Benjamin Board, a Kansas native and veteran of the Top Sportsman ranks, campaigns one of more unique combinations in the world of fast bracket racing, and it’s a combination that many would argue is right in line with what the Pro Stock category ought to be. It also just happens to be the quickest centrifugally-supercharged, small-block combination in a full-bodied car in the world, trumped only by a small handful of lightweight dragsters running a very similar engine and power adder setup.

Board, an engineer by trade, utilizes a 406 cubic-inch small-block SB2.2 Chevrolet built by M&M Competition Engines in Indianapolis, built upon on a CN billet block topped with their Revolution cylinder heads that do away with the siamese cylinder design, making all eight pistons the same. A custom M&M intake and a Wilson Manifolds throttle body sit atop the cylinder heads. Board has fronted the powerplant with ProCharger’s potent F-3R-121 belt-driven supercharger, while a Holley EFI system serves as the brains of the fueling and ignition. The coil pack ignition often presents questions from onlookers about the engine being LS-based, but Board confirms it’s aways been an SBC. The dry sump oiling system (pump and tank) are sourced from Peterson Fluid Systems

For eight years, Board campaigned a Chevrolet S-10 pickup truck, going a best of 6.70 at 209 mph, before he was presented with the opportunity to buy the swoopy fifth-generation Camaro that he’s been traversing the heart of the country with over the last three years.

“I’ve been running this combination for 11 years in Top Sportsman, and we’ve been running the SB2.2 with the 121 for about three of those 11 years. When we first started a decade ago, we had mechanical injection and then switched over to the Holley system three years ago. We were having trouble burning cylinders up with the mechanical injection, because we couldn’t get it to correct itself, so we switched over to EFI. The Holley setup helped us resolved all of the issues that we were having both with the mechanical system and other EFI setups that we tried,” Board explained.

In the latter half of 2014, Board purchased the Camaro from Jerry Bickel Race Cars, that was originally built for and raced by Rickie Smith in Pro Modified, and later the Boone family in Outlaw Pro Modified. The engine, the Bruno-Lenco transmission, and the blower were transferred over to the new car, and went a career best 4.14 to the 1/8-mile right out of the box (the S-10 had been in the high-4.20s). Board has since been a best of 4.100 in the 1/8 — just a tick quicker than radial tire racer David Pearson, giving him the centrifugal small-block record — and a 6.425 in the 1/4-mile.

The combination, he shares, has been both ultra-consistent and relatively low on maintenance, owing to the reliability of centrifugal supercharger combinations when paired with an engine built to handle it. In 2015, he ran a single blower belt the entire season, and says it still looks brand new. “We don’t even have to cool it own methanol between rounds. We change the plugs just so we can get a good reading every pass, but other than that and fueling it up and charging the battery, that’s about all of the maintenance we do.”

“We’re hoping for 6.20s this season. We’ve had camshaft issues that have plagued us over the last year, and we unfortunately haven’t been able to change it until now. In essence, it didn’t have enough cam lobe separation, so we had a new cam designed by Comp Cams, but couldn’t get it in there before the season ended, as it required some other changes in the motor that we’re addressing this winter. We want to step it up and keep the record is possible — David Pearson is right on my doorstep, and I know it’s different weights and different tires, but still, we want to step it up and keep that record,” he says.

With the change in camshaft, Board believes he’ll be able to produce more boost into the engine, and perhaps even strap on a larger F-3R-130 or 136. This winter, he’s been working with Kirkman Composites to construct an air dam and inlet like those on the new Pro Stock cars to deliver better airflow to the custom carbon fiber supercharger inlet.

Ultimately, he tells us, the goal is to punch the car into the five-second zone — territory yet-unseen by a small-block blower door car. “Obviously we wouldn’t be able to run Pro Modified, but I’d like to go run some outlaw heads-up races with it. Time will tell,” Board says.

So, does he agree with the thought that a EFI-equipped small-block Chevrolet or an LS engine with a blower is the direction that the NHRA’s factory hot rod class ought to go?

“I definitely think people can relate to this combination more than a seven, eight, nine hundred cubic-inch engine with a bunch of nitrous oxide going through it. I think people are also intrigued by the fact that I’m usually within the top three qualifiers, with often half the cubic inches of the other cars up near the top of the qualifying order,” he says.