The world of small tire and street legal drag racing has been a natural progression — or rather, regression — over the years, as racers have moved from the large DOT tires on the early “Pro Street” cars to the 33-inch 10.5W’s, to True 10.5’s and 315 Drag Radials, and onward to even smaller 275 Drag Radials. These days, one of the hottest new classes in drag racing is Outlaw 8.5, which as you probably guessed, revolves around the use of an 8.5-inch wide, slick tire on some pretty powerful doorslammers. Already, the class has exploded on both coasts, and despite the tiny little tire, a handful of racers have already cracked into the four second zone in the 1/8-mile. One of those racers, west coast runner Jason Ayers, joined the four second club this spring at the NMCA WEST season opener out in Bakersfield, and he did it with help from the folks at Hughes Performance.

Ayers, who hails from Las Vegas, joined an elite group of racers that have cracked into the fours in Outlaw 8.5 at the NMCA WEST event held in April at the famed Auto Club Famoso Raceway by driving his rather unique LSX-powered, turbocharged Ford Mustang to a 4.990 elapsed time at 150.06 mph, following a quick 1.308 sixty foot. At the time, the run made Ayers one of just three Outlaw 8.5 cars in the country to do the deed on the miniscule 26 x 8.5-inch tire.

To help accomplish these stout numbers, Ayers relies on Hughes Performance’s GM101 torque converter and a Hughes Pro Series Powerglide transmission behind the LSX powerplant. Ayers is a regular competitor on the west coast, the home of Hughes Performance (located in Phoenix, Arizona) with the NMCA WEST and the PSCA.

For more customers news and product info, visit Hughes Performance at their home on the web.