Haney Reaches Semis at Sweet 16

TULSA, OK (March 27, 2018) – For veteran drag radial competitor Keith Haney of Broken Arrow, OK, a top-10 start plus a semi-finals finish added up to a successful outing Mar. 22-24, in promoter Donald “Duck” Long’s inaugural Sweet 16 event at South Georgia Motorsports Park (SGMP).

With a then-career-best 3.74 at 200.74 mph, Haney qualified “Enigma,” his

nitrous-boosted 2016 Camaro, 10th of 34 entries in the quickest and fastest Radial vs. the World (RvW) field ever assembled. Six drivers, led by eventual race winner Mark Micke, made unprecedented runs in the 3.60s to pace the field, which was going after a $101,000 winner-take-all prize fund.

“This was a great, great event. I applaud Donald on trying something a little different that turned out to be very cool and special,” Haney said of the event which featured two classes of racing, nine rounds of qualifying, and only 500 spectator ticket sales, though a live online feed shared the action with the masses. “I think the Sweet 16 overall is a great concept. It’s something just for the racers; it’s Donald just giving back to the guys that support his Lights Out and No Mercy events. He did a great job here.”

In the opening round of racing Haney squared off against fellow nitrous racer Jeff Naiser and his ’69 Camaro. After leaving with an impressive .020 reaction time, Haney led stripe-to-stripe with a 3.74-seconds run at 200.56 mph that further lowered his career-best elapsed time by six-thousandths of a second.

Round two saw him go to the line with number-two qualifier Daniel Pharris in a

twin-turbocharged ’15 Corvette, which encountered traction trouble on the SGMP eighth mile while Haney ran another solid 3.78 at 195.96 mph. However, when Haney’s crew saw flames shoot out of both header pipes as he crossed the finish line they feared broken rods or burned pistons might be waiting for them back in the pits.

Prior to the start of eliminations, Long had announced all Sweet 16 semi-finalists and finalists would be allowed "as long as it takes" to make repairs, if necessary. That proclamation paid off for Haney, as it turned out his car suffered no engine damage, but all the bolts holding its flywheel in place had sheared off, requiring a lengthy, painstaking procedure of drilling them out for removal and replacement.

Remarkably, fellow competitors including Naiser, Travis, Mark Woodruff, Kenny Hubbard, Jack Barbee, Rodney Whatley, Taylor Lastor and “Stevie Fast” Jackson, among others, congregated in Haney’s pit, providing parts, labor and expertise to get him ready to take on fellow Oklahoman DeWayne Mills in the semi-finals.

“You know, to have people from at least six different teams over here helping us has to be one of the better moments of the weekend for me,” Haney said. “It was very gratifying to see.”

With repairs finished, Haney rolled Enigma to the SGMP starting line, ready to take on Mills and his twin-turbo “Golden Gorilla” ‘68 Camaro. When the lights came down Mills left with a .041 reaction in the left lane, while Haney turned on the dreaded red bulb, leaving just two-thousandths of a second too soon.

“I knew I had to push it, but I'd rather lose like that than with a .080 light or something," Haney said. "I want to add that I appreciate Duck and especially DeWayne Mills for waiting on us to get the car ready.

“We may not have been the fastest here—but we will get there, make no mistake about that—but we don’t hurt parts and that’s a big deal,” he added. “I mean, there were 34 total cars here, 16 made it into the main event, and I made it down to four, so I’d say that’s a pretty good outcome.”   

The Sweet 16 result continued what’s turned out to be a great start this year for Tulsa-based Keith Haney Racing. Haney opened his 2018 campaign in February with an RvW runner-up finish at Long’s huge Lights Out 9 event at SGMP.

Then the team struck success a week later with another RvW final-round appearance in the season opener for the Frankenstein Engine Dynamics Mid-West Pro Mod Series (MWPMS) at the Texas Motorplex, with “Daddy Dave” Comstock of Street Outlaws TV fame at the controls of Enigma that time. Meanwhile, Haney steered “Notorious,” a second, nearly identical-appearing Camaro, to a quarter-final finish in Pro Mod at the Motorplex, again with career-best performance numbers.

“The great thing is we haven’t changed our program from last year when we won two championships in the Mid-West Pro Mod Series. We have the same

team and to have Brandon Pesz and Brandon Switzer here as my crew chiefs, you just can’t ask to have two better guys on the job. We just work real well together,” Haney stressed. “I want to thank Cody Moore, Dale Hancock, Cale Hancock, Shane Goodnight and Trey Eberle for all their help, too.”

Haney will return to the track this coming weekend (Mar. 30-31), for the Radial Revenge Tour 2018 at Osage Casino Tulsa Raceway Park, which he co-owns with Todd Martin, winner of the MWPMS Pro Mod race early this month in Texas. Following that, both KHR entries will be back in action Apr. 20-22, with the MWPMS as part of the Outlaw Street Car Reunion at Beech Bend Raceway Park in southern Kentucky.      

