Network
Saturday
Hailing from Aberglasslyn, Australia Jeremy Martin scored his first three second pass in the 1979VB Commodore on the sixth pass here this week at No Mercy 9 during Friday’s Radial vs the World final qualifying session. “We had the tune up in there we just had a few little dramas from going from one country to another and whole bunch of work getting set up legal for Radial vs the World and our first time on radials. Once we got a few bugs worked out Josh Ledford’s got it dialed in, the car went straight down the middle. We’re happy we are here and made it to first round.” Jeremy Martin. Martin faced off with Tim “Underdog” Slavens in round one eliminations this morning earning a spot in round two with a 3.93 at 195 MPH.
Mark Woodruff qualified tenth in class and met with Norman Bryson in round one. Woody got away first but slowed on his run allowing Bryson to get around his off pace 4.05 at 161 with a 3.94 at 194 putting another nitrous car on to round two. We stopped by Bryson’s pit earlier and caught them mid prayer before going up to the line for eliminations. Paulo Giust will have lane choice in the round two match with Bryson.
Houston, Texas based Jeff Naiser put his NRC Racing Engines and Cylinder Heads powered, nitrous huffing Jerry Bickel Race Cars 69 Camaro on the pole in PTC Radial vs the World with a 3.762 at 190 MPH with Kenny Hubbard making the tuning calls on the car. Naiser ran it just past the 330′ on their first qualifier running an easy 3.84 then skipped the second session in the afternoon, choosing to go for it later in a night qualifying session.
“We ran it through and it nipped a piston in the lights. We started Sweet 16 with this 954 engine have had some troubles keeping it happy and found some issues half way through our season so we are basically starting over. It shows a lot of promise, we just have to work on it a little too much. This is probably the last race for it for the year and we’ll go through it over the winter to prepare for next year. Kenny tunes on the car, I just have to let go of the button- Jeff Naiser
The engine is topped off with Nitrous Outlet system and filled with Wiesco pistons and GRP rods. The car was built for PDRA in 2013 but it’s difficult to run that series based out of Texas so it sees more duty here at SGMP the past couple of years. Naiser advanced to round two beating David Wolfe’s 4.08 at 201 with a 3.86 at 185 and will face Tim Kincaid in round two.
Mark Micke put Jason Carter’s Blue Bu in fourth spot despite strugging with gettign the car to run out the back in qualifying with a nest MPH of just 211. When first round came today the team was loaded for bear and ready to rock putting up a 3.77 at 218 on the board to advance to round two with lane choice over the Australian Jeremy Martin.
The Carolina NT Grudge 29 inch tire grudge class has some heaver hitters in the game here with Phil Boley earning the win over Kenjo and Tim Meisner scoring over Tommy Rainer. Little Country has been fighting with keep the front end down and he lost a close match with Jamie Otts single turbocharged Taxi after having to pedal the car down track to get the front end back down. Jason Borum scored the upset over Scotty G's G Unit who struck the tires. The track was tricky this afternoon with the car's going the full trip advancing to round two.
Jarrod Wood was tasked with driving the Jeep for car owner Bill Schurr this weekend, who owns Paramount Performance which specializes in late model Chrysler performance transmissions such as found in the Hellcat, Demons ect and is based in North Carolina. Kevin Mullins normally drives but had heart surgery recently and is out recuperating a few weeks, so Wood, who purchased Mullin’s red Mustang last year and scored the first and only three second run in Australia three weeks ago and was tasked and flew over to get behind the wheel. The Jeff Miller built Jeep is powered by a TKM built Gen III Hemi sporting four hundred cubic inches fed by a Garrett 85 MM turbo. It’s backed by an in house built TH 400 and a Paramount converter. There is just a handful of runs on the car to date and it has been sitting waiting on parts for about a year. “ I been racing twelve months with Kevin’s car on radials and twelve months before that in his HQ One Tonner Sport Yute street truck, I have to thank Eric Scarborough from TKM, Bill Schurr and my dad Terry Wood.” Jarrod Wood From right to left, Bill Schurr and Jarrod Wood.
The KBX/Precision Turbo X275 top qualifier is one Shane Fisher racing out of the KBX Performance camp with a 4.392 at 172.98 MPH. “We had a great outing so far, there is a lot of tough cars out here this weekend and even in the heat of the day the track has been great to us. We ran a 4.42 first round, came back in the heat with a .47 and ran the .39 in the night session. We got Kenny Hubbard and Rob Goss right on our heels with 4.40’s. X is hot right now and been gaining interest since the Sweet 16 with a lot of cars bunched up in the 40’s. We had a tough spring fighting some gremlins and lost an engine in the semis at Tyler Crossnoe’s Outlaw Street Car Reunion and we not able to race in the final then we got lucky at The Shakedown getting the win there. – Shane Fisher John Kolivas has tuned the car since day one and its fitted with an M&M transmission and Pro Torque converter with Fuel Tech engine management fed by a precision turbo.
