Dragzine

Paul Major leaves the line on his way to a 6.94 second pass.

If we were to look back nearly one year, some may have said drag radial was dead or that the limitations had been pushed to the limits. We watched on as Alex Vrettos and Dave Hance battled it out to the fastest man on a radial tire and they both went well into the 6.80′s before the Shakedown @ E’town was over last November. One of the players in the class may have been written off as he went for a wild ride and literally destroyed his Corvette drag radial car. But with a renewed outlook in the class, Paul Major has returned with a vengeance.

Paul Major's crew prepares his DMC Racing built Corvette.

Early last week Dave Hance made a statement that he wanted to be the man to beat in drag radial with a 6.78 second run down the Englishtown quarter mile in testing which would set the new record for the class. A statement it was but also an initiative for Paul Major and his team to get busy testing and find out just how dominant their new car and combination could be.  Paul always had the big mph out the back but the short game is where the Corvette was lacking some performance. With a trip to Maryland International Raceway on Friday they gained a few good runs under their belt for tuner Job Spetter to work with and at the same time ran a new career best pass of 6.86 @ 210mph.

It was evident that the new DMC Racing built creation would handle the power and so it be that the stage ws set. Paul and crew rolled into Englishtown for the 2010 edition of the Shakedown @ E’town. A fresh tune was put through the ProEFI setup and Paul went to work easily gaining the number one spot in qualifying with another consistent six second pass.  It was only the third quarter mile pass on the car that proved to be one for the record books as the PCHS Racing Engines power came to life.  Paul left the line in the second qualifier with a 1.205 sixty foot time, 3.086 to the 330 clocks and 4.519 @ 176mph in the eighth mile. It was another 2.224 second trip from the eighth mile to the quarter mile clocks for a new world record in drag radial competition. 6.743 @ 223mph flashed on the board and the crowd went wild as announcer Al Tucci called the action.

As Paul has sat back and analyzed his performance with his crew they feel that there is much more left in the car and are confident that the bar will be raised by years end. So confident in fact that they feel a 6.60 pass is not far off and we may even see 6.50′s before it is all said and done.