Last August, the NHRA’s Kurt Johnson (no, not that Kurt Johnson) was named the new director of racing operations at what is now known as the Lucas Oil Raceway Park, formerly known as O’Reilly Raceway Park at Indianapolis and originally known as Indianapolis Raceway Park. Talk about an identity crisis.

Late last fall and over the course of the off season, Johnson and his team at Lucas Oil Raceway formed a new commitment to conducting exciting heads-up races at drag racing’s most historic facility, and thus, the Friday Nite Rage Series was born. This once a month display of horsepower will showcase Outlaw Pro Mods, Limited Street, True Street, Motorcycle, and 9.0 and 10.0 index categories.

But perhaps the one class that captured our attention most is the Ultimate 10.5 category. This may sound like just another Outlaw 10.5 doorslammer affair, but that’s where you’d be wrong. This class is in fact aimed at dragsters and altereds outfitted with the very same 33×10.5W tires that propel the likes of Billy Glidden, Tim Lynch, and Dan Millen down the two lane blacktop. Ultimate 10.5 allows for the use of any engine combination with base weights for naturally aspirated, supercharged, and turbocharged big and small block combos, with nitromethane, polypropylene and hydrazine the only the only prohibited fuels. With these regulations in mind, there’s little doubt that one could run well into the three’s on the eighth mile with enough grunt between the framerails, given that screw blown doorslammers on the same tire have gone 3.70’s.

Just how many Midwest area racers are willing to ditch their trusty 16″ slicks and bolt on the smaller tire that to our knowledge is unproven and untested on a high horsepower pipe rack remains to be seen, but if this concept takes off it could prove to be rather interesting.

The first of Lucas Oil Raceway’s Friday Nite Rage event takes place on May 13th. For more information on the series, head on over to lucasoilraceway.com.