WITH 50-PLUS RVW CARS FOR LIGHTS OUT 10, LONG CONTINUES TO RIDE TIDAL WAVE OF SUCCESS

by Bobby Bennett    Wed, 2019-01-23 23:00

Storied small-tire racing promoter Donald "Duck" Long admits he's tried his best to keep his alter-ego in check with an influx of corporate sponsorship rolling into his popular Duck X Promotions events. But when he looks at the 51 Radial vs. The World paid pre-entries for next month's Lights Out 10 event at South Georgia Motorsports Park, located outside of Valdosta, Ga., his brashness gets the best of him.

Long believes unequivocally that the Radial vs. The World division is the best ticket in drag racing.

Better than Top Fuel? Yes.

Better than fuel Funny Car? Absolutely.

Better than Pro Mod? Without a doubt.

"I believe it’s because a lot of other sanctioning bodies/everybody, they make it where there’s limits on whatever, with power, with turbos, with nitrous, with supercharger overdrive," Long explained. "And with us, we’re saying bring whatever you have, and it’s just at a set weight. So I think you get the mixture, and it’s not just the engines, it’s the chassis. I mean how many other races do you go to where you have a stock suspension car racing a Pro Mod [style chassis]? And remain competitive? Let me say that. Obviously, anybody could probably enter one of the Outlaw Quick 8 races somewhere but when they do are they’re going to be lined up where the top 16 are probably going to be two numbers apart?"

Lights Out 10, the first of the three Duck X Productions events this season, might not end up being the greatest Radial vs. The World event, but it won't be because it didn't have one of the greatest-ever assembled fields.

"I’m not saying it’s going to be the greatest Radial vs. The World race," Long said. "I think we have the biggest selection of racers coming into this one I guess, with the potential to have the baddest race is what I think. Just depends on how everybody’s stuff goes."

SIDEBAR - RICKIE SMITH WOULDN’T MIND RACING A RADIAL CAR, BUT CAN’T JUSTIFY THE RISK

Consider doorslammer drag racing legend Rickie Smith as one of those who wouldn’t mind giving Radial vs. The World a try. However, Smith believes the timing isn’t right as far as the risk equalzing the reward, at least for him.  

“Not that I wouldn’t want to, I’d love to run that stuff,” Smith said. “I’ve run these backyard tracks 30 years ago, just like Summerduck, all them places. Back then we didn’t have the power but we didn’t have the tracks either. 

“The problem is now my cars cost so much. All my stuff is usually no more than about a year and a half old. I’d say percent of them cars, they’re pretty old, they really ain’t worth a whole lot, and if they wreck them things, they ain’t out a whole lot. If I wreck one of my cars, I’ve lost $150,000 in a car. One of them cars, most of them, I guess they have maybe two or three. Most of them cars wouldn’t make $50-$55,000 just the car. 

“I can’t lose a brand new race car. Anything can happen, but you’re really asking for trouble when you get on that small tire and start doing the stuff they’re doing. You know, when one of them things breaks loose, it’s really done because it’s totally out of control on that little tire when it turns it loose. Ain’t no doubt I’d love to drive one and have fun doing it, but I also have to look at the way I make a living, you know?” – Bobby Bennett

Long admits the Radial vs. The World class is still in the midst of identifying itself. Will the class remain populated by the square-tubing back-half cars or fully migrate over into tube-chassis Pro Modified style of race cars? Throughout the last year, Long mounted what appeared to be a social media bash campaign against Pro Modified cars, if only to defend those who still race Radial vs. The World in the traditional fashion.

"I’m not saying I’ve been against the Pro Mods. I’m saying that you can still run any chassis that you want with the same engine, and they’re not going to be any faster [with a tube chassis]," Long countered. "That’s what I’m saying. I’m saying we’re not afraid of any Pro Mod. I say we, obviously I’m not out there driving, but you know, the racers that run in Radial vs. The World."

Radial vs. the World started with the back-half cars, but in recent years purpose-built tube chassis vehicles have threatened to overtake the division.

The original gangsters of the Radial vs. The World world gained vindication when Mark Micke, one of the original entrants in the class, scored a dominating $101,000-to-win victory at the inaugural Sweet 16 event.

"I don’t think that you’re going to find Mark Micke, or Andrew Alepa afraid of racing these Pro Mod style cars," Long explained. "I mean Andrew Alepa’s car came off a showroom floor. He went out and spent $50,000 on the Corvette. I don’t think another Corvette with the same motor in it, Pro Mod, is any faster. And if it is, it’s such a slight minute amount that whoever leaves first is still going to win.

