Thrashes going on everywhere in the pits before heads-up racing begins…

DeWayne Mills has been to the semifinals many times at Duck X races so he’s no stranger to what it takes to win on the biggest radial tire stage. ” We’re sure not turning it down, as long as I’m on the tree we should be in good shape. I think it’s going to take mid 3.70s to even have a chance. If you look at the sheet you see 4-5 cars in the 70s and I don’t see anybody backing down at this point.”

Josh Klugger has a bye into the finals of Pro 275 in his first time on the little tire. “We have already gone the fastest pass at weight for the class with a 4.04 while qualifying in RVW for the class record. We haven’t tried to push it to hard and very consistent making a string of runs in the 4.0s to 4.10 range. I’ve had less steam in a sauna so hopefully the weather cooperates and doesn’t get much worse” – Josh Klugger. From left to right, Josh Klugger, Johnny Drama and Steve Cooks.

Steve Jackson faced off with Daniel Pharris in the semi final of PTC Radial vs the World scoring a .952 60′, 3.78 at 197 with a quick pedal to keep the front end down on his way to a win with Pharris loosing traction and slowing to a 4.37 at 165 setting up a turbo vs blower final with Dewayne Mills’ Golden Gorilla.

Mills had lane choice going into the RVW final with Steve Jackson and was favored on paper with a more consistent car this weekend but you never know what will happen with these cars. They were the first pair out once we got to the finals and the surface had been good all weekend so it was anyone’s guess what the Killin Time Racing crew would throw at the Shadow 2.0. Jackson was out first with an ..022 reaction but Mills was already out front before Jackson banged the blower past the 330′ to earn the back to back No Mercy 7 and 8 wins.

“These guy brought it, my job was to soak my finger in some Red Bull so maybe it will react a little quicker. He had a .022 light to my .040 so I gave up a little bit there but Jamie and Tim had a killer tune up in it and she cycled down through there, we had him reeled in about two hundred feet out and he wasn’t make it to the stripe ahead of me at that point. These guys had it sped up in the heat of the day and if it spun it wasn’t that big a deal but it’s always nice to win, we didn’t come to lose. We needed to throw us a bone after moving to the Hemi over the winter and struggled getting a handle on it but sometimes you have to take a step back to go forward and she’s running good now. We have great people behind us with Pro Line Racing, Jamie Miller, Tim Davis and Josh Watson and my wife Tara and daughter Kallee, shoot man I love it when a plan comes together. We ran a best ET here last year and again today, save the best for last and got her done.” DeWayne Mills. Photo courtesy Chris Simmons

The semi finals of X275 featured Shane Heckel against Tyler Stubbe in an all Texas match up first with Heckel taking the starting line advantage by .023. The pair were tied together to the stripe with Heckel earning the win with a 4.490 to Stubbe’s 4.495. Mean Dean Marinis met with number thirteen qualifier Alan Felts who was running in the low 4.50’s throughout eliminations before striking the tires against Marinis.

Limited Drag Radial had twenty four cars make the call for round one with number eighteen qualifier Bill Futch going low ET in a win over Jack Green. Shane Stack took that position for round two with a 4.19 with Lyle Barnett and Futch scoring a pair of 4.21’s of their own taking out Richard Reagan and Jody Voyles respectively. Round three saw Stack and Futch face off with Futch spinning the tires and Stck showing a 4.208 at 181. Travis Esselman also laid down a 4.20 that round earning lane choice over Scott Husted in the semi finals. Husted put his fourteenth qualified Dunedin Lanes sponsored Mustang in the final on a holeshot .035 reaction to Esselman’s .097 earning a win with a 4.28 at 180 to Esselman’s quicker 4.22 at 184 setting up the final round with Shane Stack who had the earned single that round. Stack got away first in his trusty Monte Carlo with Husted kicking the tires a few feet out after a long difficult weekend and Stack going on to win and getting loose down track and working the steering wheel to keep it off the wall slowing to 158 MPH on a 4.28 ET.

“That LDR series is a whole of fun, it’s one thing to have races to go to but that points thing, it gives you something to look forward to and strive for at each race. You get close to the end it really works on your nerves, can’t sleep..it was a lot of fun, lot of good guys in this class. We struggled the first three racers but found ourselves these last three and really did well, locking up the series championship last night. The .28 in the final was the slowest pass all weekend where she slipped the tirea bit and moved over towards the wall, besides that we ran anywhere from a 4.19 to a .26.” It’s been eleven years since Shane has won a championship and this is his first win here at SGMP No Mercy or Lights Out event so this one is especially sweet for the Shane and the Stack Racing crew.

Limited Drag Radial Runner Up Scott Husted.

