West coast import and sportsman drag racer Brian Fitzpatrick notched his name into the history books over the weekend when he drove his turbocharged, Toyota 2JZ-powered machine to the first five-second run ever recorded by an import-powered dragster, joining the small handful of doorslammers to accomplish the feat previously.

Fitzpatrick, whose efforts to not only reach but blow the five-second barrier apart were highlighted in a feature here on Dragzine last November, clocked a 5.939-second, 235.43 mph run in the opening round of Top Dragster eliminations at the NHRA Lucas Oil Series Pacific Division event at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. The long-awaited run came compliments of a .992-second short time and a 3.876 at 190.73 mph to half track. For Fitzpatrick, the magical run, which exceeds the NHRA’s imposed elapsed time limit of six-flat, was a hefty breakout of his dial-in and thus led to an early end to his weekend, but the timeslip was the ultimate of consolation prizes for the Lake Havasu, Arizona racer.

Fitzpatrick had world-renowned tuner and friend Shane Tecklenburg on hand to help iron the car out for its hoped-for trip into the fives, and his presence certainly paid dividends; the team parked their Lucas Oil-backed dragster second in the huge 71-car field with a career best 6.036 at 235.06.

Fitzpatrick, after years of annihilating parts and pieces, assembled a new 2JZ bullet with a Mazworx billet block and paired the top-shelf collection of components with a potent 98 mm Garrett Gen II GTX5533R turbo, creating a recipe for enough horsepower to, in all truth, make a 5.93 run merely a stepping stone to its real potential of mid-fives — a point hammered home by Fitzpatrick and Tecklenburg, who have seen what the 2JZ can truly do given enough time and effort. And while they don’t hold the outright 2JZ record, we wouldn’t bet against them obtaining it at some point in the near future.