"I saw somebody the other day still bitching about the Pro Mod chassis. They always want to try and hold that against me. What I’ll tell you is this - if anybody thinks that they can bring their 2800-pound Pro Mod with the same engine that Mark Micke has and come out there and go any faster than he is, then I want you to prove it to me. I want you to show me that it will go quicker than 3.62 and it will go faster than 221 miles an hour. Because I don’t believe, I’m not even sure with the aerodynamics and everything that it’s going to go any faster, and if it is, it ain’t fast enough to see the difference on the race track."

The longevity of Radial vs. The World style racing, many believe, had a limited shelf life from the start, but going on a decade it's still providing significant growth from year to year. Long admits he's a bit surprised but isn't going to argue with its widespread popularity.

"I’ll say this, and I am surprised that it has been for the last two years because I thought about two years ago because I had the whole idea of Pro 275 because I thought that it would have been needed by now," Long explained. "I think that it still goes back to the same thing, nobody has to have a new Tim McAmis or RJ Race Cars chassis. You could go out and buy any Pro Mod chassis, any Quick 8 car, any Outlaw 10.5 car, anything that you want, and as long as you can get it down to the weight that you want to be at, it doesn’t have to be an overly expensive investment.

"Look at Micke’s car. I’m not saying it’s a piece of junk by any means, but it isn't a brand new state of the art Tim McAmis car coming off the jig, We’ve got a square boxcar out there, Alepa’s car’s a beautiful car. Mills’ car too. But it’s still not a jig-built, state of the art 115-inch wheelbase car or anything."

Maintaining parity for the Pro Modified division with three power adders has been a constant challenge for the rules makers at the NHRA, but when it comes to Radial vs. The World, Long admits it's been relatively smooth sailing keeping everything even.

Until someone can surpass his 3.62, Mark Micke is the baddest man on radial tires, period. 

"I think the hardest part is listening and not letting the racers make the rules, listening to their complaints," Long admitted. "I think that that is essential and I don’t want to beat up on John Sears, but just as an example, he wants to come out and put out like four sets of rules, ‘Hey, I’m just doing a feeler to put these out there."

"That’s not the right way to do it. You need to, as a promoter, you need to have who you feel that you can trust out there, look at the times, the combinations and some of it is an Area 51 type thing where you have to make the decision based on what you think is the potential of that car. That’s what I do.

"I don’t let the racers call me up and threaten me or back me into a corner. If I did that this class would have been screwed a long time ago. I have engine builders, sponsors, I’ve had people threaten sponsorship money. There’s been all kinds of crap. And I tell them, ‘Listen, this is what the rules are. You can come and race, or you can do something else, but we’re not going to change rules based on who sponsors something. We’re not going to do that kind of stuff."

"That’s what I think gets screwed up on some of these other classes is that people put out feelers and then they see how much bitching and complaining and then they’re like, ‘Oh, God, they’re going to kill me. Let me change the rules to make them happy."

"I don’t think you can do anything like that. You have to make an educated decision."

Long admittedly used to let the alter-ego run amuck on social media, and he might still call on his "other" approach from time to time to deal with maintaining law and order for the Duck X. However, he's learned over the last few years sometimes it's best to keep the "rabid" Duck in the closet to maintain the upward trajectory of his series intact.

"It’s funny. I was talking to Lenco Jim about that today. And yes, you are one hundred percent correct," Long replied when presented with this observation. "I would like to open the closet back up, not lean on it or rely on it as much, but I think it’s one of those things that I’d like to bring it back out sometimes. That’s a very tough question, that’s been weighing on my mind for a while, to be honest.

"Don’t get me wrong; people know how I am. I’m going to say what I believe, a hundred percent. I’m just not going to go out day in and day out and do it. I’m going to honest with you, it’s all I can do on the politics side of it to stay out of stuff that's not racing. I look at stuff on the internet, and I just want to take my computer and throw it out the window sometimes. I do kind of look at things a little differently, and understand when it's better just to keep my opinion to myself, or I’ll just delete people [on social media] that are just so far out there that I think they need to have their head crushed in by a frickin’ manhole cover or something."

And for Long, restraint in the arena might be a tougher challenge than keeping Radial vs. The World fair and balanced and growing each year. As he sees it, Radial vs. The World is growing just fine organically.

 

 

 

 
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