When you enter the ninth time running a successful event, you learn to roll with the punches and come out swinging. The radial tire racing community has come to expect nothing less from award-winning small tire promoter Donald "Duck" Long.

Long has already been on the grounds of South Georgia Motorsports Park for a week now preparing for No Mercy 9, the third of three high-stakes, high-dollar drag radial races his Duck X Productions brand promotes.

"All these races give me butterflies still," Long admitted. "I always want to see who’s new coming out. You’ve got the same guys, which is awesome, but it’s cool to see the new blood coming in."

Long is confident the new blood and existing racers will lighten the loss of two of drag radial racing's stars not in competition. In the weeks leading into the event, Stevie "Fast" Jackson announced he would be reluctantly skipping the event to focus on his NHRA championship run, greatly aided by back-to-back victories in the same car he races typically in Drag Radial competition.

Keith Haney, a natural rival to both Jackson, and Long (through internet trash-talking) announced he would be unable to attend the event as well.

"Stevie is just great for the sport, obviously, no matter what he does," Long explained. "As far as the competition, it is going to be just as solid. Right now, Keith Haney is awesome on an internet deal. He just hasn’t been real, real competitive as far as winning Radial vs. The World. Each person has their fans. Just like Mark Micke and the Golden Gorilla and all that.

"I mean I wish they were there, don’t get me wrong, but I think that the competition’s still going to be the same."

Long, who is known to spar in social media spats with any and everyone, isn't as affected by the loss of Haney, or so he says. He's quick to take credit where he feels credit is due.

"First of all, let’s be clear when you write this story. I made Keith Haney," Long boasted with a smile. "Nobody in radial racing or anywhere ever heard that man’s name until I came on the scene. Make sure you got that quoted. And also, let’s remember something else, although Stevie is a bad man, just remember, the term Stevie Fast was also by me, not by him or anybody else, so let’s make sure we clear up history before it gets a little out of hand. I could have put his name as Stevie Slow, and no one even knows him right now."

The one thing those who know and understand Long will attest, if the promoter from Zephyr Hills, Florida, gets on a rant, it usually takes a while to get it out of his system.

Case in point, he's been on a rampage against Pro Modified, a division many regards as the top of the food chain for doorslammer racing. Long is adamant he's not one of the crowd and is perfectly content to be the black sheep if it means proving his point.

"I’ve been trying to prove since me, and Billy Glidden had an argument about bias ply and radial tires in Las Vegas about ten years ago," Long said. "And I’ve been screaming radial tire cars to the front the whole time. Billy said the 29/10.5 bias ply tire was as good as the radial. We’ve destroyed the 29.5, we’ve destroyed the 31, we’ve destroyed the 33/10.5, and I think weight for weight, the radial tire will kill the 34.5 Pro Mod deal also.

"I think if both cars weighed the exact same weight, boost for boost, the radial car will be faster."

Long feels, the Radial vs. The World, a class he takes credit for cultivating, is the best pound for pound, horsepower for horsepower full-bodied division in all of drag racing.

"The radial guys were kicked to the weeds forever," Long said. "Pro Mod was at the top and then down, and then it’s been back up at the top. I say the radial guys; obviously, you’ve got some crossover, but I think the radial guys in the big picture, because they have to manage power better than someone out there with a big tire like that, and I think that the guys are just a little smarter."

"God didn’t say let there be light, let there be Pro Mod. He said let there be light, let there be radial tire cars to the front. You make sure you put in there on the eighth day, God created radial."