Today is the day, eliminations begin here at No Mercy 8. The track crew at SGMP is getting the surface ready for a full day of racing.

David Pearson has been a fixture at South Georgia Motorsports Park whenever there is a Duck X Promotions race going on. He can usually be found towards the top of the qualifying sheet and going deep into the rounds on race day. At Lights Out 8 this past February, Pearson had a rough time, to say the least when his famous Fox Body Mustang experienced a devastating engine fire and crash that put him on the sideline until now.

Things went sideways for Pearson at Lights Out when a simple part failed and set into motion a chain of events that would lead to his Mustang going up in flames and tagging the wall. “A distributor belt broke and that totally messed up the timing of the motor, burnt a head gasket and then started the fire. The head and block both had to be welded up and repaired after the failure occurred. It didn’t hurt a piston, just trashed the block and head pretty bad so we got really lucky there. As for the body damage, I just pushed the quarter panel out and called it a day, I haven’t even had the new nose painted yet,” Pearson says.

The level of damage was pretty serious and led to Pearson taking an extended break from racing just to recharge. “I literally threw the motor in the car right before we decided to come to this event. The car had been sitting in my garage and actually had a thick layer of dust on it. For me, feels good to be back at the track and racing after the break, though,” Pearson explains.

Getting back to the track for Pearson really wasn’t a small feat at all and he appreciates the help he received. “It cost a lot of money and took a ton of help from friends and family to get the car put back together. Bennett helped out a lot to get the motor put back together and if it wasn’t for them this would never have happened,” Pearson says.

Overall, the only big change Pearson made to the car and engine for No Mercy was switching from M1, back to gasoline and the car seems to be responding. For Pearson and his team, this is more about performing well as a tribute to a fallen friend. “We really wanted to come to this event and do well for Mustang Mike. He was a huge influence and taught us so much about racing, I wanted to do good for him and keep his memory alive,” Pearson explains.

The plan for eliminations is simple for Pearson, starting tapping into the power that he hasn’t used yet and go rounds. “The car felt slow at the start of the event and went a 4.17, but it has a lot more in it that we are going to bring out. It will run some 4.00s in Pro 275 trim this weekend for sure. Our plans are to just race the track and go A to B as much as possible to win,” Pearson says.

Look for Pearson to fly the Mustang Mike flag with pride this weekend as he marches his own car towards a big victory at No Mercy in the Pro 275 class.

Ken Quartuccio sits on top of Outlaw 632 with a 4.29 at 170 though he did improve on that ET while testing in RVW scoring a 4.27, also at 170. The team struggled the last two races here due to o ring failures in the ¼ turn valves used in the nitrous line causing bits to clog the filters to the solenoids. Yes they were replaced after the first time. Yes, there are no longer ¼ turn valves anywhere near the car this weekend along with new bottles and lines. Look for the East Side Performance crew to hurt more feelings here at No Mercy 8 in the C&S Performance powered, Jamie Miller tuned machine.

Scotty G and Team Jet Blue has a new car that has put the class on notice and already made waves in the community and may, or may not be responsible for some racers absence here this weekend.

Bringing a new car to a big race can be a trying experience for even a seasoned team, especially when the new car blues set in when you’re attempting to make the field. Fortunately for Jeff Sitton, he is part of Killing Time Racing and they don’t show up with to a race without being prepared. Sitton’s new Jerry Bickel Camaro is a thing of beauty and is going to be running anywhere it can fit in.

Sitton’s old car Hyde was a fearsome nitrous machine but wasn’t really built for radial tire racing. With that in mind, Sitton commissioned a new car to be constructed that would be more capable to run on the small tires. “A lot of what went into the car came from our experience racing on small tires. We had already spent a lot of time radial racing so we knew what corrections needed to be made with the new car. A lot of engineering changes had to be made on this car going from the last one to get it right.” Sitton says.

