Saturday

Friday morning started off with a roundtable discussion about the trends and amazing performances in radial tire racing right on the starting line. The group included John Kolivas, Lyle Barnett, Joe Oplawski, Jason Lee, Patrick Barnhill, Wade Hopkins, and John Salemi among others, with Donald Long and Brian Burgandy, Brian Lohnes’ alter ego.

On thing that Kevin Rivenbark talked about was the technology involved in making these cars work, specifically the wheelie control and having confidence in the track prep here with the wide groove. He rode out a good ways on the back wheels last night on his barrier-smashing 3.58 performance last night and if not for those two key areas it likely would not have happened so quickly. Next up: 3.40’s’!!

We talked to Vinnie Palazzolo in the lanes waiting for his session on X275 and found him to be have a great weekend so far, running a best of 4.42 while set up in X275 trim. He runs a Bennett Racing small-block Ford topped with billet heads from Don Losito and backed by a TH 400 from M&M with Nicky Notch tuning the combo now using Hal Tech. A Precision Pro Mod XPR 88 turbo provides the boost. Here Nicky puts Vinny in the beams with his trademark lucky shoes. Palazzolo bettered his .42 with a 4.403 at 163 in a later session yesterday and is currently qualified 25th, behind Brendan Mills’ 4.398.

“We crossed our fingers and put something in it and hoped for the best,” said Brad Edwards of his 3.731-second pass last night. It was a mighty feat for his still factory-style suspended, old-school Mustang. A .982 60-foot and 2.502 to the 330 mark and just 199 mph at the stripe. “We’re not running it out the back yet … not pushing the tune up. It might, might, if it keeps going A to B, run a .60. It’s a non lock-up, stock suspension, factory floor boards, all the good fun stuff.”

Kevin Mullins is driving Terry Parks’ leaf spring-equipped Nova this weekend which features TKM power and is now sporting a turbocharged combo. He nabbed the leaf spring record Thursday running a 4.08 at 183 mph. “We have been chasing the record about two years now. We tried to get it with the ProCharger but couldn’t get what we wanted out of it. That’s about our fifth good hit on the car now with the turbo. We came here for Lights Out 10 and only got three good runs and went out first round,” Terry told us. The best in February was a 4.17 with the record at a .14 held by Lyle Barnett driving for Jason Digby. Parks, Mullins, and the team are looking for threes on leaf springs here this weekend to knock down yet another barrier at Sweet 16 2.0.

We spoke with Rob Goss’ crew chief, Bruce Maichle last night about his performance this weekend, a 4.327 at 166.15 mph. For 2019 the car went to Southern Speed for an alcohol conversion and switch to the FuelTech FT600 engine management system. The engine now uses a new billet block developed with Bruce’s Hi Horse Performance Inc. and Vizner Performance, now displacing 478 inches and built by BES. The car was last upgraded by Mike Carbone at MPH, then over the summer Ron Rhodes did a Drag Pak rear suspension conversion and ditched the ladder bars. “The car is working good — we went to Holly Springs and tested before we came here and went several 1.04 60-foots and that was a 1.06 so we’re just working the combination,” Bruce said.

Goss is on track for .20’s any time now. Goss was qualified fifth but was bumped to seventh by Dean Marinis and Ryan Milliken’s Chevy II.

Phil Hines is one of two hand fulls of racers struggling to keep the front end on the ground this weekend. For the X7275 racers this means trying to go, say, 1.05 sixty foots and not get the wheels up, AND accelerating fast enough to run fast. The track is very tight here, with Lyle Barnett mentioning this morning on the feed and Phil echoing in our interview. “ Sometimes you put power in and the track just eats it up and you get no improvement. We put an A to B tune in it for the fifty one and we are changing the tune around and trying some different things here, we added a boatload more power back in and it’s like we can’t even put enough in to get past that wheelstand” It’s fine line to walk to get going fast enough early and keep it on the ground one hundred feet out or so when you are pouring all the steam back in and not power wheelie out there. Phil’s best run so far is a 4.51.

Mike Stavrinos (shown at left) is driving Alcatraz this weekend for Team Swanstrom but the team has had little luck so far with a best of 3.93, another team struggling with wheelies this weekend. “Out short track number are really good..” Stavrinos told us, “probably some of the best out here. We are just trying to put a package together and should get in the field if we can get a solid full pass in.” Mike brought in Speed and Truck World to partner with the Swanstroms on the car which is normally piloted by Justin to go RVW racing but had no real testing before coming here.

Craig Walls is sitting in ninth spot in X7275 after a 4.33 at 161 this morning. Walls runs a Vortech supercharged combo built by Mark Benson Racing Engines with Haltech engine management tuned by PTP. Craig was number two in X275 and the fastest blower car for the season with this being their first outing for 2019. “We did a couple of things for 2019 looking for more power. Some refinements to the cylinder heads and spinning the blower faster and a new converter from Neal Chance. We have picked up a couple miles an hour so far and always looking for more.” – Craig Walls.

John Keesey is number seventeen, sitting out of the Sweet Sixteen with a 4.357 at 165 MPH. Keesey got here with no engine and wasn’t sure he would have one when he left home. “We made our first full pass this morning, reset our personal best and reset the stock valve angle Hi Port head record.”. John told us. “At the last race in the semi finals we lost oil pressure and ended up breaking the block in half and eating up the crank and rods in it. The guys at KBX weren’t sure it would be ready and sourced a block that was a trade in to make it happen. I have to give a huge thanks to John Kolivas and John Bennett, Justin McChesney and the team for getting it all put back together and getting me ready to race this weekend.” Future plans include a new Dart CGI block using a compressed iron graphite material that is better suited to the power levels now seen in X275.

