Who says big-time horsepower requires big-time track prep? It certainly wasn’t Texas racing star James “Birdman” Finney.

Finney, arguably the most feared no prep racer in the country right now and perhaps the nation’s number one street racer, depending on who you ask, recently took to the Thunder Valley Raceway Park in Oklahoma for their Conquer the Concrete event, where he successfully snatched $10,000 for defeating all-comers in the events’ Big Tire class.

What made Conquer the Concrete particularly unique is that Thunder Valley had recently shot-blasted their racing surface to provide a blank slate for the new racing season, thus returning it to a virtually sidewalk-like state of traction (or rather, a lack thereof). And before dragging and massaging the track and returning it to mid-season form, track operators decided to throw a truly legitimate no prep race.

Finney worked his way through four rounds of racing, but as the video shows, it certainly wasn’t easy, as the power from the 622 cubic inch big-block with a pair of 98 mm Precision turbos, even in a de-tuned state, proved more than the bare concrete wanted to handle. After de-tuning the car all weekend long, however, he was finally able to put together a pair of runs all the way to the finish line, and that was bad news for everyone else in the field — especially final round opponent Carl Scott, who made a nice run but was still several car lengths back of the flamed “Birdman” Firebird.

One of the keys to keeping a car with this much power stuck to the track — and which you can see in the video — is a rather large wicker bill on the rear wing, which provides downforce to the rear tires at speed. That, combined with a chassis and weight distribution setup that hangs the hoops off the starting line and plants the slicks to the pavement, along with a little power and throttle pedal management, makes for quite a no prep recipe.

Thanks to 1320Video for the clip!