Despite plenty of naysayers claiming a street-raced car couldn’t compete in the class racing world, Street Outlaws star Shawn Ellington proved them all wrong, taking his famed “Murder Nova” all the way to the semifinal round of eliminations at the biggest small-tire race in history this weekend, Lights Out 7 in South Georgia.

Ellington, who along with Midwest Street Cars stablemate Justin “Big Chief” Shearer, went all-in to battle their class racing peers on radials, qualified eleventh in a stacked field of 32 drivers in Outlaw 275 with a 4.438 at 177.79 mph. But before beginning his march to the final four, Ellington first had to get out of the first round, and that proved to be an interesting task, as the twin-turbocharged Nova launched into not one, but two photo-worthy power wheelstands on the way to defeating Greg Henschell and his Mustang.

One of the two wheelstands actually cleared the 1/8-mile speed and finish line blocks, causing the loss of some numbers on the time slip, but it garnered a win light, nonetheless. Ellington handled it like a seasoned radial tire pilot, though, pedaling the car softly back to earth on both liftoff attempts, to a winning 4.72 elapsed time at 161 mph.

Video credit: Poco Jang

Ellington later defeated Tyler Moss and Lamar Swindoll Jr. in subsequent rounds, before falling to eventual winner Barry Mitchell, 4.22 to a 4.38. He had earlier gone 4.33 in testing. Despite the loss, though, it’s fair to say a lot of folks were quieted when they saw the Murder Nova going round after round.

Lead video credit: Free Life Films