Blake Copson of Philadelphia, PA, is planning on jumping right into the world of drag radial racing, piloting his father Joe’s all new twin-turbo ProLine powered C7 Corvette. The Copson’s will be debuting this ride at South Georgia Motorsports Park this February for Donald “Duck” Long’s Lights Out 9 race with 23-year-old Blake driving. This will be Blake’s first time behind the wheel of this insane ride which they plan to campaign in the NMCA’s Radial Wars class, as well as Donald Long’s famed Radial vs the World category.

“This will be my first time behind the wheel of anything with this kind of power. I was a little too young at the time to drive our old car (now the Fireball Camaro on Street Outlaws),” Blake mentioned. Aware of the inevitably steep learning curve ahead, Copson remains unconcerned and excited, stating he will be taking his time to get acquainted with and comfortable in the car. With the help of his crew, including his father, a veteran Outlaw 10.5 racer, Blake should have no trouble adapting to his environment and giving it his all in Georgia. “We’re excited,” says Blake, “Lights Out should be a good time. I’m really looking forward to working with people like Eric Dillard, Jamie Miller, and the guys at ProLine, among many others.”

As usual with any Copson build, no expense was spared and this radial tire car is truly something to behold. Gary Naughton Race Cars of Cecil County, Maryland, built the entire double framerail 25.3 chassis utilizing the factory wheelbase. Santhuff’s struts in the front help with weight transfer, and the rear of the car is set up with a full custom Mark Williams Enterprises 10-inch full floater rearend housing. Menscer Motorsports four-way adjustable shocks, and a Quarter-Max fully adjustable 4-link comprise the rear suspension. Gary had his hands on the fabrication of this ride from beginning to end.

Once the chassis work was complete, they wedged a 521 cubic-inch ProLine Racing Engines Hemi between the framerails and Naughton built the custom headers and plumbing for the twin-turbo setup. In order to fit rules for both classes Blake wants to run, he will be changing out the turbos from a pair of 106mm Garrett turbos for Radial vs The World racing, to a set of 98mm Garrett’s for NMCA’s Radial Wars. Both sets of turbos are supplied by Turbos Direct in Arizona. Fuel Tech’s FT600 is onboard and tuned by Jamie Miller. Behind the PLR Hemi mill is a two-speed M&M Transmission with a ProTorque EV1 lock-up converter.

This one of a kind carbon fiber C7 body is comprised of panels from Skinny Kid Race Cars and remains within factory specs. The nose of the car is also a custom piece designed to look more like factory than the typical stretched version you’d see on a Pro Modified car. For paint and body, the Copson’s shipped the car over to Bucky’s LTD in Martinsburg, West Virginia, where Travis “Tuki” Hess, wrapped up the paint job with some flames to really set the look of this car apart.

The Copson’s will be picking up their newly completed race car from RK Racecraft on their way down to SGMP when wiring is complete. There’s no doubt that if this Corvette goes as fast as it looks the Radial vs The World field at Lights Out 9 will have their hands full.