Hughes Performance Racers Shine At NMCA WEST Finals In Fontana

From the debut of new race cars to the sealing of championships, racers utilizing Hughes Performance transmissions and torque converters had a little bit of it all at the NMCA WEST Street Car Finals at Auto Club Dragway in Fontana, California last weekend.

With a Hughes Performance Pro-VI series billet 10.5-inch torque converter onboard, Walt Brock debuted his new 1969 Chevrolet Camaro in the True 10.5 category, posting a career best lap of 7.41-seconds at 185 mph with his big-inch, nitrous oxide-assisted machine.

Outlaw 8.5 runner Anthony Smith also put together a career kind of weekend, powering his Fox body Mustang, equipped with a Heads Up Radial Tire billet 9.5-inch torque converter and a Pro Series XTH three-speed transmission, to a 5.37 at 140 mph

In the Street Outlaw category, west coast heavy hitter Ryan “Toaster” Jones stole the hardware on a holeshot in the final, taking his familiar Chevy II to victory with a career best 7.16 in the final. Jones’ machine, powered by a 400 cubic inch small block with Brodix 12-degree cylinder heads and boost provided by a 94mm Precision snail, relies on a Hughes Performance Heads Up Radial Tire billet torque converter to transfer the power back to the 275 Drag Radials. In the final, Jones defeated Dragzine’s own Project BlownZ Camaro, which utilized its Hughes Performance Turbo 400 transmission to click off a best run to date of 7.09-seconds during qualifying. In that matchup Jones defeated BlownZ’s quicker-but-losing 7.15.

And in Nostalgia Street Car, reigning series champion Ron DeHoop successfully defended his title in the class, and to top it off, drove well enough to finish fourth in the Open Comp category, as well. DeHoop’s Chevelle is motivated by a 434 cubuc inch small block Chevy mill backed by a Hughes Performance Pro-IV series eight-inch torque converter and Pro Series Powerglide.