Top Dragster has established itself as the home of the quickest bracket racing in sport, and if you want to survive in this tough class you’d better pack some horsepower. Second-generation racer Jimmy Sackuvich has fared well with both nitrous and boosted combinations but is taking things to a whole different level with his new engine. Sackuvich is debuting his new ProLine Racing [1] 481X motor in his dragster at the PDRA [2] race this weekend in Indianapolis and plans on making a splash in this first outing with it.
Sackuvich got his start drag racing in the cockpit of a Jr. Dragster, where he won several races and eventually claimed an NHRA Division 5 title in the class. His need for speed grew and soon he was making laps at Frank Hawley’s Drag Racing school on his way to earning a Super Comp license. All of that led to Sackuvich making his current racing home in Top Dragster, where he’s in the hunt for the 2017 PDRA title in the class.
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Originally, Sackuvich started in Top Dragster with a nitrous-based combination before he added 12 inches to his Mullins Race Cars ride to accommodate a ProCharger [5] and Chris Alston’s Chassisworks [6] gear drive setup. That combination has worked well for Sackuvich, but to make himself more competitive he decided to change his engine program to the 481X from ProLine. “They’re the people to beat with boosted combinations and we’ve already worked with them for the past year on the FuelTech [7] fuel injection, so it made sense to switch to one of their engines.”
Starting this weekend at the Mid-American Indy Showdown, Sackuvich will be using a 481X that has an Alan Johnson Performance Engineering [8] short block with custom zoomie headers, dual Billet Atomizer [9] injectors, and a ProLine intake. Providing the boost will be an F3-136 ProCharger and putting the power down will be an Abruzzi [10] Powerglide and converter.
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For Sackuvich, the advantages of switching to Proline’s 481X made this an easy choice to keep him running at the front of the Top Dragster class. “A huge advantage of this motor is being able to run a lot more boost without having to worry about hurting the engine. With big-block Chevy-based engines, there’s not a lot of places for the head to grab onto the block. With the 481X the head studs clearly go down into the block further, so it’s going to take a lot more force to damage a head gasket.”
The goal for Sackuvich this season is to win the PDRA Top Dragster championship and then make his way into the NHRA where he can compete for a divisional and eventually a national championship. He understands this isn’t an easy task and knows it takes some help to get there. “I want to thank my mom and dad, ProLine, FuelTech, my crew for everything. Hopefully, we will have a great debut with the car this weekend and a great end of the year on our way to a title.”