LIGHTS OUT 9

Following a win at No Mercy 8 and becoming the first car in Pro 275 to reach the 3-second zone at Orlando in January, Klugger finished this span with another No. 1 qualifier and a victory at Lights Out 9, the first-ever win at the Lights Out event for the longtime radial racer. All of this comes after a championship in NMCA Radial Wars in 2017, making this one of the most surreal spans in an already successful racing career for Klugger.“ I almost haven’ t had enough time to sit back and realize what we’ ve done, but I’ m having the time of my life,” Klugger confesses.“ I’ ve never gone on a run like this with the races we’ ve been doing it at. When you’ re running with the best of the best and doing this, it’ s pretty impressive. I’ ve never really been able to wrap my head around it.”

This three-race stretch will likely be the end of Klugger’ s brief but remarkable Pro 275 run, as a stunning new’ 67 Mustang being built by Bill Gilsbach will have the Ocala, Florida, native back in Radial vs. the World soon.

But it’ s hard to deny the impact Klugger had over three straight stunning performances. After winning the NMCA championship, the Klugger / Kevin Fiscus team decided to go the Pro 275 route for No Mercy after realizing they couldn’ t get their’ 93 Mustang down to an ideal weight for Radial vs. the World.

Klugger saw the Pro 275 category as a grassroots class similar to the radial racing scene when he first started a decade ago – albeit

with much more power – but time was against him. He made just two test passes in Valdosta before No Mercy 8, but qualified No. 1 on his first pass, stayed at the top and picked up his first-ever win at a Donald Long race. It was clear that victory meant a great deal to the radial veteran.“ It was just surreal. No way you go to the biggest small tire race in the world with no testing, go No. 1 and win the race,” Klugger says in disbelief.“ It’ s like the clouds part ways and all you see is daylight. It’ s so cool. That race has eluded me so many times. In Radial vs.

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the World we had the car to beat two or three times and something would happen. I don’ t know what meant more, winning that race or the NMCA championship.”

Klugger was just getting started. He went 3.975 at 198.85 mph in Orlando in January, a historic run that was also part of a stretch where Klugger made an improbable 37 straight clean passes. It set him up perfectly for Lights Out 9, where, again, Klugger was dominant immediately, running 3.983 at 197.71 to qualify in the top spot as the only driver in the 3s.

He was consistent during eliminations, but they hurt the motor early. It nearly bit them during the final round, where he was down a good 15 mph, but Greg Powrie smoked the tires and Klugger won with a 4.212 at 184.04.“ We were really running a wounded duck that entire race, but we had enough steam to do what we needed to do,” Klugger says.“ In the finals, we got lucky. We really had nothing left, but to go on a streak like this you have to have some luck. But we did create our own luck. To be able to tell anybody that knows anything about small-tire racing that we won back-to-back races at the biggest small-tire race in the world, that’ s pretty awesome to be able to say.”

Klugger knows this run won’ t last forever, referencing the rollercoaster nature of the finicky drag radial world. But his car is still trending upwards and he’ s going to be sure to enjoy every moment of it. He’ ll continue to race the Racecraft-built, twin-turbo Mustang until the new car is ready, but Klugger is excited about what the future holds.

He lauded the work of Gilsbach, calling him the best chassis builder in the radial game, and Fiscus and Klugger have assembled a dream team putting the car together, including the likes of Steve Petty, Josh Ledford, Jamie Miller, Mark Menscer. With that kind of influence, Klugger has big expectations in the Radial vs. the World class once the team acquires enough data.

That methodical approach has served them well for the past year, and Klugger and his team believe they’ re not done making history.“ To come in and dominate the class, win two of three events with three No. 1 qualifiers and then bow out, it’ s pretty cool,” Klugger admits.“ Pass after pass, everything worked perfect and we didn’ t have to run it harder than we needed to. The team morale is so unbelievable. It’ s been a lot of fun and to me it’ s very cool to say we’ ve been able to do this.”

– JOSH HACHAT DI

88 | Drag Illustrated | DragIllustrated. com Issue 131