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ABOUT KEITH HANEY RACING

Based in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Keith Haney Racing (www.keithhaneyracing.com) fields two cars in the Mid-West Pro Mod Series (MWPMS), as well as for select Professional Drag Racers Association (PDRA) races and one-off special events. Keith Haney Racing appreciates the support of sponsors Lucas Oil, Strange Engineering, RacingJunk.com, Reher-Morrison Racing Engines, MoTeC Systems USA, Switzer Dynamics, Brandon Pesz Performance & Tuning, M&M Transmission, Menscer Motorsports, Total Seal, Mickey Thompson, Kryptonite Kustomz, Browell Bellhousing, and Larry Jeffers Race Cars.

Keith Haney Racing Ready for South Georgia Sweet 16 Party

VALDOSTA, GA (March 22, 2018) – A month ago, when Keith Haney visited

South Georgia Motorsports Park for Lights Out 9, he made it all the way to the final round, where he ran a career-best elapsed time and speed, but still finished runner-up in Radial vs. the World (RvW) to Steve Jackson. This weekend (Mar. 22-24), he and his Keith Haney Racing (KHR) team will be back at SGMP, where Haney plans to finish one position better in Donald “Duck” Long’s inaugural Sweet 16 event.

“All those other guys—and especially Stevie—they better watch themselves because KHR and ‘Enigma’ (the name for Haney’s 2016 RvW Camaro) are coming and the difference for us this time will be winning,” Haney stated as he prepared to make the long haul from his home near Tulsa.

“Well, there might be one more difference,” he added, “but people will just

have to tune into the live feed to see what combination we’re showing up with. All I can tell you right now is it’ll be set on kill because there’s a lot at stake with $101,000 going to the winner. That’s the biggest purse ever for drag radial racing and I plan on it heading back to Oklahoma with me.”

Keith Haney Racing has enjoyed a great start to the 2018 campaign, following up its Lights Out success a week later with another RvW final-round appearance in the season opener for the Mid-West Pro Mod Series at the Texas Motorplex, near Dallas. “Daddy Dave” Comstock of Street Outlaws TV fame was at the controls of Enigma that time, while Haney wheeled “Notorious,” a second, nearly identical-appearing Camaro, to a quarter-final finish in Pro Mod, and again with career-best performance numbers.

“My co-crew chiefs, Brandon Switzer and Brandon Pesz, they’re the absolute

best and they’re gonna’ have that car ready for me to hurt some feelings again in Georgia,” Haney promised. “Between them and all the great sponsors we have I feel very confident going into this race.

“This weekend is going to be like a WWE wrestling match where we’re just going to pound on the competition. And whether we’re blown or whether we’re nitrous you’ll just have to wait and see, but one thing you can count on is we’ll have no mercy on anyone once we get there.”

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ABOUT KEITH HANEY RACING

Based in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Keith Haney Racing (www.keithhaneyracing.com) fields two cars in the Mid-West Pro Mod Series (MWPMS), as well as for select Professional Drag Racers Association (PDRA) races and one-off special events. Keith Haney Racing appreciates the support of sponsors Lucas Oil, Strange Engineering, RacingJunk.com, Reher-Morrison Racing Engines, MoTeC Systems USA, Switzer Dynamics, Brandon Pesz Performance & Tuning, M&M Transmission, Menscer Motorsports, Total Seal, Mickey Thompson, Kryptonite Kustomz, Browell Bellhousing, and Larry Jeffers Race Cars.

Keith Haney Racing Encouraged by Strong Start at MWPMS Season Opener

TULSA, OK (March 7, 2018) – After fielding championship-winning entries for both the Pro Mod and Radial vs. the World (RvW) classes in last year’s Frankenstein Engine Dynamics Mid-West Pro Mod Series (MWPMS), Keith Haney Racing went into the organization’s 2018 season opener this past weekend as

the team to beat. With team principal and MWPMS organizer and promoter Keith Haney driving his nitrous-fed 2016 Camaro for the Bruce Lowrie Chevrolet North vs. South Frankenstein Pro Mod Shootout, it was left to Street Outlaws star “Daddy Dave” Comstock to wheel Haney’s nearly identical-appearing RvW entry at the Texas Motorplex, just south of Dallas.

“Since we won the championship last fall we didn’t even test my Pro Mod car, ‘Notorious,’ but we did test in ‘Enigma,’ the radial car at Dallas, because Daddy

Dave needed to make those passes in order to get his NHRA license,” Haney explained. “So I just kind of helped him, walked him through things until he was pretty comfortable in the seat and he ended up doing an amazing job all weekend.”

