Several Drag and Drive Rides Find Win Lights, and Winner Circle Appearances, at the 10th Annual ModNationals at South Georgia Motorsports Park!
It’s becoming more common to see drag and drive rides at several prominent events, especially as the drag and drive event calendar winds down for the year. One of those for the last decade is the ModNationals, held in 2026 at South Georgia Motorsports Park.
A Ford-based event held in the fall, the ModNationals draws a solid contingent of street and race rides, looking to take advantage of great track prep and cool temps. And from the results sheet, we saw a handful of familiar names making it to the late rounds in eliminations.
One of the bigger classes at ModNationals is Stick Shift, and following qualifying, the class was split into three sub-classes.
The Stick Shift Elite class finals featured the top two qualifiers, recent Motion Raceworks Sick Summer winner Bryan Crane, and Marcus Davis in his first final between the wheel of the former Jeremy Howell Fox Mustang.
The final round was over by the 60 foot mark, as Crane spun the tires, while Davis blasted to a 7.32 at 194 mph run to claim the win. This marks Davis' second major Stick Shift win of the year, as he captured the Street Car Braggin Rights Pro class win in his previous Mustang back in April.
“We thrashed on this car until 2 a.m. every day for about a week just to get it to the event,” said Davis. “After only three test passes at Steele on Thursday, we raced it that same weekend and ran PB after PB with (fellow drag and drive vet) Damon Elff on the laptop. Super thankful for our team and the whole crew who helped make it happen.”
The Stick Shift Street class had former Sick Week participant Jeff Smith and his comp orange Mustang Cobra scooping up the win, clocking a 9.10 in the final round to get the win in 'The Pumpkin' over Travis Townsend.
“It's been a minute since we parked her in the winner’s circle,” said Smith, who had been on the sidelines for a bit while a fresh engine combination was getting assembled. “First passes in six months, driver was rusty, but we qualified in the top 5 of the street stick class.”
A few drivers collected more than one check from the ModNationals, and one of the double-up winners was the 8-second ride of Kyle Cox.
The former Sick Week participant and NMRA (National Mustang Racers Association) winner started his competition efforts by claiming the win in the True Street class for the best 8-second average on Saturday.
Cox returned for Sunday eliminations in the DCT (Dual Clutch Transmission) Pro class, where his 2021 Mustang Shelby GT 500 came out the winner over Geoffe Maze. “Next step is to get the car a little faster for Sick Week, so we can try to win our class this year,” said Cox, where he will battle in the Sick Street Race class.
In the N/T 5.30 Index class, which allows all makes and models, it would be an all-Florida and Sick Week participant final round, when Sick Week regulars Houston McClain and Mark Mannor met up.
Mannor stopped at ModNationals for some test time in route to this week's Southeast Street N Yeet event, and didn't figure he'd make much noise, but made his first final appearance against McClain, who was staging in his second final at SGMP this year.
As the Christmas Tree fired green on both sides, McClain moved off the starting line first, and he turned on the final win light of the night, staging up a big winner's circle shot with his wife Kate and crew.
“Damn good racing, and an even more badass final with our drag and drive buddy Mark Mannor,” said McClain. “Only thing better than winning, is winning with all your friends and race family. Cannot put a price on that.”
Written by Derek Putnam. Photos courtesy of Sick the Magazine, Marcus Davis, Bryan Crane, Jeff Smith and Kyle Cox.
If you have thoughts / feedback / ideas, please e-mail us at derek@sickthemagazine.com