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The Thunder Valley Raceway Park near Oklahoma City plays host once again to the granddaddy 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!
We stopped by John Andrade's pit to get the latest from The Cutty crew. He is here for the invitational this weekend which is a fan based voting structure choosing 31 cars to compete from across the country with the thirty-second car earning his spot by Racing your Way In on Friday though way ran into a rain delay last night. The car was back halfed but he prefers the small tires and went back to his roots and is sporting a TT5 29. Power comes from a 408 LS from Texas Speed fed by a 94 MM Forced Inductions turbo. He is supported by DJ Safety, Renegade Fuels, American Street Rods, Be Cool Radiators, G Body Parts dot com, Optic Armour Windows and Aeromotive. He is also sporting color from Brit's Army which he credits as a good luck charm and helps to spread awareness for her struggle with Leukemia. John is shown with his wife Misha.
Rob Gibbany drug his White Rhino extended cab 1993 Silverado out for some Big Tire action this weekend but took a loss early in the day Friday to Kayla Morton in a round one call out. He has entered the Outlaw Street class today and may have a match race with Kracker, an 88 short bed Chevy with a blown big Chevy with NX Nitrous. Rob is a Chevelle guy but had the truck and it evolved to what you see here after sporting a lift kit and Mud Terrain tires back when he was in the marines based at Camp Pendleton. The name come from the first paint job he put on it which was basically all orange peel which had folks thinking it was Rhino lined. The name stuck and he embraced it eventually taking it to Mickey's Chassis Works and upgraded to a 555 big Chevy on two NX Foggers. He is based in Moore Oklahoma and uses Thunder Valley as his home track.
Brent Austin drives the Megalodon Camaro based out of Roanoke, Virginia. He has had this car just about a year ago but has raced basically all his life and worked as a fabricator in his own Bad Boy Metal Shop. The Camaro was based out of Texas and he made the deal and brought it home before setting to work updating it from front to back and doing a full back half. Brent does all the work he can himself including the transmissions, tuning and engine assemble with machine work done by Hudson’s machine in Roanoke. “I just want to thank the people back home and the girls at Southern Vape Escape that support the Megalodon and myself.” – Brent Austin
Mike Murillo has his SCT sponsored Mustang here for the invitational today. They were busy prepping the car this morning so we didn’t interrupt the teams efforts prepping the car.
The Racing Shirts.com crew is here this weekend selling mech and talking with folks in the pits. From left to right Sean Cook, Tom Bobolts, Lloyd Hunt and Anthony Watson.
Brent Austin put his Megalodon Procharged Camaro in the rain delayed Big Tire final against Gaylan Smith’s 57 Chevy Texas Bounty Hunter and put up a game fight but came away in the losing end of the match after going to the tape at the finish line to confirm the outcome.. Austin left first but the home built ride just didn’t have enough to stay in front of the full tilt Pro Mod of Smith.
Steve Wiley and Jerry Bird paired up in the final of the Race Your Way in with Bird taking the loss after a foul start after they went to the tape for confirmation.
These are the pairing for round one of the Big Tire Invitational and Small Tire classes
The very first pair down the track in today’s eliminations resulted in a small mishap and a short cleanup. No injuries were reported and the white Mustang returned to the pits under it’s own power with no serious damage.
The Hulk 1967 Chevy belongs to Matthew Frost based out of Colorado and is entered in Outlaw Street today. Outlaw Street is similar to True Street but has no tire or suspension rules. All cars must be street legal, run a DOT tire and complete a thirty mile cruise prior to racing. He regularly races the car in PSCA 10.5 Outlaw using a 632 cubic inch big Chevy force fed by twin 88MM turbos making over 2000 horsepower backed by a two speed 400 transmission rolling on a new pair of MT ET Street tires. He faced off with a street driven Chevy II and came away with the win and will more on to round two. Shown with his wife June.
The “Blue Nightmare” 1926 Ford Sedan belongs to Steve Sicking based out of Dean, Texas. Steve takes the car to local shows, bracket races and sees duty on the street from time to time. The car was purchased about three years ago as a race car but wasn’t fast enough for Steve so he stretched it and added horsepower upgrade from D&L Performance Machine. The team raced several no prep events last year and has been successful with the car and is a crowd favorite. Power comes from a big block Chevy topped with a roots blower and a little nitrous to cool the intake charge.
