DRAG STRIP AFFAIRS
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
Mark Woodruff Donald Long
(Longtime radial standout) (Lights Out creator)
We had run ORSCA Limited
Street for a lot of years, so coming
to this event, it was the same
people we used to race with. It
was all the big-name radial guys
back then and it was awesome.
You could see something
exciting happening Going into 2008, I felt like
the radial guys were getting
mistreated and getting put in the
weeds, getting treated like third-
class citizens. So I didn’t care if
we had 20 fans that showed up (in
2008). It was about the radial guys
and paying them and I wanted to
make it awesome for them.
John Sears Stevie “Fast” Jackson
(X275 founder) (Two-time Lights Out winner)
There was a pretty good core group
of stock suspension and drag
radial racers that we were both
tapped into. 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.
He just had passion for small-tire
racing in general and he looked at
things from a different perspective.
Donald saw these guys as pioneers. That first race Donald had (in 2008),
it was more cars than I had ever
seen and we were way underprepared.
We showed up and did not have
the power or anything to run over
here. I knew I had to dot my I’s and
cross my T’s before I came back.
But I knew from the very beginning
it was going to be a big deal.
March 2019
KEITH BERRY
THE START
Mired in the background of the soon-to-be-defunct
Outlaw Racing Street Car Association (ORSCA),
Long knew radial racing deserved more. He held
his first event at Bradenton Motorsports Park in
Bradenton, Florida, in October of 2008, highlight-
ed by a $15,000-to-win purse that Will Stevenson
won. By the next year, Long found his home at
South Georgia Motorsports Park and in 2010 the
first Lights Out event was held. It was the official
introduction of Long’s brainchild – Radial vs. 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.
Few could imagine the race could grow into its
current level, but several saw something special
right off the bat.
JOHN SEARS (X275 founder) There was a
pretty good core group of stock suspension and
drag radial racers that we were both tapped into.
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 head-
liner. He just had passion for small-tire racing in
general and he looked at things from a different
perspective. Donald saw these guys as pioneers.
DONALD LONG Going into 2008, I felt like
the radial guys were getting mistreated and get-
ting put in the weeds, getting treated like third-
class citizens. So I didn’t care if we had 20 fans
that showed up (in 2008). It was about the radial
guys and paying them and I wanted to make it
awesome for them.
STEVIE “FAST” JACKSON (Two-time Lights
Out winner) That first race Donald had (in 2008),
it was more cars than I had ever seen and we were
way underprepared. We showed up and did not
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