Quartuccio, Barnett and LaSala among winners at Valdosta By Madelyn Marconi

Amid the challenging conditions, it was Ken Quartuccio who dropped the hammer once again in the coveted Radial vs. the World class. The Scott Tidwell Racing team, paired with tuner Steve Petty, took their Pro Line Racing-powered Camaro to the No. 1 qualifying position and eventually to the final round of the most competitive small-tire event of the year. Along the way, a bye run in the first round carried Quartuccio into the second round past Bubba Greene, and then Lyle Barnett in the third round where both drivers put on quite the show.

Against Barnett’ s notable 3.496, Quartuccio reset the Radial vs. the World record with a stellar 3.436 at 214.76 mph pass. On the other side of the ladder, it was Huston Dial who took out Larson Miller, Kyle Dvorak, and Manny Buginga in an impressive fashion to meet Quartuccio in the final. Unfortunately, Dial’ s team couldn’ t make

the final round call, which instantly crowned Quartuccio as the Radial vs. World event champion, a repeat from last year.

“ I think they broke something that last pass,” Quartuccio said in a post-race interview.“ They’ re running their stuff hard; they’ re great guys and we’ ve raced with them for a long time. He didn’ t want to hold us up and we gave him as much time as we could, and he said just go on up there. I hate it for that, but I’ m really excited for the guys, and it was a great weekend for us.”

As usual, the Pro 275 class was nothing short of impressive and dramatic from start to finish.

Australia’ s Grantley Schloss and team laid down an impressive 3.687 at 208.94 in qualifying, earning them the No. 1 spot. Schloss battled his way to the third round before bowing out to double-duty driver Lyle Barnett.

On the road to the finals, Barnett defeated Paul Major, Mo Hall, and Schloss, while the other side saw Eddie Harrison take out Kevin Mullins, Isaac Preston, and Brad Edwards( which had to run twice due to a timing system malfunction). Harrison clocked a 3.648 in the final round matchup, but it was Barnett and the Tommy Youmans Racing team who reset the Pro 275 record with a 3.600 at 209 mph and took home the trophy, cash, and of course, bragging rights.

“ It was a pretty trying week for us – we didn’ t run real good when we first got here,” Barnett said.“ Lee White is one of the best to ever peg the keyboards on one of these things, and he keeps proving it time after time. A huge thank you to Tommy Youmans for giving me the opportunity to drive these cars. It’ s a dream, it truly is, and I’ m just the lucky one who gets to live it.”

In the Limited Drag Radial category, another record fell when Youmans posted a 3.793 in his turbocharged, Pontiac-powered GTO, grabbing him the top qualifying position, but he later bowed out in the first round against newcomer Jimmy Dale. Brett LaSala quickly became a standout after barreling past Justin Woodson, Marques Hatton, and Jimmy Dale on his way to the finals. On the other side, it was two-time LDR champion Shane Stack who worked his way past Mitch Mika and Kenny Hubbard before earning a holeshot victory against Jamie Hancock to face off against LaSala. In the final round, LaSala’ s“ Snot Rocket” drove away from Stack, who experienced issues on the starting lane, earning the team their first win in LaSala’ s first-ever Lights Out appearance.

In Ultra Street, the final paired reigning RORS champion Jessie Coulter against Rodney Ragen. It was Coulter who took the win with a 4.466 at 162.84 in a very close race to Ragen’ s 4.471 at 160.16.

“ I am overly ecstatic. We struggled a little bit the first race, and we’ re trying to back up this championship,” Coulter says.“ We had no idea who won until I seen the win light come on – it was close to the finish. We’ re going to try to go to Rockingham and try to get us a throne. We don’ t have one of those yet, so we’ re going after it.”

In the X275 final, Eric LaFerriere and the famed“ White Rice” lined up against Dave Hull. LaFerriere’ s 4.069 at 180.43 bested Hull’ s 4.132 at 178.14.

“ We’ re feeling awesome,” LaFerriere said.“ We came in here struggling from Bradenton, made multiple passes all week and picked away. Unbelievable air, and Mother Nature treated us well and we got the win.”

Other class winners included Chris Cadotto in N / T Pro Truck, Troy Pirez Jr. in Wicked Gangster, Joshua Padovano in Gangster X B, Cameron Kardules in 6.0 Index, and Ken Grant in Open Comp. DI

PHOTOGRAPHS BY DARREL JACKSON JR. AND ROBERT RICHARD

36 | Drag Illustrated | DragIllustrated. com Issue 199