(Video credit: The Racing Vids Channel) – Well if there’s one thing you’ll never be able to accuse Stevie Jackson of it is lacking a flair for the dramatic. After losing a grudge race against Barry Mitchell earlier in the weekend, the par found themselves together again in the final round of the Radial vs The World category at Keith Berry’s Woostock event. This race was held at Darlington Dragway and features grudge racing and radial racing as features. It seemed that Mitchell and Jackson were on a collision course from moment one. Both are proven low 70s cars and both have certainly gotten people talking about the prospect of seeing a 3.60 run out of a radial car in the not too distant future.
Jackson and Phil Shuler had their guns loaded, as they knew they needed to against Mitchell. The short numbers out of Jackson’s run are stunning. The Rick Jones built Camaro went .953 to 60′ and then a truly stupefying 2.47 seconds to the 330′ split. To say they got all of that one would be understatement. Like any good racer, we’re sure that there’s probably a little more left in there somewhere and both Shuler and Jackson would tell you so if asked.
As the Spring draws to a close and the warmer weather approaches, it may be a long summer’s wait for the first 3.60 because it isn’t going to happen in hot weather or on a hot race track. Once the cool temps return, it is an inevitability that someone will turn the trick.
Also, we’d be remiss in not recognizing the consistency and brutal quickness of the Barry Mitchell Camaro. That car has been knocking them dead with low 3.70s passes since January and that’s thanks to a lot of hard work from the likes of Robbie Kaziah and tuner Billy Stocklin. They took the smart strategy in the finals (in our opinion) and showed up with a car that was going to haul ass and make it down the track. They set the thing up so that Jackson was going to have to beat them instead of beating themselves. Unfortunately for them he did.
This is funny because I said forever that LO8 was going to come down to Stevie and Mitchell, with Stevie setting a record, and Mitchell being close behind….here we are a couple months later at WOOOSTOCK….