Street Outlaw Racer John Urist Makes Switch Back to ProCharger

In each heads-up racing class, a racer looks into the rules to see what combination, if any, has an advantage over another. In every class, no matter if it’s a naturally-aspirated or power adder class, there’s a combo that each racer believes has an advantage over others. It’s up to individual racers to find that combination and exploit it to their advantage.

For John Urist, he’s used every power adder in his racing career at least once. Back in the day, he used nitrous, which earned him the nickname “The Fireball” when he had a nitrous backfire early on in his racing days. After his nitrous days were behind him, he has used both a turbocharger and a supercharger.

Most recently, he used a turbocharger to keep him at the front of the NMRA’s Street Outlaw class, but the sanctioning body recently changed the class to an eighth-mile distance, instead of the quarter-mile that it’s been since the early 2000s. That has brought an influx of a few familiar names and some new names into the category. That means there’s more competition and less room for error, and racers have to be on top of their game to get a win. Even the multi-time champ.

For the NMRA/NMCA Super Bowl of Street Legal Drag Racing, Urist made the switch back to a ProCharger. He feels that was his best move to stave off the influx of eighth-mile specialists aiming to take a crack at NMRA competition. Urist has always been one of those guys willing to cross party lines, if you will, in an attempt to run the most competitive combination in Street Outlaw.

When talking about his combination, Urist tells us, “I can have the turbo back on the car in an hour.” But for now, with his limited testing for eighth-mile competition, the ProCharger seems to be the more favorable choice. However, he’ll be testing both combinations before deciding on which route to solidly take. Of course, his choice, like always, will boil down to how the rules shake out at the end of the season. He has a good relationship with all of his sponsors, and wants to represent all of them in a positive manner. That’s very important to him, as is winning.

This is one story we’ll stay on as the 2015 season comes to an end, and see what happens going into the 2016 NMRA season.