SLAVENS BLASTS OUT QUICKEST RVW RUN WITH 3.621 ET ON RADIALS

by Bobby Bennett; Photos by Roger Richards    Fri, 2019-02-15 21:16

Tim Slavens scored one for the conventional crowd Thursday evening during Q-2 Radial vs. The World qualifying at Lights Out 10, a major drag radial event held annually at South Georgia Motorsports Park.

Slavens, of Marshfield, MO., drove his stock-bodied 1969 Camaro to a 3.621 elapsed time at 217.74 miles per hour, officially the quickest Radial vs. The World pass by .002 replacing Mark Micke's 2018 Sweet 16 record.

"Seems kind of surreal at this point," said Slavens, who was third quickest headed into Thursday's lone session. "It really hasn't sunk in yet."

Slavens entered the weekend with the hot hand, having performed impressively at the U.S. Street Nationals in Bradenton, Fla. before rain forced the cancellation of the event.

Slavens, who has a Lights Out 9 semifinal finish to his credit, has been mostly a racer who has lurked in the shadows, grabbing a monumental round win here and there. However, on Thursday evening, he's effectively ensured that his days of flying under the radar are essentially over.

"It's all about consistency, so we will see if we can continue with what we established thus far," Slavens said. "The big numbers are fantastic, but it is consistency that wins races. We have to go rounds."

The Radial vs. The World category runs on a 32-car ladder meaning Slavens will need to win five rounds on Sunday if he wants to win.

"A couple of weeks ago, we went a 3.64 in Bradenton," Slavens explained. "We put pretty close to that same tuneup in it tonight to see if it would take it, and it did. We weren't sure what would happen, but with this run, we were able to clean up some things on the graph. It exceeded our expectations."

Speaking of exceeding expectations, Slavens takes great pride in knowing the conventional design Radial vs. The World cars have become the pace-setters in a division which has become increasingly populated by Pro Modified-style cars.

" That's the most gratifying part of all of this," Slavens said. "It's still a stock '69 Camaro, with part of the original floorboards in it. I'm sure we could benefit from better aerodynamics. I hope the record stays with these conventional cars for a long time."

 

 

 
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