Ryan Milliken did his job on the tree in his diesel powered Nova II against Justin Curry scoring a hole shot win with both drivers running 4.55 out the back. It was a 4.555 for Milliken to Curry’s 4.554.
It’s a hot one today as the temp was already 101 degrees real feel at 1PM with the track temp at 125. Patrick Clenney is wheeling the former Dean Marinis machine now based in the Ducky Johnson Racing camp. He went straight down Broadway this afternoon netting a 4.47 at 161 on a single pass
Rodney Ragen earned top qualifier in Ultra Street runnign out of the KBX camp with a 4.689 at 156. “We had a better day on Thursday qualifying but managed a 4.68 and number one qualifier Friday and real happy with the performance this weekend” Rodney Ragen. The combo is a hi port head fed by a F1R 91 Procharger, managed by Fuel Tech, backed by Pro Torque and BP Racing. He has a bye first round and will “Give it all we got”” to test the track on the earned single. It held to the tune of 4.72 at 156 MPH.
In a special ceremony before round two eliminations there was a flag retiring ceremony where a Veterans group replaced the SGMP American flag and played taps prior to the National Anthem.
Leroy Nabors lost a connecting rod in the lights in his round two match of PTC Radial vs the World with Jamie Hancock sending him into the wall after oil got under the tires and he lost steering ability. He hit two walls but it wasn’t a hard impact to cause Nabors any injuries but the car it torn up pretty good in the front end with a broken strut and some bent tubing. Hancock would earn the win with a 3.85 at 196 to Nabors’ 4.01 at 187 MPH.
“I was driving it and got to the eighth mile and a bunch of smoke came out of the front and I lost the steering and was just along for the ride. I pulled the chutes, it kissed both walls and I soon as it stopped fire came out as I was pulling the steering wheel off , undid the buckle and going out the window and the fire just went out, just disappeared, the Lord protected me. You gotta praise Him in the good and the bad. It's such an honor to be here and all the people showing the love. I'm standing beside and and I'm fine, I'm truly blessed to walk away from it” Leroy Nabors
David Reese has a two car team here in the Carolina No Time with his El Diablo and Timmy Miessner’s Blown Money Mustang. Miessner lost an engine shaking the car down here on Thursday and missed a session yesterday but is in round two of the shootout after swapping in a new unit. El Diablo is a joint effort with Phil Shuler after Leroy Nabors purchased his Corvette and the Camaro was built to run 28’s or 275’s so the team would have a car in two classes. He has five final round appearances so far with El Diablo so their program is off to a good start.
Remlap, Alabama based Paul Gargus is running Limited Drag Radial with his 1969 Camaro using a Chris Terry Racing Engines 565 Chevy and twin 88 MM turbochargers from Garrett. Terry also did the turbo piping and installation fabrication as well as a fresh back half on the car. Gargus is racing the LDR series and has four events under his belt so far wit a best ET of 4.23. “We qualified with a 4.27 but have been fighting wheelies here this weekend. We won the St Louis PSCA event had a runner up at Ohio Valley and got put out second round when we debut the car at Huntsville.” – Paul Gargus. The crew from left to right Scott Tidwell, Tim Fuller, Paul and Angela Gargus, Chris Jebeles and Tim Hart.
Daniel Pharris is here piloting two cars this weekend, the Aleppa Racing Corvette and the Lexus in Limited Drag Radial where he is qualified number one. He is racing the points series for LDR and is just a few back from points leader Shane Stack. Goals for this weekend is to come away with a win here and move into the points lead for the final event at Radial Fest in October. “ The Vette’s been good, we qualified tenth with a 3.84, it’s a tough field and tough conditions. We have Alex Laughlin second round, he went a .78 in the heat and they probably will wick it up so it will be tough for sure. We gotta play it safe and race the race track and hope for the best” – Daniel Pharris
Alex Laughlin’s Vette recieves major sponsor from Speed Society with support from Fitzgerald USA and Technet, and Hot Wheels Car Care Products. “So far our weekend has been great, every single time we have been down the track we have improved even if conditions were worse and worse. In E1 we ran a .378, second fastest for the session so things are good.” Laughlin would earn the round win over Pharris with a 3.79 at 197 with Pharris striking the tires.
Upsets have been the order of the day with several top contender out in upsets. Marty Stinnett took a loos in a close race with Bryan Markewicz out of Largo, Florida scooting around Stinnet who fell off pace to a 3.96 at 171, Markiewicz’s 3.89 at 203 in round two.
In a stunner match up Jeremy Martin was paired with Mark Micke in round two of PTC Radial vs the World Martin got away first with an .043 reaction and motored through with another 3.93 lap to earn the win over Micke with the Bu lighting up the tires at the hit, ending their weekend on a hard note after struggling here this weekend. The Aussies move on to round three.
Round One Elimination Results
Ultra Street, Precision/KBX X275, PTC Radial Vs the World, Limited Drag Radial
DXP 235, Pro 275, , Outlaw 632, PTC RVW Round Two
This is the cal before the storm. Severe thunder storms moved in and put an end to racing today. We are schedule to resume with eliminations Sunday morning at 9AM.
