To the delight of devoted fans who watched him compete in NMCA, NMRA, NHRA and other series in his Mustangs and Harry Hruska’s Camaro, Don Walsh Jr. decided to purchase a record-setting Corvette C7 from Jose Gonzalez last year and return to racing.
With NMCA VP Racing Fuels Xtreme Pro Mod and other series in mind, he had the Jerry Bickel Race Cars-built chassis delivered to his shop, Walsh Motorsports in Wixom, Michigan, where it was given the Walsh Motorsports-assembled, Brad Anderson Enterprises-designed, 521-inch Hemi previously in Hruska’s Camaro.
Walsh, who’s working with ProLine on this project, fronted the engine with Precision turbos, and chose an Aeromotive system to feed the combination fuel and an M&M Transmission-built Turbo 400 to help put all of the power down.
Since then, he has had the car at the track for three test sessions, with the most recent being in January in Florida.
“We struggled with some oil pump issues early on that set us back a bit, but we have since figured that out,” said Walsh, a multi-time NMRA Pro 5.0 champion. “Since we got past that and some other new car blues, we have been really happy with the progress we have made.”
After the successful test sessions, Walsh decided to stay in Florida to take part in the U.S. Street Nationals in late January at Bradenton Motorsports Park.
“We ended up qualifying number eight with a 3.78 at 206 mph,” said Walsh. “We ran a 3.76 and a 3.77 the first two rounds, but our 3.77 wasn’t enough for Tommy D’Aprile’s 3.69. Leaving Bradenton, I could not have been happier with the progress we made in such a short period of time.”
Armed with a lot of additional — and very valuable — information, Walsh will introduce his high-horsepower hot rod to NMCA VP Racing Fuels Xtreme Pro Mod at the highly-anticipated 16th Annual NMCA Muscle Car Mayhem, March 8-11, 2018 at Bradenton Motorsports Park in Florida. It’s the first event on the series’ six-event 2018 schedule, which, in addition to Florida, will bring cutthroat competition to Georgia, Kentucky, Illinois, Ohio and Indiana.
“We are looking forward to getting back down to Bradenton for the first NMCA race of the year,” said Walsh. “It looks like the Xtreme Pro Mod class is shaping up to be one hell of a competitive class this season, and there are rumors of some big hitters coming to play.”
Walsh, who is seeking additional sponsorship so that he can commit to a full race season, will have his hands full in the class where current records are the 3.729 set by Adam Flamholc and the 216.06 mph set by Steve Summers last year, but as he and his crew have proven time and time again, they’re up to the task.
“As always, I’m thankful for my family, my team and all the people who support this program,” said Walsh. “I would like to thank Precision Turbo, HPL Oil, Brisk Spark Plugs, ProLine, Kool Solutions, Jerry Bickel, VP Fuels, FuelTech, IFL Group, D&D Performance, Quality Powdercoat, M&M Transmission and Skinny Kid Race Cars.”
Catch Walsh and all of the other NMCA competitors in action on a live feed offered by SpeedVideo.com via presenting sponsor ProCharger, along with E3 Spark Plugs, Comp Cams, Moser Engineering, Flying A Motorsports, Speedway Motors, Champion Cooling, and Late Model Engines.
(Photos courtesy of Don Walsh Jr.)