Pro 275 had a lot of broken cars in round one with Don Lamana setting low ET and personal best for the round with a 4.10 at 182. Round two saw Josh Klugger ego low ET for the round with a 4.10 of his own and Lamana timing out while staging against Charles Potter, a tough break for Team Pro Fab after preparing upgrading the car over the summer and some engine issues repaired this week by Pro Line Racing after pulling the engine here at SGMP. Ziff Hudson dispatched with Jeff Shawver with a 4.14 to Shawver’s 4.29. Round three saw some tight racing and low ET’s with four of six cars running 4.17 or better and Hudson, Klugger and Richard Reagan making it through to the semis. Once there is was Reagan the slowest of the group going A to B in a win over Ziff Hudson with another consistent mid 4.30 pass and Klugger setting low ET again with a 4.07 at 194 on his bye run. The final saw Reagan kill the tree with a.006 when he needed it the most and spun and slowed to a 5.76 to Klugger’s very safe 4.24 at 194 MPH to earn the class win in his first time ever on the 275 tires after wrapping up the NMCA Radial Wars Championship.

“We couldn’t have done it without the crew, it was an unbelievable weekend especially for the first time out on 275’s. Jamie Miller and the Red Hat Mafia just picked away at it and picked away at it, we had a bracket car all weekend and the weather was absolutely wretched this weekend. Wade did the most incredible job keeping the track up, it didn’t get greasy once all weekend. I gotta thank Garrett Turbo, Pro Line Engines, Proformance Transmissions, Pro Torque, Mickey Thompson Tires, Fuel Tech, VP Fuels, Menscer Motorsports, I’m sure I’m missing some right now. I just didn’t see this happening, just an incredible weekend. We just came off winning our world championship with NMCA, that was sweet but this is just as sweet. We went to the finals in the last three races winning two out of three. This is the last race for us for the year and we have another car being built that we will have out some time next year. I’m just going to enjoy the winter and see how the cards play out next year with everything” – Josh Klugger

“We got here late and really wanted to test but with the weather pushing things up we didn’t have a chance. We unloaded and ran pretty good but had issues about every run with something being broke or fixed but we prevailed. Had a good semi final against a good friend and nemesis Shawn Pevlor. In the finals both cars strike the tires and it’s up for anybody at that point. I hesitated myself and took my chance because I knew if I got right back in it it would probably spin the tires again, and it stuck and went and got the win. I have to thank John Kolivas, Justin McChesney, Ben Thomas, the whole group, everybody worked hard this weekend to get us in the final.” Greathouse runs out of KBX Performance with Pressurized Solutions and Bennett Racing Engines and uses Pro Torque converters. Photo Courtesy Chris Simmons

Outlaw 632 had some tight competition with twenty seven cars in class and top qualifier Ken Quartuccio rolling through the beans in round two allowing a bit of relief to the rest of the field. Dominic Augustine based out of Mooresville, NC set low ET in that round with a 4.35 over Stefan Patterson and Florida based racer Jim Aldous earning a win over Robert Martin’s 67 Chevelle with a 4.446. He met Shannon Wix in round three ending his weekend after falling of to a 4.50 to Wix’s 4.43 at 161. The semis saw Augustine and Kenny Rodriguez paired up and Wix facing off with John Cipolla from East Islip, New York. Augustine earned lane choice with a 4.35 and Wix improving to a 4.41 at 161. He put up an .011 reaction in the final to Augustine’s .067 but slowed to a .48 at 160 and wasn’t able to hold off the hard running 65 Chevelle of Augustine running a 4.39 at 161 to earn the event win.

Limited 275 had a good showing of twenty six cars with Josh Minzenmayer earning top qualifier in a very competitive class with most cars in the 4.8 to 4.9 range and a handful in the 4.70’s. Minzenmayer was clearly consistently set low ET for the round before falling off in round four to a 4.93 on a single and low ET for the round going to Ralph Howard’s 4,712 at 148 in his win over Derek Lewis. Once in the final it was clear Mizenmayer was hurt and the team pushed the car forward and Josh took the tree under his own power after no burnout earning the runner up finish as Howard (far lane) ran right down the track to a winning 4.737 at 148.

Nitrous X had several double entered cars in class with Shawn Pevlor the number one qualifier. He faced down NMRA racer Aaron Bates in round one. Casey Buschmeyer scored a win over Zane Owen and Matt Schlein moving on to the next round with a 5.07 at 120 over Forrest Kennedy. Schlein had a single to the final with Christopher Witzel not able to make the call to the lanes and Pevlor running a 4.69 to earn his place in the final where number one and three qualifiers met and Pevlor earning the class win over Schlein who banged the engine approaching half track with Pevlor scoring another 4.70 to take the win.

6.0 Index Winner Todd Comer in the far lane took the class win over Hunter Burgess’s 66 Chevelle in a very tight match with just .001 separating their reaction times and Comer running a 6.033 to Burgess’ 6.035 making it just a .003 margin of victory, probably the closest race here this weekend in any class.