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Qualifying Set To Kick Off Today at Lights Out 9

After several straight days of rain in the southeast, the track crew at SGMP faced a heck of a mess on Wednesday, a day set aside for testing and the first round of qualifying at this year’s Lights Out 9, the annual small tire extravaganza held in rural southern Georgia. A snafu with the traction compound combined with intermittent rain and moisture seeping up through the concrete resulted in all but a handful of passes being early shut-off runs, leaving racers and fans a bit frustrated with the situation. In the video below from Free Life Films owner Hans Pierre Jr, you can see Wade Rich working on the track into the wee hours of the morning, determined to bring the track back around to where it needs to be.

I personally have seen the track crew at SGMP at work and can all but guarantee the track will not only be better, but will be up to the task of supporting 3.7-second Radial vs the World passes by the end of the day on Thursday. There are blue skies overhead with only intermittent clouds floating by, which will help pull all of the moisture out of the track and allow the crew to focus on getting a fresh layer of rubber down by the middle of the day. Once that rubber layer starts to form, they can work their magic with the traction compound and bring the surface, which has been the site of many radial tire world records over the past decade.

We understand the frustration, as we watched car after car blow the tires off yesterday ourselves, but hooking up these insanely high-powered hotrods on such small tires is quite literally a science, and water is not a part of the formula. Given time to get the moisture out of the track, there’s nothing left standing in the way of bringing the surface back around and having it hold some huge numbers tonight during qualifying. We’ve already rolled through the pits and seen the insane number of cars on the property, so look for big numbers from all the classes.

While we sleep… he works… still hasn't stopped…. Currently 1:40am.

Posted by Hans Pierre Jr. on Monday, February 12, 2018

 

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