I spent last weekend in Bradenton, Florida at Bradenton Motorsports Park announcing the 2017 US Street Nationals. This event really is interesting in because it is the culmination of what is a week of testing for most of the teams on the property. There’s an awesome variety of vehicles at the event ranging form PDRA Pro Extreme cars to sportsman index racers, drag radial heroes, and legal pro mod racers as well. Multiple records were set during the event including the quickest radial car in history mark by Barry Mitchell with a 3.746/197 eighth mile blast, and the quickest car ever on leaf springs by Lyle Barnett at 4.27!
If there was one run that both summed up the race and what may be the future of the sport of drag racing, it was the final round of the Limited Drag Radial class. Before we get into that, let’s talk about with LDR is about and why it is here. Formed a couple of seasons ago, Limited Drag Radial was an answer to the near vertical cost and performance increases that were happening (are happening?) in Radial vs The World style racing. RvW has an onion-skin thin rule book and that means the sky is the limit with budget, parts, and jaw dropping performance numbers.
The idea behind LDR was to keep the wild feel of RvW class racing but do something to at least make the cost somewhat palatable. Also, there were LOTS of really great cars that were no longer competitive that needed a place to race. Basically it is the same evolution that every other small tire drag racing class has gone through. Cost and performance goes nuts, founders get bounced, new class is made.
LDR restricts some stuff in terms of what’s kosher for suspension, it limits forced induction to a 14-71 blower, F3 ProCharger, 118mm single turbo, or twin 88mm combo at the max. You can also run twin F1 ProChargers if the spirit takes you there. As far as nitrous goes, the sky is the limit. The cars have heavier minimum weights, more factory steel is mandated in their construction, and the result is a group of cars that run low 4s and put on one hell of a show.
That gets us back to the run below that you’ll have to watch a time or two to see it all. Kevin Fiscus and Justin Swanstrom (Flash and Lil’ Country for those of you playing the name game) lined up for the marbles at Bradenton. Swanstrom relying on his nitrous engine and Fiscus relying on the Proline turbo combo under the hood of the Willard Kinzer owned Mustang.
After a 40-second standing duel, Fiscus bumped in, Swanstrom matched him and they were off into the night. Swanstrom was hanging with him before the engine exploded in an impressive fireball. As his hope dimmed, Fiscus was on the fight of his life. The car pulled the nose at about the 330′ block and went into a massive wheelie which he expertly pedaled out of and won the race.
There’s no way to watch this one a single time. You need to watch both lanes once full concentration to really understand how epic this is.
This was the capper of a really spectacular event!
