Drag Illustrated Issue 150, November 2019 | Page 36

Dirt
Small-Tire
Stunners
S
tevie “Fast” Jackson predicted it
and as he is often apt to do, the dynamic
star backed it up.
This time, though, he had company.
Jackson and Marcus Birt put a pair of incred-
ible numbers on the scoreboard during the Radial
vs. the World final round at the COMP Cams
Shakedown Nationals at Virginia Motorsports
Park. Birt went red to hand the victory to Jackson
– continuing his remarkable season – but there
was plenty of magic after that.
Jackson and Birt delivered the quickest side-
by-side pass in RvW history, with both running
in the 3.50s. Birt actually went a quicker 3.588 at
205.19 in his nitrous-assisted, Pat Musi Racing
Engines-powered Corvette, while Jackson went
3.594 at 210.67 in his screw-blown Camaro. It was
the first side-by-side 3.50s run in class history,
putting one killer bow on a thriller of a weekend
at Virginia Motorsports Park.
Just like Jackson predicted.
“I told everyone on the starting line, that no
matter who won, you better have your cameras
out because this was going to be one for the
ages,” Jackson says. “I am super proud of Marcus
and all his guys. They worked hard all weekend
and that car is a bad, bad hotrod. It’s going to
win a lot of races and I’m proud to be part of
their program.”
While Jackson praised Birt, “The Axeman”
returned the favor on a former counterpart
turned teammate.
Jackson came on board as the tuner earlier this
year and it’s been one triumph after another. Birt
managed to check off a number of historic boxes
at Virginia Motorsports Park over the course of
the weekend, making the quickest nitrous run
in history, followed by the quickest RvW run in
history with his 3.575 on Friday.
The red light in the final against
Jackson stung, but another record
had Birt beaming about what had
transpired – even if it all hasn’t
sunk in yet.
“It definitely hasn’t hit me yet,” Birt
admits. “It was a good deal. I’m glad it
was Stevie and me in the final. I knew
what he was going to try to run, and
I knew what we were going to run,
but I didn’t want to go red. I knew
Stevie would stand on it, but it was
great. Everything was perfect to me.”
Jackson was an impressive .026
on the starting in the final round, but
his weekend had some early adversity. He had a
U-joint fail on Friday, exploding the driveshaft
and driveshaft tunnel.
Jackson and his team – a group that includes
tuner Billy Stocklin, Phil Shuler, Jack Barbee,
Robert Johnson, Robbie Lowry, Jeffery Barker,
Drew McClure, Mike Hawkins, Austin McClure,
E Ray Bryant and Matt Walden – patched it up
and built a driveshaft tunnel out of a Peterbilt
exhaust stack, “a little duct tape and bailing wire.”
From there, “The Shadow 2.0” was on a mis-
sion, becoming the first blown RvW car to offi-
cially reach the 3.50s. Jackson praised the stellar
racing surface, while the team made the most of
their opportunities.
“My team never ever quits. Billy Stocklin did
an amazing job tuning the Shadow this weekend,”
Jackson said. “When you roll into the beams and
Billy Stocklin is standing behind your car, you
have an advantage over everyone else. This is fact.”
Birt said the same about Jackson. His group,
which also includes Eddie Wilson and Craig
Amerson, has taken things to a stratospheric
level with Jackson, and Birt has enjoyed every
minute of it.
“They’re a whole different breed of guys when it
comes to this stuff,” Birt said. “It’s just their work
ethic. They work all the time and their work ethic
is off the charts. It makes everything so smooth.
We’ve got two badass hot rods right now, that’s
for sure. It’s badass to get one record, let alone do
it three times in a weekend. It’s unreal. It’s just
the cream of the crop working with these guys.”
DI DI DI
DI DI DI DI
DI DI DI
36 | D r a g
I l l u s t r a t e d | DragIllustrated.com
Issue 150
Stevie “Fast” Jackson, Marcus
Birt throw down record final
round at Shakedown Nationals
By Josh Hachat