The Hairston Motorsports team is ready to shake up the Pro Mod world with their brand new 2017 Camaro from RJ Race Cars. This build is a partnership with Elite Motorsports and will showcase the boosted engine packages that Elite has available to any level of racer. Clint Hairston and the Elite team are in full thrash mode trying to get the Camaro ready for a debut at the 2017 Super Street Car Nationals this November.

The previous car that Hairston campaigned was a Jerry Bickel Race Cars Pontiac GTO that began life as a Top Sportsman nitrous car, but was converted to run Hairston’s twin-turbo setup achieving a best ET of 5.75. That car worked well, but the Hairston’s were ready for something new, so RJ Race Cars got the call to create a new Camaro that would fit in with the Elite Motorsports stable of cars.

The previous engine that Hairston used was a five-inch bore space Chevrolet-based bullet that Duttweiler and Elite Motorsports designed. The engine in the Camaro uses a CFE block, heads, and intake manifold that have an updated design. All of the machine work, engine assembly, fuel system and oil system were done in-house at Elite Motorsports.

Providing the boost will be a pair of NHRA legal 88mm Precision turbos that are attached to a custom turbo system from Mickey’s Chassis Works. Behind the engine will be a TH400 and torque converter from M&M Transmission. Shane Tecklenburg will provide some tuning assistance to the team as they control everything with a MoTeC M150 ECU and monitor data via their Racepak unit.

For 2018, Hairston plans on splitting seat time with former NHRA Pro Stock champion and Elite Motorsports driver Erica Enders.

“We know Erica from the Pro Stock side of things at Elite and think highly of her and her driving. I trust her with the car, so she is going to try and run six races, then I will run the other six events,” Hairston says.

The Hairston Motorsports team plans on picking up where they left off with their old car — being at the top of the qualifying sheet on race day.

“Our goals are to be competitive and run out towards the front of NHRA Pro Mod field. We had a car that did it before and this new car should be able to do it as well. We want to get Elite Performance into the forced induction market more with this car, too. That can be through Pro Mod, Drag Radial, and grudge racing where guys are running these big motors with turbos. This car is a showcase to show they do more than just Pro Stock engines at Elite,” Hairston says.

Getting this car ready has been a team effort between Clint, his brother Jake, and father Jim, but they have also had a lot of help from some great people.

“We really have to thank RJ Race Cars for building such an amazing car, Tom Bogner at Lucas Oil, Pertronix, Elite Motorsports, Strange Engineering, and Mickey Tessneer for doing an outstanding job on the turbo system,” Hairston says.

The team plans on shaking the car down and heading to the SSCN event in Las Vegas in November, then running the full NHRA Pro Mod schedule along with any additional events they have time for in 2018.