Donald saw these guys as pioneers.ĭONALD LONG: Going into 2008, I felt like the radial guys were getting mistreated and getting put in the weeds, getting treated like third-class citizens. He just had passion for small-tire racing in general and he looked at things from a different perspective. He had the vision and he seized the opportunity, and knew the radial guys needed to have their own standalone event and have them be the headliner. JOHN SEARS (X275 founder): There was a pretty good core group of stock suspension and drag radial racers that we were both tapped into. Few could imagine the race could grow into its current level, but several saw something special right off the bat. the World – and David Wolfe became the first winner, knocking off Scotty Guadagno with a 4.471 after his world-record pass of 4.447 earlier in the day. It was the official introduction of Long’s brainchild – Radial vs. By the next year, Long found his home at South Georgia Motorsports Park and in 2010 the first Lights Out event was held. He held his first event at Bradenton Motorsports Park in Bradenton, Florida, in October of 2008, highlighted by a $15,000-to-win purse that Will Stevenson won. Mired in the background of the soon-to-be-defunct Outlaw Racing Street Car Association (ORSCA), Long knew radial racing deserved more.
Lights out drag racing 2022 drivers#
This is the story of how radial racing grabbed the spotlight and how Lights Out turned into one of the biggest races in the sport thanks to a determined promoter, a colorful collection of drivers and some of the craziest on-track action drag racing had ever seen. It has become the Super Bowl of radial racing with a style all its own, catering to a massive fanbase that is passionate about its radial racing. the World, this February, as Alex Laughlin became the seventh different winner of the $50,000-to-win event. More than 70 cars entered in the race’s top class, Radial vs. Celebrating its 10th rendition in 2019, Lights Out is now stronger than ever.
“I had never attended a drag radial race, but when I went to his first one, I thought right then and there it was on the verge of something special,” drag racing photographer John Fore III says.įor those who predicted a quick fall for “The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia” and Long’s bombastic style, well, they have been sorely mistaken. Drag radial had found its voice, and how it was viewed in the sport was about to change forever. By then, Donald Long had enough and his “Radial Cars to The Front” mantra – with Long’s added flavorful language, of course – was born. This story originally appeared in DI #142, the Outlaw Issue, in March of 2019.īut they weren’t showcased like a star class, relegated to grass pits at tracks and treated like afterthoughts on the race menu.
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