After qualifying second with a 3.85-seconds pass behind Jeff Naiser’s 3.79 in Radial vs. the World, Comstock wound up racing the top qualifier in the final round, where Naiser took the win home to Houston after making another 3.79 run over the Motorplex eighth mile.

“You know, I finished runner-up with that same car just a couple of weeks

earlier in Georgia,” said Haney, referencing Lights Out 9, the first big radial race of the year. “It’s obviously a great car and Dave got everything he could out of it. He did a great job and my hat’s off to him.”

Meanwhile, after 27 Pro Mod entries made attempts over four rounds of qualifying, Haney sat fourth in the 16-car field for eliminations. Jim Sackuvich and his nitrous-boosted ’69 Camaro took the number-one spot with a solid 3.74-seconds pass, with Todd Martin, who co-owns Osage Casino Tulsa Raceway Park with Haney, placing second with a 3.75 in his supercharged ’68 Mustang. Aaron Wells and Haney ran identical 3.77 elapsed times, but Wells and his blown ’68 Mustang got the nod for third based on going about 1.5 miles per hour faster than Haney.

Despite seeing smoke billowing from his engine’s headers after completing his burnout for round one of racing against Clint Hairston in the Elite Motorsports twin-turboed Camaro, Haney insisted on making the pass and posted a 3.80 at just over 200 mph to advance.

“There was so much smoke coming out the right side of the car that I think I killed all the mosquitoes in the place,” Haney said. “Then I'm sitting there and my guys ask, ‘Well, what do you want to do?’ So I'm on the mic and I said, ‘Send it! I ain't giving a free win to nobody!’ So I staged the car, let go of the button, and that sucker comes up and the smoke goes away and we end up winning the round.”

Back in the KHR pits, crew chief Brandon Pesz immediately consulted via phone and online with tuner Brandon Switzer in North Carolina to diagnose the cause of the smoke and determined it probably was just a sticking oil ring, far from ideal, but not necessarily disastrous. So with Ron Muenks driving Dave Pierce’s ’68 Camaro in the opposite lane, Haney knew he was in for another starting-line challenge.

“I think everybody thought we were going to blow up. I mean, it's doing the exact same thing, got that smoke going after the burnout, but I'm like, what the heck, we know what we doing,” Haney recalled. “So I get up there and I know Muenks is gonna’ be ready, which he was, he goes .017 on the tree—and I go -.018 red and then run my fastest 60 foot, my fastest 330, my fastest ET and my fastest speed ever in the car. I go .958 at 60 foot, 2.517 to the split, and then we go 3.73 with a 5 at almost 202 miles an hour! I didn’t know I had gone red at first, not until the nose came down and I could see the win light already on his scoreboard, but of course I stayed in it. I mean, it felt so good I didn't care if I red lit; I was there to race!”

With his own car on the sidelines, Haney threw his support behind business partner Martin, who beat Craig Sullivan, Costa Jones and Aaron Wells before defeating Sackuvich with a 3.77-seconds pass in the final round.

“Of course I wish we could’ve won, but overall the weekend was absolutely outstanding. We ended up second with Daddy Dave and Enigma in Radial vs. the

World, made it to the quarters and ran our best pass ever in Notorious, my good friend and partner Todd Martin won his first time out with his car in over two years, and we met a lot of great people. So some mixed results, but still very encouraging in the long run,” Haney concluded.

“And we couldn't really lean on it and step on it a whole lot this weekend just due to the fact we’ve got to have both motors ready for the $101,000 Sweet 16 Radial vs. the World race back in Georgia in three weeks. So unfortunately the truck and trailer had to stay in Texas with Brandon (Pesz) because he had to take the block over to Reher-Morrison to put a sleeve in it. So we're already getting to work on it and we'll have it all back together in time to be ready for Sweet 16. You can bet on that.”

After the Sweet 16 event (Mar. 22-24) at South Georgia Motorsports Park, Keith Haney Racing will field “Enigma” at a radials-only event the following weekend at Tulsa Raceway Park, and will have both KHR cars back in action Apr. 20-21, in the MWPMS event at historic Beech Bend Raceway Park in Bowling Green, KY.

  

Photos courtesy MWPMS/Bland Bridenstine

ABOUT KEITH HANEY RACING

Based in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Keith Haney Racing (www.keithhaneyracing.com) fields two cars in the Mid-West Pro Mod Series (MWPMS), as well as for select Professional Drag Racers Association (PDRA) races and one-off special events. Keith Haney Racing appreciates the support of sponsors Lucas Oil, Strange Engineering, RacingJunk.com, Reher-Morrison Racing Engines, MoTeC Systems USA, Switzer Dynamics, Brandon Pesz Performance & Tuning, M&M Transmission, Menscer Motorsports, Total Seal, Mickey Thompson, Kryptonite Kustomz, Browell Bellhousing, and Larry Jeffers Race Cars