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The Thunder Valley Raceway Park near Oklahoma City plays host once again to the grandaddy of all No Prep races this weekend, as nearly 200 of the baddest Big Tire, Small Tire, and True Street racers from around the street and grudge racing worlds collide in one place, with bragging right and cold hard cash on the line! We’ll have coverage and tons of great photos coming to you throughout the weekend right here on Dragzine, all made possible by the folks at Fuel Air Spark Technology!
Jeff Lutz is on site with his Mad Max Camaro do do some no prep racing. He has been featured on the Street Outlaws show and just wrapped up filming season eight with the car on the show with season nine to start in a few weeks. The car has been 5.70’s in the quarter mile and has performed very well on a no prep surface. He has raced Drag Week and won Drag Weekend last year in California. We asked him about the competition here this weekend and he listed Birdman as one of the top cars to beat.
Shawn Ellington brought the Pro Like Racing powered Murder Nova out to play here at Thunder Valley Raceway Park this weekend for the biggest No Prep event in the country. Shawn says “Let the chips fall where they may” in regards to grudge races this weekend after he broke the rear end last weekend. He has a new set up under it now so will start off looking for an A to B pass in Big Tire Outlaw class.
Larry Larsen is here with his little S 10 turbocharged monster which was the first street legal car in the 5’s a couple of years ago in Vegas. We didn’t get a chance to speak with him yet but the other racers will be on the hunt to take him out early once we get into racing.
Doc is here with his Street Beast 70 Monte Carlo and the car is looking great after a total rebuild by Bob Mendel out of Tennessee upgrading to a double frame rail chassis and dropping near 700 pounds from the car which still retains it’s steel roof, quarters and trunk. He is running the same engine from Morgan and Sons Racing Engines and Monte Smith nitrous though now managed by Haltech engine management. “I feel invigorated the way the car is performing now, it’s absolutely a dream.” Doc.
This Chevy II Wagon goes by the name of Swamp Thing thanks to the folks at Hot Rod magazine who did a story on the car last year. We spoke with Chris Taggart, the PR man and brother or the driver Ryan Taggart. The car was built at their shop Tags Hot Rod Shop in Brandon, Mississippi and uses a Reher Morrison 632 topped off with Nitrous Express components for power. The team made it’s no prep debut here last year after showing it for a while including a Super Chevy Show that led to the Hot Rod article. Kills for the team include Mike Murillo just recently in Alabama and Birdman earlier this year. Keep an eye on these guys for sure this weekend.
We were able to catch up with James Finney aka Birdman this afternoon with his new car that debuted back in January. The Firebird was built in 1999 by Jerry Hass and campaigned in Top Sportsman before being purchased by Finney. He was a long time nitrous racer before swapping to turbo combo about 4 years ago. Long time friend Chad Rogers handles the tuning and tuned fro Todd Moyer for a number of years. He won his last race at Hattiesburg against The Godfather which is part of a four race series put on by Mike Murillo.
The first class to get underway is True Street which had a drivers meeting about 2:30. The class has a good turnout with a wide variety of cars and power adders.
Leah Ochs is here with her Fairmont wagon running out of Ochs Performance and a member of the “Fairmont Mafia” with several cars in True Street this weekend. Ochs has been in business for 20 years in Plano, Texas. Leah's family has raced for years which is how she got the bug. Her brother drives the Black Betty Fairmont. It's all about good times for this crew, winning just makes it better.
We had a little down time at the end of True Street after an incident with the wall and a Mustang. The driver was ok and out of the car quickly. The crew didn’t take to long to get the track ready for the Big Tire cars.
A very nice wheels up launch for this long roof Malibu. The track is coming around after some rubber is getting put down on the scraped surface.
Ryan Martin drug his Radial vs the World Camaro out for some no prep action this weekend. A bit of a surprise seeing the team here and not on the super sticky radial prep surface he normally races on. We will have a chat with Ryan and crew later.
Kayla Morton drives this Procharged big block Mustang. She has been making a name for herself recently on the no prep circuit and going rounds. She earned the win over the White Rhino long bed dually.
We aren't sure who drives this unique old school rod but it sure is cool. It's powered by a supercharged big block Chevy topped off with a fogger nitrous system. He ran well but took a loss to Jerry Bird in this match.
Here is a car we have not seen for a few years down in Orlando at the World Street Nationals. Larry Baker owns this mostly steel Impala based out of The Rod Shop with a pair of Garrett turbos providing boost. He met with the Burnin Money Nova earning a berth in round two with a straight clean pass.
Steve Wiley blasted off a great pass taking the win in the Bird Hunt’R Corvette.
Charlie Davis piloted The Lizzard to a win over the Kracker 1500 Chevy pickup. This car was crashed just a few weeks back with the Texas based team thrashing to make repairs so they could be here this weekend.
Troy Scott has his Opel out for some action this weekend. The popular engine builder has offered $5,000 to anyone who wins using one of his engines tomorrow. He took the win over Jerry Chambers’ Vette but took a loss in round two this evening.
The Grinch and Boosted GT were up in Joliet a coupld of weeks back for an exibition grudge race where he came away with the win after Boosted GT spun the tires at Route 66 Dragway. His day is over after one round in Small Tire taking a loss to a clean nitrous huffing Chevy II.
The Black Bettie Fairmont struggled in his round one match with this AWD import from Mark Machine Shop taking a loss as the left lane puffed out copious amounts of smoke. The track checked clean after the run. We will see if the little import will make it back for round two.
Tony V took the win against the Firebird in a nice match. He will advance to round two in Small Tire.
Old School Chevy Luv pickups are popular here this weekend with three racing in Small Tire and another was entered in True Street. The center truck was knocked out after his clearly out of shape pass. These little short wheelbase trucks can sure be a handful to drive with this kind of power.
Boosted GT won his first round pairing in a decisive manner leaving his opponent sitting at the line.
Farm Truck and Azn are here signing autographs and hanging out. Neither made runs today but we had 128 cars making runs today. 54 in Small Tire, 44 in Race Your Way In Big Tire and 30 in True Street. The Outlaw Street competitors will be coming in on Saturday.
