Dragzine

Francis heats the hides on his 2000 Firebird

What does it take to run with the fastest Outlaw Drag Radial cars in the world? That may be one of the most sought after answers in the racing world for fans and fellow racers. There is such an abundance of combinations and more and more technology being brought forth in the turbocharger and supercharger markets it is hard to imagine running anything else. But if you were a race statistician you would be able to look back at racers like Richie Stine and realize that they have won more racers than many others combined with nitrous technology that may seem to be out dated. Well it is that same drive and power adder that is pushing Francis Johnson closer to the head of the pack in Outlaw Drag Radial.

Check out this thread on YellowBullet for more details.

The office is all business inside the Firebird

Francis campaigns a 2000 Pontiac Firebird around the northeast but is no stranger to making the trek down south to take his shot at the big money. Johnson and his crew have been slowly working on becoming faster on just about every pass down the track. Relying on their Samakow Racing Engines has lead them to work on the consistency of their race car. With tracks such as Maryland International Raceway where the prep is phenomenal at all times, they can get after it but it is when they are on a marginal track they have problems. Thus the reason for more testing this past week and from the looks of things they are surely on the right track.

In the most recent session of testing Francis wheeled his Firebird to a new best elapsed time of 4.69 @ 154mph. Francis chimed in on a thread on YellowBullet and confirmed the details. His incrementals were 1.17 seconds to the sixty and 3.09 seconds at the 330 clocks. Judging from his personal best on the short times of 1.13 seconds there may be a good bit left in the tune which may really hurt some feelings at the ORTC race in October. Could it be possible that there is something to be had for Mr. Wolfe? I guess only time will tell.