from Kelley, putting him just over two rounds ahead going into the World Series.
Before wrapping up the Winter Series, Quartuccio switched back into radial mode with his personal car, a ProCharged’ 69 Camaro, at Lights Out 16. His weekend started with a record-setting qualifying performance. After Canadian Paolo Giust set a new Radial vs. the World E. T. record with his 3.479-second pass on Thursday night, Quartuccio threw down a 3.473 at 212.29 to take the record and the No. 1 qualifying spot. He started eliminations with a first-round bye, then took out multi-time Lights Out winner Stevie“ Fast” Jackson with a 3.543 to a 3.588. Quartuccio dipped back into the 3.40s with a 3.495 to knock out Ned Dunphy and his 3.657 in the semifinals. A side-by-side final round followed, with Quartuccio leaving. 010 seconds ahead of Australian John Ricca and finishing with a 3.498 to Ricca’ s 3.507.
“ This one was like magic right from the start,” says Quartuccio, who also won Lights Out 13 in 2022.“ We unloaded fast, and obviously this is the first Lights Out win that I’ ve had in RVW with Scott [ Tidwell ] and his group. The car we race is my same car that I’ ve always had. I just base it out of Scott’ s trailer and Scott maintains it at his shop and everything, and Steve Petty now tunes it. Mine and Scott’ s relationship’ s been great. There was a ton of excitement on our team all week long, which was great. This was a good win for us.”
Back in the Tidwell and Nesloney screw-blown’ 69 Camaro at the WSOPM, Quartuccio qualified fifth before drawing 2023 WSOPM champion Spencer Hyde in the first-round chip draw. The Connecticut native won with a 3.583 to Hyde’ s 3.609, leading the race from the start with a. 023 reaction time to Hyde’ s. 052.
“ I wanted to draw somebody— I won’ t say who— but I had a list in my mind of who I wouldn’ t draw and I did not want to draw Spencer,” Quartuccio told FloRacing’ s Courtney Enders after the round.“ Me and Spencer’ s driving style is so close to each other. You can never take him lightly. I wanted a gimme. I got up on the wheel because I knew I had to. I raced him hard.”
With his next closest title challenger, Kelley, eliminated in the first round by another contender, Micke, Quartuccio was in a unique position going into round two: win the round, win the championship. But that wasn’ t enough for Quartuccio.
“ I want to win the race,” he said in his interview with Enders.“ I want to win the race because the championship is cool, don’ t get me wrong, but people remember who wins the race. It changes your life. What I don’ t want to do is
THROUGH QUARTUCCIO’ S PERFORMANCE IN THE WINTER SERIES, PRO LINE RACING
FLEXED THE MUSCLES OF ITS GROWING SCREW-BLOWN ENGINE PROGRAM.
150 | Drag Illustrated | DragIllustrated. com Issue 194