Last season, the Lucas Oil Drag Boat Series, the primary governing body of drag boat racing in the United States, followed the NHRA’s lead to a 1000 foot race course for it’s three heads-up categories in the name of safety in a rather dangerous sport. But already, racers have turned up the wick to achieve performances previously turned in the quarter mile.

At the 20th annual Marble Falls Lakefest over the weekend in the Texas town bearing the same name, Daryl Ehrlich powered the “Problem Child” Top Fuel Hydro to a new national record elapsed time of 3.39 seconds at 261 miles per hour. The nitro-fueled machine, owned and prepared by “Fast” Eddie Knox, eclipsed the previous mark of 3.48 seconds – also set by Ehrlich at the recent inaugural General Tire Diamond Drag Boat Nationals in Wheatland, Mo. – on three occasions over the weekend with laps of 3.39, 3.43, and a 3.42 in the final round against Jarrett Silvey in the Speed Sports entry.

“We broke the record in every run,” Knox told the River Cities Daily Tribune. “There were different variations of it. To be frank, it was unexpected,” he said. “The heat and humidity don’t translate into horsepower.”