florida resident Troy Fredrickson put his Pro Fab Performance Plus Built Camaro at tenth in Ultimate Street running a 5.17 at 135 MPH. He runs an LS based engine in the car.
Armen Maghdessian is one of the Cali crew out here for some racing and a good time. he is running in Strange Engineering Xtreme Leaf Spring and scored fourth of seventeen cars with a 4.61 at 156 MPH. A nice hit for him.
Ken Quartuccio is sporting fresh paint and some minor upgrades sionce we saw the car here last year in Pro Fab/Commando Outlaw 632. He managed sixth in class and will be paired with a familliar face with Dillon The Kid Voss in round one tomorrow.
Final Qualifying Results
We have yet to wrap qualifying for Procharger UPR RK Racecraft Pro 275, Strange Engineering/Moroso/Quarter Max Xtreme Leaf Spring or Nitrous Express/Ultimate Converter Concepts/Salvato Designs Nitrous X.
Strange Engineering Leaf Spring, Nitrous Express Nitrous X
Day is slowly turning to night here at SGMP as we wrap up the final round of qualifying in the index and heads-up categories, and that's welcome relief from the 90-degree heat and nearly 110-degree track temperatures that the fans and racers have had to deal with throughout the day. Radial vs the World will be the first category out for eliminations, and per the plan, we'll run until curfew at midnight.
Daniel Pharris reeled off low elapsed time of the race in his opening round win, carding a career best and SGMP radial track record lap of 3.791-seconds.
Alan Pittman pulled off a definitive upset when he downed Mark Micke in the opening round with a 4.09 after Micke lost traction right at the hit and coasted on down the 660.
Justin Shearers’ weekend came to an end in the first round of Radial vs The World at the hands of Josh Klugger, but he didn’t go without getting the applause of the crowd one last time with this low earth orbit wheelstand.
Round 1 Eliminations Results (to be continued Sunday morning)
