Conclusion

Twice a year the acknowledged leader of the outlaw/small tire drag racing community, Donald Long, puts on a pair of races at South Georgia Motorsports Park. His races have the largest purses and biggest car counts, and get the most attention from the media. These two races -- Lights Out and No Mercy -- are the equivalent of the U.S. Nationals or Winternationals to small tire racers and fans; they are truly must-attend events.

This years Light’s Out 7 race was a classic from the racers, fans and promoters point of view. They had great crowds for the event on the weekend and 450 entries.

The Big Chief drew a large crowd of fans.

At least once over the weekend every one of SGMP’s 4,000 (maybe) concrete grandstands seats had a fast doorslammer fan in it and the roads into the track were closed. Part of the attraction for the fans was the opportunity to see the best small tire racers in the world duke it out on the track, but of equal attraction were the Big Chief and his Pontiac Pro Mod/street car and the Murder Nova with Shawn Ellington driving. A lot of the people in the stands were there to see the reality TV drag racing starts.

What those fans of the reality TV show saw was a lot of fast doorslammers and maybe some of them will be as big fans of real racing as they are of a scripted TV show.