Gary White is driving the Titan Motorsports Supra this weekend and is currently sitting in thirteenth with his 4.34 at 172. The combo uses a 2JZ Toyota engine base and Precision 88 millimeter turbo with a billet block from Expert in Brazil topped with a factory cast head prepped by Titan and backed by a Liberty five speed and Easy Motorsport four disc seven inch clutch set up. Yes you read that right, clutch. Most people say clutches and radials don’t work but they are out to prove that idea wrong and are doing a good job of that. “ A few year ago we were at a bar over seas with some of the top radial guys and we had several conversations revolving around clutch cars and radials and whether or not it would work..” said Gary. “We kinda thought it would and Nero, the owner of Titan, stepped up and here we are running the car again with a clutch in X275 and here we are.” Gary was skeptical but last June they tested in Orlando with good results and some solid runs proving the concept. They ran the car in Australia, then at World Cup going a 6.85 at 219 there. The team raced at TX2K and struggled a bit before coming here. “Anderson Dick from Fuel Tech has been a great help and we have Eric Luzinski, who has been tuning with me for years tuning this car as well.”

Andrew DeMarco inproved from a 4.36 to a .33 this morning but nipped a piston on the pass. They were still engufled in getting White Girl Wasted back together. The team is happy with the performance and working hard to get the bugs out of the new combo.

Daniel Pharris was the second racer to break the 3.50 barrier with his stunning 3.578 at 214.11 mph blast this morning.

Ken Quartuccio is qualified mid pack after running a 4.66 at 213 today and has gone quicker every round. He is also driving Manny Buginga’s new X275 car and with only a few runs on that he sits on the bump spot with a 4.356. This is Ken’s first time behind the wheel of a Mustang and he fit right in there and is running well. The Mustang is a ProCharger combo out of ProLine Racing, with Jamie Miller assisting with the tune-up. “We’ve made three runs on this car since it’s been out with a new combination: a .50, a .41, and the .35 a little while ago,” Ken told us. “We went a .68 last night and a .66 this morning, so we are going to sit out a couple of rounds this afternoon and prepare for the night sessions. Jamie is hoping for a .63 or .64. I’m pretty excited, we didn’t even think we were going to qualify for the Sweet 16 to be honest with you, so to be able to get it to go as good as he’s gotten it to run, hats off to him. We came to Lights Out with a package we thought would be competitive and it wasn’t so Jamie got with Mark Micke and Pro Torque and changed some things around in the converter and with the gearing in the transmission and Justin Carmack sent us some different rear gears to test. I couldn’t be happier.”

The story of the day is Rob Goss, who put his 2009 Dodge Challenger on the KBX/Precision X275 pole with a world record 4.237 at 169.40 mph. Yes you read that right: Four. Twenty. Three. The team has a new engine, new blower from ProCharger, (an F3D 102), switched over to alcohol, an FT600 from FuelTech, and Wade Hopkins from Southern Speed Racing tuning it all up. Despite little data to sort this all out they pulled a rabbit out of the hat.

“We didn’t really know what we would do to be perfectly honest,” Goss told us. “We just went with what we had and tuned it up from there and said, ‘If it sticks if gonna ‘be fast, and it stuck, and it was fast.’” Wade put a little power in it for the back half and she pulled hard, picking up two miles an hour to our previous run.”

To further illustrate the intense competition, Eric Laferriere was qualified 14th in X275 with a 4.348, at the end of the session he was number 17. Quartuccio, who was on the bump, is now 22nd. For the Radial vs the World class it was Mike Decker II on the bump at 3.721 — he now sits 21st, and his son is solidly in the field with a 3.637 and Tom Blincoe holds down the bump spot with a 3.694.

At the time we left the facility the X275 ladder was not ready for publication. We will post that and the second chance ladders in the morning.

Marcus Birt pulled off a 3.60 this morning proving to the world that when folks think some things can’t be done you want Stevie Fast in your corner to show them wrong.

“We were pretty much gonna’ load up and go home after finding the damage to the engine was not repairable here. The guy that backs us is just a hell of a guy … he asked what we needed, and I told him we can get a new engine here but it’s pricey and he said, “get it coming,” Marcus told us while the crew was busy tearing the hurt engine down to prepare for a fresh delivery from Pat Musi. “So we called Pat and got him out of bed and we got a new 959 on the way. So about 10 a.m. we should have this thing running and going in the water box.”

The car was on pace to run a “ good number” when it dropped a valve, Marcus said, without speculating on what that number may have been.

Daniel Pharris scored top qualifier in Radial vs the World, resting on his Friday morning numbers to seal it up. The team suffered engine damage this afternoon, losing a lifter on a run, forcing the team to swap in a new engine and miss time on the track. Pharris earned runner up against Alex Laughlin at Lights Out 10 and they knew coming into this Sweet 16 deal a 3.67 is not gonna cut it. “ We found some stuff that we knew would pick the car up..” Daniel said. “We tested before coming here and found a few more things we could try and try more of it. We tried some things with power management and suspension and the car really, really liked it.” The team has focused on the front half and they almost a tenth faster than than they ran before with the split numbers. “We knew what the tune up needed to be to make the car run, to go that fast, what we needed to do was to figure out how to make the car take the tune up.” T Daniel and the team are confident going into eliminations Saturday feeling like they have the car to beat tomorrow. Time will tell the story and it will be one hell of a story to tell when it all shakes out.

In some other notable news both Mike Stavrinos and Jamie Hancock are in by the skin of their teeth, finally finding the qualifying ticket in the final session to land eleventh and twelfth respectively. We also can not forget Brad Edwards, the stock suspension holdout who scored a 3.69 at 202 to land fourteenth in the RVW field which is spread out by just over a tenth.

We leave you tonight with Alex Laughlin reaching for the stars in the final session.