What a great weekend. Mike Hill, and the Peach State Nationals might not have been some record-breaking car counts, but you can bet it was one hell of a good time.

This weekend at South Georgia Motorsports Park, Mike Hill held the inaugural Peach State DoorSlammer Nationals. On tap were several classes that included Pro Mod, N/T, 632, Outlaw Jr. Dragster, and numerous heads-up index style classes. The weather looked to be a factor as well, but Mike brought in track prep specialist Jimmy “Sticky Mafia” Bradshaw to take care of the race surface. Based on the times ran, the bumpers that were draggin’, and the smiles on racer’s faces, the track was everything they could handle and more.

Typically, when I shoot an event at SGMP I am certainly not worried about cold weather, as there have only been a couple of races that I can recall over the last decade that were actually “cold”. Well this was one of those races, as the wind was whipping both Friday and Saturday. Luckily, the wind did not seem to disrupt much on the race track. It was a pretty strong headwind all weekend, so the only concern was how high the wheel stands would be if the wind got under them. Mike gave all the racers two rounds of qualifying on Friday night, and then another two on Saturday before heading to eliminations.

Pro Mod standouts like Adam Flamholc, George Williams, Marcus Birt, and more were all there to fight for a nice payday and a wally. Mikey Rees, who is normally at the NHRA events working with the Proline powered pro mods, was on the property working with Kris Thorne and his turbo Corvette. Kris’ vette had one of the biggest jaw dropping moments of the weekend, and that was when he dropped the hammer and lit up the boards with a 210 mph pass. It looks like Mikey being there certainly helped. And if you want to talk about parity, let’s talk about the fact that there was a turbo car, a blower car, and two nitrous cars in the semi finals of pro mod. In the finals, it was George Williams with his nitrous powered vette in the right lane, taking on the turbo vette of Kris Thorne. It was George that looked like he was shot out of a cannon and took the victory over Kris.

Outlaw 632 was the Florida show. Most know that this class is still a well contested class that seems to have a lot of Florida based racers. While not qualified #1 this time, it was still the weekend of the Voss’ and their dominate 632 Vette. The vette managed to get to the finals, where they were set to face off again Mike Oldham in the beautiful white S10. There were issues after the launch with the S10 and Dillion kept his foot to the floor and cracked off a stellar 4.25 in the final.

In Extreme N/T 28 the field was tough to say the least. With names like El Diablo and Bumblebee, you know that every car is going to have to be on top of their game. David Reese and El Diablo seem to have no problem getting down the track this weekend though. Bumblebee was a touch of hit and miss as they couldn’t roll in until Saturday morning and didn’t see the track surface nearly as much as David did since he was there Friday making hits. It was all about El Diablo in the finals though, as he secured the victory over Bee. I am sure they will face off again sooner than later though.

N/T Small block is one of my favorites to watch, and Mike had some of the best at SGMP. Troy Pirez Jr, Sub Zero, Jason X, and more, were all there trying to show who the baddest of the bad is. If you haven’t seen Jason X, which is J.R. Gray’s Mustang that was built at Team Z Motorsports in Michigan, you are truly missing out on one of the sexiest cars in all of drag racing. His Mustang has the perfect stance, and absolutely hauls ass. He showed that over the weekend, when he took home the win over Troy Pirez Jr’s Stonewall S10.

Who doesn’t love watching the younger generation race? Mike Hill is no exception and he had a N/T Jr. Dragster race. It should be no surprise that Russell Miller was on the property with his daughter, and the 2018 PDRA Jr Champion Brooke Miller. Brooke’s other Jr. was on the property with a different engine setup and a friend driving that one. Funny thing is the two faced off in the finals of the class with the World Champion Brooke taking the win.

There were three heads up index classes at the Peach State DoorSlammer Nationals as well. We saw 4.70, 6.0, and 7.0 all contested over the weekend. This is some of the tightest finish-line racing that you will ever see. In 6.0 it was Michael Strickland over Kenn Grant. 7.0 saw Terry McLendon and David Johnson line up against each other. Terry took the victory over David. 4.70 was the final class to run on Saturday night. It featured Dustin Martin and Glenn Dutton. Unfortunately for Glenn, he has a breather come off the car during the burnout that forced him to shut it down before staging. This handed Dustin the win before even taking the light.

As someone who covers numerous events of numerous sizes all year long, it was great to cover such a fantastic event that was a complete cluster and one that didn’t have 800 damn cars, or 400 cars entered in three classes. Everything ran well, there was very little down time and when we did have it, it was because of a mess on the track. Jimmy did a great good keeping people hooked up and safe. Al Tucci and Willie Dog did a great job on the mic as well. We at E3xtreme look forward to being back for the 2nd annual Peach State Nationals come 2019.