After watching drag and drive on YouTube for years, I thought I might have a good baseline on what to expect when I attended my first event, Sick Week Presented by Gear Vendors Overdrive, in 2022. I was so wrong, but in the right way.

We’ve all heard the stories about competitors helping each other to get to that final day, that final pass, to FINISH. I’m lucky enough to talk about these stories, on the mic and on the web. And they happen in the super competitive world of heads-up racing too.

Just a few days ago, I attended the Lights Out 16 event at South Georgia Motorsports Park. One of the events that helped push drag radial racing into the spotlight more, I hadn’t been to it in a few years due to schedules.

But after only a few minutes after passing through the gate, I ran into Doug Cook of Motion Raceworks. Doug didn’t make it even a minute into the conversation before he told me about ‘Stevie Fast’ Jackson, and his last 24 hours that resulted in a win just by getting to the first round of competition.

After four days of cold temperatures, insane racing action and sizable crowds at South Georgia Motorsports Park, some recognizable names and repeats winners led the storylines at one of the biggest drag radial tire themed races, Lights Out 16.

After two days of qualifying, eliminations got underway on Saturday, February 22nd, and were completed on Sunday, February 23rd, 2025, by crowning winners in thirteen different classes.

As we covered on Thursday’s first qualifying session story, the Radial Versus the World class grabbed headlines when Paolo Guist reset the class record with a 3.479 pass. The other half of that pair, Ken Quartuccio, clocked a 3.49 on that run, but would return on Friday, February 21st, to drop the record further with a 3.743 run.

Quartuccio employed that performance through eliminations, using a pair of 3.4-second runs to score his third final round appearance in as many events.

Nearly two decades ago, Donald ‘Duck’ Long noticed that one of the biggest groups of heads-up racing, Outlaw Drag Radial, wasn’t being given the amount of attention he felt they deserved. So, he did something about it, and sixteen years after the ‘Lights Out’ event debuted at South Georgia Motorsports Park, it remains a destination race for racers and fans where the wild and unpredictable happens, as well as many a record are set.

Paolo Guist would be the lone car to dip into the 3.4-second range in the top tier Radial Versus The World (RVW) class during the first session, clocking a 3.498 at 213.60 MPH blast for the top qualifying spot. The impressive run was just twelve thousandths of-a-second off the world record of 3.486 at 213.83 MPH from ‘Stevie Fast’ Jackson, set last March at Alabama International Dragway. But Guist wasn’t done yet.

With the sun all but gone and track temperatures dropping quickly, the entire list of heads-up classes had completed their first session of qualifying. But the decision was made for one more round of RVW qualifying. Guist would be in the first pair of cars out of the staging lanes, lining up alongside a former Lights Out event winner, Ken Quartuccio.

The scoreboards would show history less than three and-a-half seconds later, and for more than one reason!

As Georgia starts to thaw out from the freezing temperatures and snow they experienced last week, the action also heated up in more ways than one during the second day of testing at South Georgia Motorsports Park for Sick Week Presented by Gear Vendors Overdrive.

Several rides made some hot licks on the track, while others overheated their parts where the carnage has us wondering who can be ready for Day One on Tuesday, January 28th.

While much of the United States may be in winter hibernation, we’re ready to see passes on the race tracks, as well as putting down miles on the street of Florida and Georgia. It’s just about time for the fourth Sick Week Presented by Gear Vendors Overdrive, and with so cool stuff in store, we wanted to cover all the bases!

First things first: all the information on Sick Week is available at the event section on our website. We’ve also been covering some of the competitors coming to Sick Week in our news stories, as well as on our social media channels.

But we wanted to go over all the details, so buckle up and take a few minutes to prepare yourself for Sick Week 2025!

Sick Week Presented by Gear Vendors Overdrive is THIS MONTH, with Day Zero scheduled for Monday, January 27th, 2025! We’ve learned a lot since the first Sick Week in 2022, and for the 2025 edition, we adding some bonus features!

It’s no secret that some competitors will thrash up to the last minute, and with the chance for up to 400 rides to show up for the start of Sick Week, the tech and testing day can get busy! Thanks to our host track, South Georgia Motorsports Park and their staff, Sick Week will have two additional days of testing available before Day Zero! On Saturday, January 25th, and Sunday, January 26th, SGMP will open their gates for Sick Week competitors, crew and spectators to enjoy two full days of pre-event testing!

Plus we’ve got information on VIP Tech and a new BONUS feature for 2025!

“A 3-second pass was never a goal of mine with this car and engine combo, because it didn’t seem very possible. But recently as we got faster, and the community started asking to see it, we decided to go for it!”

Even though the NHRA didn’t specifically name the track or area that is slated to possibly get the event, one track is an odds-in favorite to get the nod.

After a couple of years away from radial racing, Stevie ‘Fast’ Jackson has returned to form with a 3.58 at 208 mph run to grab the number one qualifying spot of the Radial Versus the World class. But it was just one part of a interesting first day of qualifying.