The new car has some interesting attributes to it that are going to serve it very well as Sitton starts to put the laps in racing anywhere he can. “Both my car and Stevie’s car are close, but one car has some better characteristics than the other in different areas. The safety innovations on the new car were actually prompted by Stevie. Since this car is going to go race big tire stuff, we wanted to address what could happen when you blow a tire out, so we added some protection in the driver’s area,” Sitton says.

Sitton goes into further detail about how much better the new car is to drive and what changes were made to the motor program. “We did put some thought in this blower motor setup we’re running now. We haven’t run it long enough to see if the improvements we made are worth it yet. We wet to Darlington with the car two different weekends to test, so it has nine runs on it and the car lined out fairly quick. It’s a night and day difference between the new car and old car. This one is built to handle radials when the old one wasn’t. You can feel it when you drive the car, it’s smooth and just a lot easier to get down the track,” Sitton explains.

After No Mercy, Sitton is going to start doing more testing on the Camaro to get ready to run a variety of classes. “We’re going to hit testing hard and fast for sure very soon. The car is going to be run in the PDRA and NHRA at some point after this. We are going to start testing it on big tires after this race so we can get it figured out for Pro Mod racing. It will be run in the PDRA Pro Boost class, and then later in the season next year we are going to run some NHRA with it,” Sitton says.

When it comes to racing Sitton doesn’t mix his words at all, this team is hungry and ready to take on anybody. “We’re going to come full throttle and hit it hard, this car is going to surprise some people after we get it sorted out. I would love to get some grudge racing in too, we’ll race anybody, anytime, anywhere,” Sitton says with a smile.

Marty Chance landed third in X275 qualifying running this weekend after suffering some damage to the other piece last weekend. “We had a few things going against this weekend after scattering the engine testing last Saturday. “We had another engine from Disomma on the shelf I have had most of the year but no data or tunes ups with it so we threw it in and decided to fumble around with it ourselves…Things are starting to fall in line after testing here this week finally running a 4.42 in round one qualifying and we are on to round two eliminations today.”

Outlaw 632 racer Jim Aldous broke in the 4.40’s this weekend for the first time making the Shag Nasty Racing crew happy. He started out with a 4.49 and improved a bit before hurting a piston/rings on Tuesday. After the repair Jim scored a 4.43 so everything is good to go for eliminations where he will try to go a little better depending on track conditions. Aldus uses Scotty’s Racing Technology horsepower topped with Induction Solutions nitrous, Proformance Transmission and Pro Torque Converter with Proformance Welding and Precision Carpet Cleaning on board as sponsors. From left to right; Dave Kennedy, James, Stacey Covey, Anna Taylor and Jim Aldous.

Updated Qualifying and Round Sheets

Round Two and Three Results

Steve Jackson got by Keith Haney’s Enigma running a 3.82 to Haney’s 3.89 in a very close race. Jackson went on to set low ET with a 3.750 at 198 against Tim Slavens, who ran a nice 3.84 at 205 but was -.001 red ending his weekend earlier than he would have liked.

Dwayne Mills paired with Jeff Sitton who had to pedal his car after the front end came up early in the run. Mills scored a 3.75 at 208 MPH on the run to advance to the semi-final round.

Marty Stinnett was paired with Alan Pittman in RVW round three and did his job in the tree with a .045 reaction to Pittman’s .088 when the tree dropped. However, Stinnett lost traction early in the run and had to pedal the car to a 4.26 at 185 in a losing effort to Pittman’s 4.011 at 189 MPH.

Ron Hamby was paired with Kenny Hubbard in Pro 275 earning the round win with a 4.43 but, lost the hood in the lights after a massive nitrous backfire. It just may be a long night for Ron and crew to prepare for Saturday with the multi-class entered Corvette.

In Ultimate Street George Farkouh earned a hole shot win over Tony Alm with both racers scoring identical ET’s. His .031 bettered Alm’s .043 reaction time.

A nice 4.21 at 181 in Limited Drag Radial for Lyle Barnett in the Tooth Jerker Leaf Spring Mopar owned by Jason Digby. Barnett has had his hands full today earning the prior round win as he had to drive through double wheelie at the top end.