LIGHTS OUT VIII
PRESENTED BY
Lighting Up
the Boards
Notorious grudge racer
and internet smack talker Justin
“Lil’ Country” Swanstrom did
what few no-time racers would
ever do - show up to a drag race,
enter a class and light up the
scoreboards. Swanstrom made the
most of the experience, though,
and while the entire grudge racing
world received a clear look at the
Mean Dean
Seals the Deal
There are times when
“Mean” Dean Marinis thinks
about going to a small block in
his stunning orange Mustang. But
that would mean getting rid of the
cup holders and power windows,
and that’s not a step he’s quite
ready to take yet.
Marinis is very much hands-on
with his Mustang and he’s very
much dedicated to keeping it a
real car. He has
managed to get
everything out of
his car, including
grabbing his
first-ever Lights
Out win in X275
at Lights Out
8, going 4.404
at 162 mph in a
final-round win
against Ken-
ny Hubbard.
“I’m definitely
stoked,” Marinis
said. “It was in-
credible starting
off the year like that, winning
what I think is the biggest race
of the year. We’re going to try to
keep it going. We’re all racing
against each other, hanging out at
night. It’s some-
thing special,
that race.”
There’s defi-
nitely something
special about
what Marinis
has done with
his Mustang. He
has squeezed
everything possible out of the car,
taking it from the 4.70s when he
started in the X275 class to the
impressive number he ran in the
final against Hubbard. Marinis
didn’t think that would be possible
when he first started competing in
the class, but plenty of hard work
continues to take his Mustang to
new places.
“I think when we were going
4.70s it was fast, but we just seem
to be going a little faster every
year,” Marinis said. “I’ve stuck
with my combo and I’ve squeezed
just about everything out of it. I’m
looking for places to find a little
more power, and it’s getting tough.
I’m going to stick it out as long as
I can with this combo.”
performance potential of he and
his father Corey’s “Apocalypse”
Ford Mustang, the outing served
as a considerable coming-out-par-
ty for the Florida-based racers,
parlaying a No. 4 qualifying effort
in Outlaw Drag Radial into a
4.202-second final round victory
over Tony Ridenour.
Don’t expect
anyone other
than Marinis to
be working on his
car, either. The
hands-on approach
has gotten Marinis
to this point and
that’s not going
to change, even
with a busy 2017
in store. He plans
to compete for the
X275 Drag Radial
world champion-
ship, while also
campaigning his
Pro Mod Corvette
in PDRA, NHRA and even No
Mercy 8 with radials on it.
“I’m a nitrous guy so I need to
be able to tune my own car and be
able to do everything from A-Z,
and handle it on my own,” Ma-
rinis said. “It kind of defeats the
purpose of going to the track and
having someone tune it for me. I
enjoy all aspects of it, whether it’s
putting the engine together, work-
ing on the chassis, doing whatever
I have to do to get the car down
the track as fast as possible.”
- JOSH HACHAT
DI DI
DI
DI DI DI DI
DI DI DI
March 2017
DragIllustrated.com
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