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Lights Out 13
What a roller coaster of a weekend for the Lights Out 13 Drag Radial event at South Georgia Motorsports Park! With gorgeous but warm weather, the track was difficult during the daytime but prompted record-setting conditions at night. Let’s catch you up on what happened!
Radial vs the World
Shew! Jason Lee of PTP Racing put the field on notice this past weekend in Radial vs the World. The Coast Packing Camaro (featured HERE last year) made its first appearance on a drag radial in over a year and that meant a learning curve was to be expected.
In testing on Tuesday, Jason and crew saddled up for its first few hits where it managed to go 3.60’s however a post-inspection found the crankshaft had split in HALF. Leaving them to scramble and install a backup engine for Wednesday’s qualifying session. With only a few hours to spare and no more testing, the Nexus-R5 controlled pro mod entered the lanes to gather some data.
Leaving off the trans brake, the “Lard Machine” laid down an impressive 3.57 @ 207 MPH! Good enough to put Jason on the top of the qualifying sheets for the race on Friday. But his epic performance wasn’t over yet, wherein in Q2 he reset the #1 spot with a 3.54 pass!
Things only progressed from there, continuing his reign of terror with a 3.515 @ 207 MPH in Q3 until his final qualifying pass where he did the unthinkable. Leaving with a .889 60-foot, Jason rocketed down the lane to a 3.499 @ 209.52 MPH leaving him just .001 off the existing drag-radial tire record! This was his first pass in the 3.4X zone and the fact that this car spends the majority of its time on a much larger Drag Slick makes his feat even more impressive.
His incredible performance in qualifying transferred into eliminations easily clearing the field by a tenth of a second. However, a very warm Saturday ended his final-round chances when he struck the tires early on in the second round. An unfortunate ending to his run, but that does not overshadow his dominant exhibition throughout the week.
DXP Street
Michael Strickland and his VMS-Controlled Trans Am qualified 12th with a 5.35 @ 128 MPH on Thursday putting him in the lower half of the ladder for eliminations. Michael would not be deterred, however, squaring off with Bill Kubiac (#1 Qualifier) in the semi-finals. Both drivers spun off the tree but in a true pedal-fest, Michael was able to squeeze out a win over Kubiac in a major upset!
His final round found him facing #3 qualifier Eddie Ramirez and his ‘88 Mustang, but Michael continued his epic run giving him the overall class win and DXP Street bragging rights until we return in November for No Mercy!
Honourable Mentions
Brian Keep and the Keep Racing Team qualified third in Ultra Street with a 4.543 @ 153 MPH. The Red Camaro has been a top contender in the Ultra Street championship for several seasons and this year looks to be no different. After clinching a first-round victory, a difficult, slippery track cost him in the second round and ended his weekend.
Larry Salvator purchased the Summers Motorsports Mustang early last week and flew into SGMP to make his first passes in the Limited Drag Radial prepped car. Steve Summers put what he felt was a good A to B tune-up in the Elite 2500 and Larry laid down a 4.06 @ 190MPH, a career-best! This was good enough to qualify 14th in the largest LDR field in history.
Nick Agostino made the trek from Ontario Canada down to SGMP with his Nexus R5 controlled Camaro. Entering Pro 275, the beautiful black chevy qualified fourth with a 3.78 @ 214 MPH! A career-best on both accounts!
If you have a race win or personal victory you would like us to know about, be sure to tag us on social media using #Haltech! Also, be sure to follow us on Instagram at @Haltechecu
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