Image credit: LVMS.com

In an announcement released earlier this off season, the California-based Hairston Motorsports team shared their racing plans for the 2011 season that will see the relocation of their racing operation to Columbus, Ohio in order to compete in the popular and always tough NMCA Pro Street category. Jake Hairston, Clint’s brother and the team’s crew chief, accepted a new position with Jeg’s as Director of Racing in December, and team owner Jim Hairston made the decision to follow his son to the midwest to keep the formative team intact for the new year.

Before packing up and heading East for the NMCA opener in Bradenton in just a few weeks, Hairston Motorsports will first contest the PSCA season opener in Las Vegas this weekend, and they’ll do so with a brand new bullet between the fenders of their GTO as they debut their brand new Dart Little Chief powerplant. The new engine, which has been in development for over a year, was built be renowned turbo guru Kenny Duttweiler and measures a mere 396 cubic inches, once again fed by a twin turbocharged setup corralled under the hood.

“The dyno sessions went very well,” commented Jim Hairston, Team Owner.  “Duttweiler wanted to develop the maximum amount of power from the 396 C.I. engine with the greatest amount of reliability.  After numerous low to mid boost pulls, the power levels were better than expected and the engine looked like new during inspection,” Hairston further commented.

Last season, Clint and company claimed the PSCA Pro Street crown out West while dominating the performance charts with national record marks of 6.08 seconds at 238.30 MPH with their former 377-inch twin turbo combination.