LIGHTS OUT VIII
PRESENTED BY
Barry Mitchell is a
Man on a Mission
The baddest nice guy on the
block, Barry Mitchell, made big
moves with his new Tim McAm-
is-built, roots blower-equipped ’69
Camaro while racing at the epic
Lights Out 8.
Mitchell, who hails from
Hamptonville, North Carolina,
and doubled up with incredible
wins in not one but two classes at
the Lights Out 7 iteration of the
event just one year ago, arrived
back in Valdosta, Georgia, ready
to set the world on fire and looked
like the man to beat early on in
the weekend. With crew chief
Robby Keziah and tuner Billy
Stocklin by his side, the super-
star radial-tire driver clicked off
a 3.776 at 197.05mph pass with
a 0.991-second sixty-foot time
during pre-race testing. Mitchell
went 3.78-seconds later on in
testing, but had to head back to
the pits to fix an issue that had
popped up.
Once PTC Radial vs the World
qualifying started, though,
Mitchell and his guys pushed
their gorgeous Camaro even
further. During one of the latter
sessions, Mitchell and team
produced a wickedly quick 3.738
at 197.25mph run with a seri-
ously sick sixty-foot time of just
0.970-seconds, moved to number
one in the 52-car field, and set
a new radial-tire elapsed time
world record. Celebrations were
short-lived, though, as Steve “Ste-
vie Fast” Jackson reclaimed the
record less than 10 minutes later
when he went 3.737 at 199.82
mph and pushed Mitchell into the
number-two spot.
“We dinged the motor up a little
during qualifying, but we have
a good group, a good crew, and
made a good recovery for elimi-
nations,” noted Stocklin, who was
micro-managing the car’s power
delivery to ensure it hooked well
on the super-sticky track. True to
form, Mitchell won his first round
eliminations pairing over Enzo
Pecchini but went out in round
two to Tim Slavens with a 3.993 at
192.03 mph blast against Slaven’s
winning 3.975 at 201.34 mph
retaliation. Although his record
was short-lived, Mitchell’s string
of low 3.7-second runs and new
personal best gave him a huge
boost of confidence in what his
Camaro can do and likely will do
in 2017. - AINSLEY JACOBS
‘Stevie Fast’ Continues to
Talk the Talk, Walk the Walk
At this point, it’s
apparent little can rat-
tle Stevie “Fast” Jack-
son. Returning to the
same lane where he
crashed a race car on
his last trip to South
Georgia Motorsports
Park didn’t do it.
One-hundred percent
wholesale changes to
a car with less than
ten runs barely fazed
him. Watching a fel-
low racer lay down the
quickest elapsed time
in radial tire drag rac-
ing didn’t even make
it on his radar.
With a fellow racer
crashing in the opposite lane,
Jackson never flinched en route to
the quickest run in Radial vs. The
World competition as he stopped
the timers with his Strange
March 2017
Engineering-sponsored, RJ Race
Cars-built “Shadow 2.0” Camaro
at 3.737 seconds at 199.82 miles
per hour.
“This is why we do it,” Jackson
said. “This is home run racing,
and that’s why I have a big ‘ol
stick. I told these guys coming
into here that I have a hot rod. I
will admit, I didn’t know it was
going to come along
this quick, but I’m
glad it did.
“Competition
breeds improvement.
These guys are haul-
ing butt out here. Yes,
it was the quickest
run but it’s only .001
quicker. There’s a lot
of fast cars out here;
we’re all right there
together. All the turbo
queers, I don’t know
what is wrong with
them. Their control-
lers must have shut
off. They will get them
fixed and be right
there with us soon,
I’m sure. This is a tight field, and
it’s fun to see all the fans fired up.
Ya’ll wait until I get a handle on
this, it is going to be good.”
- BOBBY BENNETT, COMPETITIONPLUS.COM
DragIllustrated.com
| D r a g I l l u s t r a t e d | 73