Mark Woodruff Makes 1/4 Mile Shakedown Pass, Shows Radial Potential

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In testing this past weekend at the NMCA’s Muscle Car Nationals presented by JE Pistons, Radial Wars heavy-hitter Mark “Woody” Woodruff decided to let his swoopy C6 Corvette stretch it’s legs a bit. Although he clicked the run before the quarter-mile, Woody still managed to plaster a 6.40 on the scoreboard at a coasting 212 miles per hour — well short of the estimated 240 MPH the car should run out the back door. For now, all we can do is speculate on what could have been had Woodruff run it all the way through, but conservatively based on the performances laid down by the same car in its past life, it stands to reason the car would be DEEP in the sixes and possibly within a couple tenths of the five-second zone.

DSC_0287Of course, that’s all pure speculation and may stay that way, as Radial Wars, Outlaw Drag Radial, and Radial vs the World — the major classes built around cars like Woodruff’s — are exclusively eighth-mile classes and will likely always remain so. With 4,000 horsepower on tap from his ProLine Racing Engines 481X powerplant, Woody has already been well into the four-teen range in the eighth, and the Missouri-based team seems to better their best at every race. The closer radial-tired cars get to the 4.00/3.90 threshold, the closer they COULD be to knocking on the five-second door should someone choose to cover the second eighth-of-a-mile under power.

On the run, Woodruff was 1.198 to sixty-feet, 2.963 to the 330, 4.275 at 188.36 to half track, 5.399 to 1,000-feet, and clocked a 6.405 at 212.03 miles per hour at the stripe.

To even be discussing a radial-tired car running into the fives is a testament to the asinine power levels these cars are reaching, as well as the outstanding tuning abilities of the top tuners. At 3,200 pounds, these cars are hardly svelte. Racers such as Woody, Keith Berry, Mark Micke and current radial world record holder DeWayne Mills all run monster-output ProLine combos, relying on the top-end power to offset the relatively soft launches necessary to get a 3,000-plus pound car rolling on a 315 Mickey Thompson drag radial tire.

It remains to be seen if anybody will drive a radial-tired car into the magical sub-6-second zone, as we’re likely years away from that being a reality, but it wouldn’t be surprising at all to one day see a 5.99 or quicker pop up should one of these guys decide to take the full trip down the quarter!

 

About the author

Jeremy Patterson

A former bracket racer, Jeremy, known by many as "Taco," stepped out of the seat in 2005 to focus on his growing family. A few years ago, he returned to the sport, this time as a photographer and a journalist.
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