A
round
8:52 P.M.
on Sun-
day night
of Lights
Out 8’s
weeklong
assault on South Georgia
Motorsports Park storied
eighth-mile, “Nova Joe”
Albrecht and Mark “Woody”
Woodruff rolled into the
beams and waited for the
amber lights to drop - bring-
ing to conclusion what has
become one of the most hot-
ly contested, talked about
and exciting events in drag
racing. When the win light
illuminated in Albrecht’s
lane, pandemonium ensued:
Throngs of people - crew-
men, friends, family and
fellow competitors - rushed
the starting line area,
high-fiving and hugging all
those connected to the su-
percharged, maroon Pontiac
GTO that had just carried
“Nova Joe” into drag racing
history. While the race itself
was over, the party raged
on - moving into the staging
lanes where racers and
teams, both winners and
runner-up finishers, were
showered with champagne,
awarded their hats, trophies,
swords and respective prize
money. It’s a crazy scene
at Lights Out 8 - from the
opening days of testing
where racers oftentimes
traveling from countries
around the world turn the
dial to 11 in an effort to
make a name for them-
selves at the Super Bowl of
Small Tire Drag Racing to
the 30,000-plus fans that
converge on the small town
of Cecil, Georgia, it’s non-
stop madness. The chaos,
though, is almost entirely by
design, and while many have
tried - and many more will -
to duplicate outlaw racing’s
biggest spectacle, there will
likely never be an event that
rivals The Night the Lights
Went Out in Georgia.
Photograph by C h r i s S e a r s
DragIllustrated.com
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