Lights Out VI at South Georgia Motorsports Park

Small Tires, Big Power, Great Racing

Words by Jeff Burk and Marvin T. Smith
Photos by Marvin T. Smith

[Ed Note: We admit we are not as up to speed on the records and racers of small tire and radial tire racing but we thought this race deserved “national event” type coverage. So if we made mistakes we apologize in advance and will try to do better in the future.]

Promoter Donald Long has two races a year for “ten-wide” racers at South Georgia Motorsports Park. These races are treated as national events by both the fans and racers of this relative new branch of the sport. The first race of the unofficial 1/8th mile national event schedule is Long’s “Lights Out VI” event.

The competitors came from all over the U.S. from Maine to California. This year over 400 race teams competing in 11 heads-up classes fillled the pits and their fans filled every available seat at SGMP and those that couldn’t find a place to sit stood two and three deep at the fence to watch. Those hardcore fans were rewarded with almost four days of eighth-mile racing by tire-smoking, wheelstanding, supercharged, turbocharged and nitrous-injected racecars as well as some spectacular crashes and fires.