This past weekend Maryland International Raceway hosted the Import Vs. Domestic World Cup Finals event, and many racers set or eclipsed personal bests during the course of the three-day weekend. Massachusetts racer Andrew DeMarco went one better – he set the 275 radial quarter-mile record for small blocks with a killer 6.83 at over 211 MPH. 

DeMarco has been battling with his combination all year, and had a good measure of success over the weekend. Along with setting the 275-wide record, he can also count that as a personal all-time best in addition to running sixes for the first time ever during the test sessions leading up to the event. But there’s more…

Thursday during the test sessions DeMarco had an issue that caused the supercharger to lock up, and the team didn’t have a spare in the trailer. Graciously, fellow 275 racer Sean Ashe of Team ATF Speed stepped up and overnight-shipped his own supercharger to the track, allowing DeMarco to continue on for the weekend.

The DMC Racing-built 3,200 pound 1986 Mustang GT relies on a Proline Racing Engines-built 400-cube engine with Mason Race Engines-done SC1 cylinder heads.

The car is pumped up by a ProCharger F-3R 121mm supercharger and is tuned for strip passes by Lonnie Houde. Transmission and torque converter are top-secret pieces from the guys at ATI Performance Products.

This is the first small-tire car that Houde has tuned, and it appears that he’s on the right track. Father-and-son crewmembers Tim and Timmy Baptista along with Bob DeMelo, Marc Walsh, Jason Sabo, and Andrew’s twin brother David get the car ready to rock between rounds. George Rumore at Stainless Works has also been instrumental to the program.

“The 6.83 should have been about a 6.76 – there was no CO2 pressure on the shifter solenoid and the transmission went from first straight to third. It was rocking, it would have been a much closer race if we hadn’t skipped second gear. It was actually a soft pass with a 1.23 short time. We’re actually 100 pounds overweight at this point for Outlaw 275,” DeMarco explains. 

Running in the Radial Versus Modified class and racing against cars that were hundreds of pounds lighter than he was, DeMarco qualified in the second spot entering eliminations. He made it to the second round against Mark Carlyle, and the results are in this video – a record-setting pass in the loss.

DeMarco feels confident about his prospects for next season. “We had a rough year to start, but we ended it on a high note. I’m absolutely stoked,” he says.

In this video, not only does DeMarco set the small-block 275 record, but in the opposing lane Mark Carlyle re-sets his own IRS world record (in official competition) with the IPS Motorsports Corvette to a stunning 6.62 elapsed time. 

Thanks to TheRacingVids for the footage!