Home state hero Tim Meisner raced to the biggest win of his career so far Oct. 17, taking the Radials vs. the World title at No Mercy 12, presented by Duck X Productions at South Georgia Motorsports Park. Joining him in the SGMP winner's circle were Manny Buginga with an emotional victory in memory of Blake Copson in Pro 275.

Meisner, from Powder Springs, GA, started his supercharged '68 Mustang from the seventh position in a 29-car RVW field and waiting for him in the final round was fifth-place qualifier Ken Quartuccio and his Connecticut-based '69 Camaro, fresh off a win the previous night in the PRI Magic 8 shootout for top-eight qualifiers.

Meisner left first with a .029 reaction time and needed practically every bit of the .024 advantage it gave him over Quartuccio. Running in the right lane, he managed a 3.65-seconds lap at 207.15 mph to beat a quicker 3.63 at 205.32 by Quartuccio with a five-thousandths-of-a-second margin of victory on the SGMP eighth mile.

"That was the longest drag race I've ever been in, in my life," an obviously relieved Meisner said. "I mean, we were bumper to bumper and at some point I wasn't even watching him anymore, I was watching our win lights just to see who won. This was real racing, not just winning."

For Buginga, No Mercy 12 was all about Copson, who won the X275 title driving for Buginga's team at No Mercy 11 just one year ago. Copson passed away unexpectedly at home in March this year, leaving a huge void in the entire drag radial racing world.

"This was a very emotional race for us," Buginga said. "This was the last race that Blake won and our goal coming here was to win this race again for Blake, in memory of him. I just feel blessed to be here. I feel blessed that I knew him."

Buginga qualified his West Bridgewater, MA-based '03 Mustang second in Pro 275 with a 3.78 pass at 195.65 mph. He made his way to the final against Georgia's David Reese with preliminary wins over Jody Voyles, Don Burton, Chris Tuten and Eric Dillard. Once there, Buginga left with a solid .026 advantage off the green light and finished 3.81 seconds later at 197.36 mph.

"We let go of the button and it was up in a little bit of a wheelie, but just blurped a little bit and got it back under control," Buginga said. "We got a little lucky, but we'll take it. We're happy."

Also turning on final-round win lights at No Mercy 12 were polesitter D.J. McCain with a huge comeback from a qualifying crash in his '13 Mustang to prevail in Limited Drag Radial, and number-one starter Rob Goss with his third Duck X race title in X275 with his '09 Hemi Challenger. Ohio racer Dave Fiscus driving a unique Buick V6-powered '93 Mustang also won in Ultra Street and Florida's Brad Schehr finished first with his '89 Mustang in Limited 235.