Records have taken quite a beating in all corners of the sport over the last week as racers have taken advantage of the cool air in the northern half of the country before their winter hibernation sets in, and one of the more exciting battles has been that for the all-time performance standard in NHRA Stock Eliminator, where the record has traded hands — and makes — on back-to-back weekends.
Last weekend at the Maple Grove Raceway Dutch Classic in Pennsylvania, Don Fezell, the first Stock Eliminator racer in history to record an eight-second pass, rolled to the quickest lap in class history with his supercharged Cobra Jet Ford Mustang with a lap of 8.50 at 158 mph. Fezells’ celebration was short-lived however, as just one week later at the annual Fall Classic at the Lucas Oil Raceway in Indianapolis, relative unknown Clay Arnett, a native Hoosier, trumped Fezell with a record-breaking pass of 8.46 at 160 mph in his AAA/SA COPO Camaro, putting the Chevrolet contingent on top of the Stock Eliminator world.
Arnett, who operates Arnett Racing Transmissions in Hartsville, Indiana along with his father, Thomas, has the 350 cubic inch small block engine package with a 2.9L supercharger under the hood of the 2014 model COPO. Arnett, unfortunately, didn’t make an official attempt at a national record at the Indy event as Fezell had at Maple Grove, meaning the run won’t be listed in the national record books. But it happened, and we can’t wait to see more COPO versus Cobra Jet battles like this one next year.