John Russo admits he’s had an affection for the South Georgia Motorsports Park for quite some time. Today SGMP showed him the love.

Russo debuted a new Pontiac Firebird and on his fourth pass of testing thundering to a 5.895 elapsed time at over 246 miles per hour.

Russo was astonished by the numbers he earned.

MONDAY NOTEBOOK -

 

 

John Russo admits he’s had an affection for the South Georgia Motorsports Park for quite some time. Today SGMP showed him the love.

Russo debuted a new Pontiac Firebird and on his fourth pass of testing thundering to a 5.895 elapsed time at over 246 miles per hour.

Russo was astonished by the numbers he earned.

“This is unbelievable,” Russo proclaimed. “We had some of our best runs last year at this race track. I’ll be honest, I didn’t expect this car to run as quickly as it did. This caught me off guard. I was not expecting this.”

Since Russo is the only Pro Modified driver, IHRA, NHRA or Outlaw to run a 5.8-second run, the question begs to be asked. What does a 5.8-second run feel like?

“The shifts come a lot quicker,” Russo pointed out. “I don’t have radios in the car but I knew that we had done something really good. When I got to the end of the track, I knew I had run faster but didn’t know how much.”

Making the feat even more impressive is the Vanishing Point Race Cars-built entry he’s driving still has the new car smell.

“The first time we came out with the car, it ran a 6.05,” Russo said. “The second time out we ran a 5.99 and established a new track record in Cayuga. Jim Geese does an incredible job in building these cars.

“But, I have to thank Al Billes too. The man is a thinker. He’s unbelievable.”

Russo had spent much of his time during the 9th annual CSR ESTN presented by Torco’s CompetitionPlus.com running short laps. In fact, during Sunday’s organized testing, Russo clicked off early to a 3.92 eight-mile elapsed time. The momentous run took a different route.

“All of a sudden, before I ran, Al walks over to me and told me if I wanted to run it all the way to the finish line that I could,” Russo said. “I decided to take him up on it.”

Russo plans to run primarily NHRA competition but adamantly points out the off-weekends will be filled with IHRA dates.

“I’m still IHRA legal except for the two-step, but I can easily go back to swapping feet,” Russo said.

Russo wasn’t the only driver who celebrated during extended ESTN testing.

Two-time NHRA Pro Modified champion Mike Ashley added another accomplishment to his resume of feats by stopping the clocks with his first career five-second run in a doorslammer.

Ashley nailed down a 5.994, 236.46 while testing the Camaro normally driven by teammate Roger Burgess. This marked the first time he and longtime crew chief Chuck Ford have recorded a five-second run together.

“I think Chuck was waiting on me, so we could do it together,” Ashley said on Monday afternoon while standing in the staging lanes at SGMP. “I know he could have done it last year so he must have been waiting on me. We just went ahead and got it out of the way today.

“The run was pretty good but not as good as it could have been. I short-shifted a bit and I lifted a little early. I just wanted to get it down the track and we did just that.”