Eatonton’s own C.G. Knight said he predicted his Oct. 13 win at No Mercy 15 on the eighth mile at South Georgia Motorsports Park near Valdosta.
No Mercy and its springtime Lights Out counterpart routinely draw hundreds of entries each year. Teams arrive from across the nation and Canada, with occasional entries coming from Europe or Australia.
“I told everybody we were coming to win that race,” said Knight, a veteran drag racer who won perhaps the biggest race of his career when he prevailed in the No-Time Truck class. “As long as it stayed together, I knew we had a truck to win it. And I’ve got a good team, too, Richard Disher out of Augusta who tunes for me, Jason Mote, Kyle Cumpton, and Doug Colbert, my main man, my riding partner.”
In No-Time drag racing, the timing scoreboards are turned off to hide actual performance numbers, but Knight confirmed he had covered the SGMP eighth mile in less than four seconds at more than 190 mph during a pre-race test session. However, with no times revealed or released, qualifying positions for the 15th annual No Mercy event were determined through a blind draw.
Driving his twin-turbocharged, big-block, 1998 Chevy S-10, an ex-NHRA Pro Stock Truck, Knight beat Floridian Austin Stephens in the opening round of eliminations, benefited from a solo pass in the second round, then took down fan-favorite Bobby Dodrill and his supercharged 4X4 Chevy in round three to reach the semi-finals, where he beat Jimmy Davis.
Upon advancing to the final round, Knight faced off against Hank Williams and his “Jeepers Creepers” S-10.
“I never saw him, so I just stayed in it, and I lifted right before the eighth mile,” Knight recalled. “I think he knocked the tire off when I left, but I knew he was nowhere near me, so I just lifted and rolled on through the traps, and it let loose a ton of smoke.
“I kind of knew it was hurt. It has some good parts, but it’s still just a cast-iron block. It has some Chinese heads that are supposed to be good for about 1,200 horsepower, but we’re doing about 3,200 horsepower right now. I mean, it shouldn’t run what it runs, and on that last pass, it puked. It didn’t like that. But that’s all it had to do, just one more pass.”
Knight, who owns G’s Automotive on Oak Street, said he has a 555-cubic-inch, billet aluminum block in the wings, just waiting to go in for next season’s racing, beginning with Lights Out 16, again at SGMP in February.
“And I’ll be going there to win that one, too,” he said.