This past weekend one of the largest collections of high horsepower radial tire cars anywhere converged on South Georgia Motorsports Park for the Sweet 16 2.0 event. X275 and Radial Vs. the World Class cars pounded the pavement and thrilled the crowd all weekend. Here is a recap of just some of the Vortech Supercharged action that took place.

This is an example of how American sportsmen and sportswomen respond to the National Anthem in the proper fashion at an American sporting event - With respect.

Craig Walls

Craig Walls brought out his beautiful green Fox Body Mustang dubbed "Jade Grenade" for competition in X275. Craig is a seasoned racer and has the equipment to get the job done, thanks to his Vortech V-30 102A Supercharged, SC1 headed 427 cubic inch Ford engine built by Mark Benston. Craig's deadly-fast reaction times and the ability to pull sub-1.0 second 60ft. make him a threat anyplace he runs.

In Round 1 of Eliminations, Walls met Dean Marinis who had trouble off the line and could not catch Walls as he turned in a 4.33 pass @ 163 mph, to Marinis' 4.87 e.t. @ 151 mph.

Round 2 of Eliminations saw two extremely fast Vortech racers come up against one another in the form of Craig Walls vs. Brian Brooks. Both racers left with matching .015 reaction times, and both had matching traction issues as well, having to pedal their cars to maintain control. Walls was able to recover traction quicker, securing the win with a 6.40 e.t. @ 140 mph. When asked about the matchup, Walls stated “Besides the final, I was worried the most about running Brian Brooks. He runs the same exact blower combination as us, so I know what the power capability is because we run the same type of deal, but that round ended up being a pedal-fest. It was kind of like whoever pedaled the best.”

In Round 3, Craig Walls went up against #1 Qualifier Rob Goss in his Dodge Challenger. Goss lost power in the burnout box, however, and could not fire the car back up, handing the victory to Walls, who ran away with a 4.35 e.t. @ 162 mph.

In the finals, Walls put up a .011 reaction time against the Bruder Brothers Mustang, but Walls' 4.358 e.t. was not good enough to best Rich Bruder. Walls ended the weekend with the Runner-Up spot in X275, and said when asked how he felt about his performance “Awesome, just awesome. I never expected to go to the finals. We are underdogs wherever we go, and yes, I mean to get to the finals, it was great. And to put together A-to-B passes and all that you know it’s proud, proud, unexpected and proud to be here today. We were expecting to try to go a little bit quicker, like a low .30 in the final, but we ended up going a .35. But we’re just tickled to death. We don’t get out very much with the car, kind of pick and choose where we go, but the biggest thing is to be competitive wherever we do go and we’ve done that since last fall and so we can’t really ask for anything more. I have to thank Mark (engine builder Mark Benson) and Lance at Vortech Superchargers. We are running the V30-102 on the car. Patrick Barnhill, I can’t say enough about him, he is a huge part of it. Charles Short, he and I built the car at our shop.”

The most important note to be made about Walls' charge to the finals was that he did so with just 1 single Vortech V-30 102A Supercharger. While all of his competitors were changing out broken brand X units after every other run, the Vortech V-30 Superchargers just keep going without a single issue. Time after time, run after run...Walls & his team never changed the blower at any point the entire weekend. That is just one of the many reasons why more and more racers are choosing Vortech.

Brian Brooks

Brian Brooks and his Vortech V-30 102A Supercharged White Fox Coupe runs some what some may consider blasphemy, and others may consider the best of both worlds - a Fox Body Mustang with an LS-Engine. Brian and his crew were bust over the winter putting together the new combination, which consists of a Noonan Billet block with Altas Performance massaged Allpro Heads. This fast setup was good enough to put them in the 5th Qualifying spot, and they were one of the few teams at the event dipping into 4.20 territory with their 4.286 @ 163.43 mph run. Look for a lot more from Brooks and his team out of Colorado.

Alton Clements

Alton made a number of changes to his Blue Fox Body Mustang over the winter. A new engine control system converting his car over to methanol, and put his car on a diet to get even more weight out of it. Sweet 16 was more of a test session for Alton than anything, getting the car ready for NMRA/NMCA All-Star Nationals next month. His performance was impressive to say the least, with runs in the 4.7 zone, that puts him as one of the easy potential front runners in Ultra, Xtreme Street, or Renegade. Keep your eyes on the former champion, as he may be on another rise to the top.

Daniel Pachar/Triangle Speed

Coming off a very successful 2018 in the No-Prep/No Time arena with their Black Vortech Supercharged Fox Body Coupe, Pachar & co. wanted to try their hand at some radial racing. With a number of changes having to be made to the car from their normal No Prep setup, they picked a very big stage to try it out on. Once they have the new setup sorted, expect another deadly combination to start picking off all of their competition.

Marty Chance

Marty had some exceptional runs all week, with 4.30's putting him directly in the hunt for the win. However, putting too much power down from his Vortech V-30 102A Supercharged setup on a hot, greasy track prevented Chance from making it to the Sweet 16 Finals this time around.

Thanks and photo credit to DragZine, Lance Keck, and the race teams.

The next action-packed racing event is right around the corner, so stay tuned!