From qualifying through eliminations Feb. 24-27, at South Georgia Motorsports Park, Mo Hall was at or near the top of the elapsed-time list for each round of Pro 275 competition at Lights Out 13. And when it was all over, he had successfully defended his 2021 Lights Out 12 title and recorded his third major Duck X Productions win within a year after also prevailing at the Sweet 16 event last spring.

After piloting his Switzer Dynamics nitrous-injected '07 Corvette to a first-place 3.74 at 198.88-mph pass in qualifying, Hall set low ET for three of the five elimination rounds, ultimately finishing with a 3.77-seconds pass to beat Eric Dillard in the final.  

His weekend was far from stress free, however.

"Yeah, it was a fun weekend, but we had our share of ups and downs, too. I mean, it started with the toter breaking down on the way here," Hall revealed.

After driving seven hours from home in Laytonsville, MD, to pick up crew chief Brandon Switzer at his shop in Denver, NC, Hall and team were left stranded in the rain for nine hours with a broken-down tow rig alongside NC Rte. 16.

"So we had a bunch of fun with that and then we get here and have a bunch of just little, itty-bitty gremlins just bite us all weekend long," he added. "Nothing major, thankfully, but just enough to keep us working."

With number-32 qualifier Jeff Miller unable to answer the call, Hall ran unopposed to a 3.79 at 196.64 in round one of racing. Next, he took on Mark Woodruff and his twin-turbo C6 Corvette and managed to overcome a .016 holeshot by Woody with a 3.77 at 187.13-mph pass.

The quarter-finals saw Hall run low ET for the round with a dominating 3.72 win at 197.88 over Craven Moore and his Hemi-equipped '87 Buick.

The semis provided the most controversy and drama of the event, as Hall appeared to leave .087 too soon and handed the win and an off-the-pace trip to the final to David Singletary and his Procharger-equipped '15 Camaro. However, video replay proved the lower-left staging bulb on Hall's side of the tree burned out immediately as it illuminated when he rolled in, and that's what triggered his early departure.

In a rarity for drag racing, Hall was granted a rerun against Singletary by Duck X and track officials, in which he posted a winning 3.77 at 196.99 to reach the final round.

"God bless David Singletary. He had the best attitude in the world, which, you know, I think I would've too, if I'd seen what was provided," Hall said later. "But after that I just stunk on the tree."

He posted a .098 light against a sizable .062 holeshot by Singletary for the rerun, then .137 in the final, or .090 behind Dillard's .047 leave, which typically would spell disaster. However, Dillard's Proline Procharger-boosted '69 Camaro lost traction off the hit and though he quickly recovered, a 3.92 at 191.16 led to a .065 margin of victory for Hall, who ran 3.77 at 197.39 to cap off his winning weekend.

"I saw him (Dillard) right out there beside me when we left, which usually isn't a good sign, but then he suddenly went away and I started whoopin' and hollerin' in there because I knew we had it won then," Hall said.

"You know, we run against these boosted cars and they have it all figured out. We like to poke a lot of fun at Proline and call them the Cheaters' Club and all that stuff, but they're all good guys; they're just a good target. They always run really well and you gotta' put your best foot forward against them every single time.

"Our data is just one vehicle and we have to really get at it and we can't pussyfoot around, for lack of a better term. We gotta' lead the pack, and fortunately Mother Nature was on our side today, too," he continued. "Give 'em a lot of water and give 'em a lot of heat, that's how we do it. We can make power just because we just put more in it; they can't do that.

"And we didn't leave anything on the table. Brandon (Switzer) told me it had a short fuse and it'd be going to the engine shop win or lose after we were done. And fortunately, it was a win."