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The calendar pages have turned to October, and in South Georgia that can only mean one thing — No Mercy. Once again, the baddest radial tire racers in the nation have made the trek from near and far to partake in Donald Long’s Woodstock-like affair deep in the heart of Georgia, and with a record $60,000 payday on the line in Radial vs The World, the action on the race track should be as fierce as anything the radial world has ever witnessed. A special thanks to the folks at Fuel Air Spark Technology for their support of our same day coverage!
Eric Leeper has a new ride for it’s race debut fresh out of AC Carcraft. If you remember Leepper ran an all black Ford Lightning pick up a few years back in X275. He has since sold that with this car being a three year build in the making for Pro 275, and one gorgeous car. Eric made one pass yesterday but had trouble and blew the transmission. As of this morning the team was awaiting Troy from M&M Transmissions to freshen it up and will install a new PTC converter. There is open testing today with Qualifying to start at 6 PM this evening.
The Mustang is powered by an MMR built 5.4 DOHC Mod Motor with a Precision Pro Mod 94 out front and Fuel Tech FT500 engine management.
Travis Esselman is out with a new Corvette from Steve Bruce Race Cars here for PTC Radial vs the World. Esselman builds his own engines at his Hanger 18 home shop backed by an RPM built transmission with Haltech Engine Management wired by Haltech and tuned by Patrick Barnhill from PTP Racing. The engine is 540 cubic inches fed by GenI Precision 88's with 550 Billet Atomizer injectors. The headers and turbo hot and cold side was built in house as well as much of the other fabrication and aluminum work at Hanger 18 with help from long time friend Travis Linden.
Marty Robinson suffered some engine damage last night after dropping a valve. We stopped by their pits this morning to find the crew wrapping things up and dumping in some fresh oil in the Carl Stevens built Extreme Racing Engines Hemi preparation for installing the intake.
“I'm just here to compete this weekend, I hear the track is on kill and there is going to be a lot of good cars in X275, it's going to be a tough field, lotta fast cars here, so we're looking forward to it and just need some luck this weekend” Shane Fisher. Fisher runs out the KBX Racing camp.
Chris Groves has one NMRA event under his belt this year where he struggled with a broken strut until Jacky McCarty loaned his to Groves after being eliminated from competition. He tested at Holly Springs in X275 trim with those and has fresh units in place this weekend from Mark Menscer.
There was one round of PTC Radial vs the World qualifying last night with twelve cars in the three second zone so far.
Daniel Pharris leads RVW after one session with a 3.807 at 211.49 MPH in the Aleppa Racing 2014 PLR powered Corvette.
Jeff Sitton earned second spot on the sheet with a clean 3.846 at 199.32 for the Killin Time Racing nitrous entry.
Team M&M has two cars in the top ten with Woodruff sitting seventh so far running a 3.92 at 207 on the fourth run since the rebuild., a new best for him. Woodruff and crew had a thrash session to get here making repairs from an accident recently. “I hand it to all the people that helped out, Larry Jeffers Race Cars, Rob Mathias, Precision Turbo, Mickey Thomson, M&M Transmission, Bill Lutz at Central Ohio Insurance. Gotta have insurance on those race cars, without those guys we wouldn’t be here. The whole crew stepped up and made it happen.” – Mark Woodruff. For his part Mark Micke sits third with a 3.84 at 205, which I believe is also a best for Jason Carter’s Malibu.
“Big Chief” aka Justin Shearer went right down A to B scoring a 4.11 at 187 in his Butler Performance powered 1968 Crow Mod Firebird.
Taylor Lastor sits nineteenth in RVW with an easy 4.22 at 148.
Steve Jackson left hard but climbed the right gear a bit forcing him to lift off the throttle. He costed through to a 4.89 landing thirtieth this session. Marty Robinson near lane.
We stopped by Gainsville, Georgia’s Shannon Hamilton’s pit who is here running in X275 this weekend and has a booth set up for their Cecily Mcree Hamilton Memorial Scholarship Fund www.bringit4cec.org. The fund was established after their daughter was tragically killed in a car accident with her boyfriend in early 2015. Shannon took some time off from racing to regroup through a grieving process and had spoken with Cecily’s Other Dad Josh and he mentioned how Cecily talked to him about there being no scholarships for cheerleaders like there was for other sports like football and baseball, and the idea was born. The organization is 501(c)3 with 100% of the raised funds going to the scholarships and has raised $30,000 thus far. The group is also interested in promoting safe driving for teens and also promotes the BRAKES (Be Responsible and Keep Everyone Safe) organization founded by Top Fuel racer Doug Herbert after he lost his two young sons in a car accident in January of 2008. The Put On The B.R.A.K.E.S. (Be Responsible And Keep Everyone Safe)is a non-profit 501(c)3 whose mission is to prevent injuries and save lives by training and educating teenage drivers and their parents about the importance of safe and responsible driving. www.putonthebrakes.org.
Shannon’s car is powered by a William Blackney built 588 cubic in big block Ford with an Inductions Solutions fogger stuffed with about five hundred horsepower worth of jet. It’s backed by a Sid Neal glide and NCRC converter. Strange brakes stop the car with their struts up front and Menscer’s out back.
Despite not making a run in the second session of Radial vs The World, Daniel Pharris remained atop the field with his career best 3.80 from Wednesday night. Pharris gained a lot of company in the three-second zone -- 19 more cars to be exact -- and leads Mark Micke (right) by just two-hundredeths after he too made a career best run of 3.82 tonight.
Valerie Clements, making her debut in Ultra Street this weekend, had the front end WAY up in the air on her first qualifying hit this evening.
Rich Bruder clicked off a 4.46 to pace the 57-car X275 field early on, but was unseated in the final few pairs down the racetrack by Mean Dean Marinis and his 4.44.
Thursday Qualifying Results
