Outlaw World Of Drag Racing - Mercy Is For The Weak

Twice a year (February and October), South Georgia Motorsports Park (Valdosta, Georgia) plays host to a wild and crazy drag race known as Radial Revolution. It is a gathering of raw horsepower with little regard to rules, other than safety and some loosely strung together concepts to keep it somewhat fair among the various nitrous, turbocharged, and supercharged entries. The lack of rules almost forces this event to be run as an eighth-mile competition rather than the mainstream quarter-mile length of the dragstrip. The speeds achieved in 1,320 feet would be too much to consider safe in vehicles running on stock suspension and race weights coming in over 3,200 pounds for most combinations. This event is fast paced and exciting. We watched cars stand on their bumper, make close encounters with the wall, and explode as if it was a nitro-burning engine letting loose. This type of racing is that intense.

The racer pits are made up of an eclectic group of enthusiasts who have come from as far as California and Canada. Some of the competitors are from the popular sanctioning bodies, and this is the time of year to put away the rule book, throw caution to the wind, and step up their game. For others they are there for the party, camaraderie, or just to say they did it when looking back. And there are those who only know the Outlaw way of drag racing. These are the guys and girls who would be damned if a rule book was going to tell them how to build every aspect of their car. Either way, all the racers leave nothing in the trailer as hundreds of horsepower junkies hit the track in search of glory and try to collect a coveted leather hat from the self-proclaimed Mayor of Drag Radial Racing. The generous payout checks are another attraction, as oftentimes it is measured in tens of thousands of dollars for the winner.

Honestly, the event is littered with Mustangs, particularly of the Fox-body vintage but a lot of them were Chevy-powered. Mixed in with those pesky Fords were several awesome Chevy muscle cars, including Artis Houston’s ’71 Nova. The blue machine should be familiar to CHP readers, as we have covered it extensively over the past several years. Houston was entered in the Outlaw 275 portion of the event and as the name implies the rules are loose to allow for some wild combinations. You just have to hook the car on a pair of 275 drag radials. He had some trouble adapting to the different air and track conditions. The native Californian normally runs at high altitude on the West Coast in marginal track conditions. In Georgia, the racing surface was set on kill and the air was nearly perfect for maximum horsepower. He was hot off a 7.60 at 183-mph performance in the West but the Nova kept standing on the bumper in the East. We bet sub 7.50s could be a reality if he had more time to get everything dialed in.