Taking their record-breaking Outlaw 10.5 Corvette and making the change to Pro 275 competition is an interesting game plan for Blake and Joe Copson. The father and son team, along with tuner Josh Ledford, set the world on fire during the Outlaw 10.5 competition at Cecil County Dragway last fall with a jaw-dropping 3.778 pass.

With the current quarantine craziness in the world, the Copsons are unsure of what will happen with the Outlaw10.5 events planned within their Northeast region. With that in mind, they are switching it up to compete in the Pro 275 class and heading to Orlando Speed World Dragway for the DuckX Productions COVID-8 invitation-only event.

“I saw the race and thought that Donald Long always has some pretty cool ideas,” explains Blake. “So, let’s go down and give it a shot. We’re just going to slap the different tires on it, do a gear change, and move some weight around.”

Copson notes that the weight rules are a little bit different between the two classes, but aside from that, it is a pretty direct crossover as far as the engine and chassis combination.

“We will continue to run our Proline 521 cubic-inch Hemi,” he says. “We have all M&M Transmission stuff in the Turbo 400 transmission along with a ProTorque converter. Our key chassis set-up consists of a Gary Naughton Race Cars chassis with Menscer Motorsports shocks and a Mark Williams rear end. We believe these are the parts that make up a pretty fine running race car.”

The Copsons were pleased once they found their “sweet spot” last year during mid-season. The year before that, they were changing turbos and weights around on a regular basis. Now they want to get somewhere and race with their newfound confidence.

“I think like so many racers, this will be our first time out this year,” Copson says. “Our last outing was in October when we set the 10.5 world record and won at Cecil County.  The car has been parked since, so we’re just dying to get out.” He continues, “We’re looking forward to going down South. I actually debuted the car a few years ago at a Lights Out event, but I’ve never had another chance to get back down to one of Duck’s events. We’re really excited to get back there.”

There are 12-teams invited for the eight qualified spots in Radial vs. The World and Pro 275 eliminator. The battle to get in the program will make for an incredible show with seven qualifying sessions to establish each field.

The online Broadcast begins with qualifying on Friday, May 22 and eliminations will follow on May 23. If you aren’t already a subscriber, click HERE to get signed up to watch all the action later this month on SpeedVideo. This broadcast is brought to you by presenting sponsor FuelTech.