Drag Radial Revolution – “No Mercy 8” Brings Down the House
The Drag Radial Revolution rages on with No Mercy 8. When it comes to big power, small tire drag radial racing action, Donald Long’s “Duck X Productions” “Lights Out” events in February and “No Mercy” in the fall are far more than a step above the rest. Held annually at South Georgia Motorsports Park in Cecil, Georgia, the Duck X events are the holy grail of drag radial racing – often imitated, but never duplicated. Once again, Long promoted and executed another barn burner of an event with the eighth running of his No Mercy show held just last week – October 5-8.
When it comes to promoting an event, no one does it better than Long. His in-your-face, trash talking, controversial antics get racers, fans, tuners, vendors and media all riled up creating a frenzy on social media networks months before the event kicks off. He’s a genius in that regard. The last time we’ve seen drag racing promoted this well was back in the days of Bill Doner bringing 64 Funny Cars to western drag strips in the 1970s!
Not only do racers travel from all over the country to attend Duck’s big events, fans fly in from around the world to see the madness unfold on the track. What started as a no-holds-barred event quickly escalated to the crème of the crop if you want to prove you’re the baddest racer with a drag radial tire strapped to your rear end.
Not only does the action get wild on the track, the stands are a downright party from sunup to sundown. From the moment the first pair of cars go down the track, money is changing hands as fans bet on who will get to the finish line first. It doesn’t matter if it’s testing, qualifying, grudge races, Limited Street or the main attraction Radial vs. The World, just know there is someone, somewhere on the grounds betting on what’s going down the track at any given moment.
In the featured attraction class, Radial vs. The World (RvW), Georgia brings out all the big names such as Stevie “Fast” Jackson, Dwayne Mills and his “Golden Gorilla”, Barry Mitchell, Daniel Pharris, Keith Haney, Alan Pittman in the Scotty Cannon-tuned Firebird and many more all racing on a 315 drag radial tire! Hundreds of racers fill the pits with 10 different classes to choose from, and some racers enter multiple classes during the weekend. But the $50k to win RvW is what the big dogs show up for. Dewayne Mills was the man who cashed the 50k check by winning the RvW class at No Mercy 8 defeating Stevie Fast in the final round with another mind-boggling mid 3.70 1/8th mile run at over 200 mph!
Other event winners included Dean Marinis (X275), Joel Greathouse (Ultimate Street), Josh Klugger (Pro 275), Ken Grant (Open Comp), Shawn Pevlor (Nitrous X), Dominic Augustine (Outlaw 632), Shane Stack (Limited Drag Radial), Ralph Howard (Limited 275), Todd Comer (6.0 Index) and Scotty Gudagno (N/T 29).
Throughout the weekend, as well as the week leading to the event, the threat of tropical storms and imminent weather lingered. But with help of the awesome track staff at SGMP and understanding racers, Donald Long was able to get No Mercy 8 wrapped up a day early with the finals going down midday on Saturday before the clouds opened up.
South Georgia Motorsports Park is to drag radial racing like Indianapolis to Indy Cars, Daytona for NASCAR, Ponoma for NHRA…you get the picture. Super Bowl, World Series, Stanley Cup, whatever you want to compare it to Duck has created it in Cecil, Georgia for Drag Radial guys and gals.