Crusty Nova came away with the win in a close exciting match with the Beater Bomb who pulled a long wheel stand, staying in it to the stripe in a match that went to the tape o determine the winner.
Tony Foulks was called out by Shawn Ellington in the Murder Nova as the first pair down of five callouts in the Big Tire Invitational class. Ellington may wish he didn’t do that but there has been a lot of talk on his pod cast leading up to this event. Foulks took the win in the Blue Dragon advancing to round two.
Michael Henson with his Plan B Corvette was up next against the Honey Badger in a good match earning the win with a small gap at the stripe.
Chucky lined up his Death Trap twin turbo Mustang with the Bank Note Nova coming away with a decisive win pulling away down track. Chucky will be another tough racer to get around today if he keeps making passes like that.
Brian “Chucky” Davis in the Chris Tuten Racing Camaro was paired up with Steve Wiley in his blown Corvette Pro Mod. Wiley has been running on rails so far and this was no exception as he freight trained his way to the next round in the Grim Reaper.
The Reaper was favored in a match with The Texas Twister and came away with the win with Butch losing an engine past the stripe resulting in a cleanup on the top and a short brake for the racers and starting line staff.
Megalodon paired up with Birdman in a race that had a lot of crowd interest with Birdman coming away with the win in a very tight race.
Kye Kelly is zero for two in two years here against John Doe after their match in round one.
Larry Larson was paired up with Hellenor in round one coming away with a win to advance to round two.
Da Luv truck out of Alabama uses a nitrous small block for power and advanced to round two of Small Tire.
Big Marc and Jesse Jennings are the promoters of the Outlaw Armegeddon here at Thunder Valley as well as being involved in No Prep racing getting it’s start here about nine years ago racing backwards from the top end. The cars have evolved over the years bringing full blown Pro Mods to events, large spectator counts and now live feeds with a global audience. They have been going to various states and tracks across the country since then as this form of racing blew up even more with the popularity of the 405 and Street Outlaws TV show on the Discovery Channel.
The Small Tire final paired up Boost 12 with Flacco after a long day of tight racing. Boost 12 got away first with Flacco kicking the tires putting an end to his night as he watched the turbocharged mustang drive away earning the win the Deans Performance Fast Forward Race Cars Mustang.
The Outlaw Street class was filled with unique cars, and trucks and tons to tights racing this weekend. Steve Sicking waded through the field with his 1926 Ford to meet up with the modern muscle of a LS powered Nissan 240 of Casey Rance who surprised a lof of people day with the performance of his car. Sicking allowed Rance to get away first and he was gone like the wind taking a large lead early and going on the take the class win.
The final four in the Big Tire Invitational were Jerry Bird vs. Steve Wiley and Michael Henson facing off with Gaylen Smith. All the drivers would make good runs and close races but the final played out to having the two Pro Mods meeting for the big money round. Smith was favored after making several clean straight passes today but Wiley nailed the light taking a starting line advantage and running it out the back door earning the win, two big handfuls of money and bragging rights till next year till the next Outlaw Armegeddon.
The Grim Reaper crew loud and proud and already planning their next event with a new car on the way soon to do more damage and bring home the $$$ in no prep racing.
One of the high light Grudge matches of the night after the official class finals was Doc vs Kye Kelly. The crowd was favoring Kelly in the Shocker as he had made more passes on the day but Doc had the Street Beast ready to rumble and was eager for a run. When the light dropped it would be The Shocker that faltered and stumbled at the hit with Doc getting away clean taking the win for a 5K payday.
Another anticipated match was with The Kracker and The Mutt in a redemption race for The Mutt as he took a loss to the black Silverado here last year. They put on a show with side by side burnouts before getting staged. The Mutt was away first launching imminently into a big wheel stand, dragging the bumper and sending the truck crocked into the other lane. Gladly both drivers were on their toes and were able to avoid contacting each other in the hairy situation. Kracker took the win by default as The Mutt crossed the center line.
