Rob Goss and his Procharger-packed '09 Gen3 Hemi Challenger have some unfinished business to take care of next weekend at South Georgia Motorsports Park.

Early last month at Lights Out 13, after qualifying number one in X275 with a near-record 4.14-seconds pass on the same track, Goss bowed out in round three of racing with a narrow redlight start. The round before he'd lowered his own class ET record to 4.13 seconds.

For the reigning back-to-back Radial Tire Racing Association (RTRA) X275 champion, it just bolsters his belief that having the quickest package is not necessarily what wins races.

"Consistent driving and making the right calls on the starting line, that's the only way to get it done," he says. "It's a tough decision to know how fast the car's gonna' be able to go without having problems.

"It's all about educated guesses. Sometimes you guess right, and sometimes you spin and wish you had backed it down. But then sometimes you back it down and get outran and wish you wouldn't have quite went that far. So it's always a real challenge."

Goss relies on tuner Wade Hopkins for making those tough calls.

"I do not envy Wade on that job and the stress he's under through these circumstances. I just try to support that. He has free rein. He can do whatever he thinks is best. Wade makes the calls," the Sheridan, WY-based team owner states.

"Of course we do talk and he appreciates the inputs, I think, but I don't ever overrule. And if something doesn't work out, that's just racing. I just try to do a good job as a driver; that's really the easy part in the whole scheme. But I ain't perfect, as we've seen before. I just do my best and thankfully we don't lose as often as we win. So yeah, it's just another part of racing."

Goss, Hopkins and rest of his HHP team get a chance at redemption on the all-concrete SGMP eighth mile Mar. 24-26, during promoter Donald "Duck" Long's Sweet 16 event that features limited spectator attendance and intense competition between the country's best radial-tire racers.

Considering his prodigious success in the X275 class, Goss admits he's somewhat surprised at remaining the lone Mopar amidst a crowd of Camaros and a few Mustangs thrown in throughout the field.

"It wasn't always this way for us. I had been racing a street car and started thinking the Gen3 Hemi might be competitive in radial tire racing, so we tried it but there were struggles at first," he freely admits. "We didn't have the aftermarket parts readily available, so it wasn't competitive right off the bat. When we started coming here (SGMP), we were running second-chance races because we couldn't qualify for the main event.

"So we didn't win anything, not even close, for maybe five years. I mean, we would have little glimmers of hope and success that kept us working at it, finding new parts that worked and figuring out what made the car work and this and that. And then we finally got the parts together in the car that were consistent and worked. Then Wade came on board with us and helped us with the tuning. And the rest is history."

Goss says he's encouraged by news that at least a couple of new X275 entries with Gen3s under the hood are expected this year--including a Hemi-equipped Mustang.  

"You know, through the parts we've developed and making them available, I think that's a big part of encouraging people to give the Gen3 a try," Goss says. "I think one thing that may have kept people from doing it before was the loner factor, that thing where everybody could look and say, 'Well, that's on an island.'

"Plus we have a hundred pounds more than any other small block with the Procharger or turbo or whatever it has to carry. Our engine has to weigh a hundred pounds more in class than any other engine, which is a lot, really.

"But it might be the unknowns, too. You know, people may say, 'Well, I don't really know the Hemi, but I do know this.' And we're kind of in that boat, too, but just on the other side. It's like, I'd hate to switch back to something else now after all the effort we put forth with the Gen3."

Regardless, Goss knows his undeniable success with the combination makes him a marked man each time he takes his sleek, black Challenger to the line.

"Yeah, I know we've got a pretty good bull's-eye painted on our backs every round. But you know, it's not spite, it's just natural if you're the guy everyone wants to beat. I know that I looked up to a lot of people when we first started out racing and I wanted to beat them more than anybody else," he recalls.

"Back then it was the nitrous contingent that was kicking butt. So we naturally looked at them as the standard bearers and we knew that we needed to get to that level, but we had to improve to consistently run there. And yeah, we're in that spot now and everybody's looking at us. And that's okay; we're ready for 'em."