In a Radial Vs. The World class where the odds are stacked with those cars with large engines and sleek bodies, during Thursday’s qualifying at the No Mercy 8 Drag Radial event hosted by South Georgia Motorsports Park located outside of Valdosta, Ga.

Marty Stinnett, in his two qualifying attempts during the second day of the event, proved size matters. Or, in his case, the lack thereof. He sat out Thursday’s third and final qualifying session.

Because of impending rain expected to wash out Sunday’s schedule, promoter Donald Long made the calculated decision to complete most of the qualifying scheduled for Friday and Saturday on Thursday. 

Stinnett, driving a traditional Radial Vs. The World fox-bodied Mustang powered by a small block Chevy, blasted out a 3.751 elapsed time at 196.16 mile per hour during the Q-3 session.  

“Our whole team is riding high just overwhelming with emotion,” Stinnett said. “I’m very excited but humbled as well. I know we are running against some bad boys. There are some really good race teams out here. You cannot take any for granted. The top three are all in the 3.75s. For my small block, my little Jeff Burns small block Chevy, what more can I say? My team is awesome.”

Earlier in the day, Stinnett jumped to the top in Q-2 with a 3.771, 197.33. He couldn’t say the jump to the front was a total shocker. 

“I think most of the teams out here respected us because we’ve been around here for a little while,” Stinnett said. “We’ve had some pretty good performances, so Praise the Lord, I am sure they know we are out here.”  

Daniel Pharris closed the day as the second quickest with a 3.755 in a tie with Stevie “Fast” Jackson. The deciding factor was the Corvette’s faster 209.92 speed. 

On the other end of the spectrum, Ruben Tetsoshvili anchored the 32-car field with a 5.217.

Josh Minzenmayer paced the Limited 275 division with a 4.715 elapsed time at 149.02 mile per hour blast. Second quickest Mark Brewton recorded a 4.721 before crashing in the Q-3 session. 
Dean Marinis led a Mustang charge in the X275 division with a 4.402 ahead of Marty Chance and Eric Moore. 

Other low qualifiers included Shane Stack (Limited Drag Radial), and Shawn Pevlor (Ultimate Street).