NHRA Pro Stock motorcycle fans will recognize this guy: current (and four-time overall) class Champion Eddie Krawiec, who is here this weekend piloting his fourth-gen Camaro in X275. “The technology that’s in these cars is what intrigues me. I’d love to get to more races, but a lot of these races conflict with my NHRA schedule,” he says. Patrick Barnhill at PTP Racing helped to get this car lined out initially, and since then it’s been all Krawiec behind the laptop. This weekend, he brought in OG racer Eric LaFerriere to assist with the car and look over the tuneup. I asked him about whether he is able to equate anything from the experience on the Harley to racing in a class like this. “The mindset is the biggest thing; knowing how to deal with high-pressure situations.”

Jeff Naiser didn’t have an engine last weekend. In fact, the pistons just showed up last Saturday, and the team just put the engine into the Camaro on Wednesday before heading over here to the track. Three stages of progressive-controlled Nitrous Outlet squeeze are atop the Chuck Nuytten block and Naiser Racing Components heads and manifold induction combo. The car used to run five stages of the juice, but Naiser has had a fair amount of success by using the three bigger stages with the progressive controller.

He might be 2,600 miles away from home, with a car that’s not cooperating, but Vancouver resident Greg Henschell still has a smile on his face. Earlier this week they were testing in Memphis with the boys from Pressurized Solutions and KBX, and made the decision to switch from M1 back to gasoline as the M1 wasn’t playing nice with the car. Over the winter they completely redid a lot of the car including the chassis, a new two-speed Turbo 400 from M&M Transmissions, and FuelTech engine management system.

Jonas Aleshire is on a tear in Pro Mod, carding a 3.732 at only 204 mph to lead the class through two rounds of qualifying. The Chris Duncan Race Cars “house car” turned in a career best, and the team is hoping to carry their stellar performance through into the winner’s circle.

He came in with high hopes, but he’s going out with a burned up piston. NMRA/NMCA racer Bart Tobener went 4.80s in Ultra during the Holley test session earlier this week, but after last night the team discovered a piston that’s eaten up on the corner by the valve relief. He has a spare engine in the works, but the heads are still in transit to the builder.

I had a great talk with Limited Drag Radial racer Justin Martin earlier today, Martin’s 4.111 from last night is a new class record and personal best, but the Oklahoma racer credits all of the people who help him with the achievement. “It’s just me, my wife, and my buddies. I don’t have a payroll or any high-dollar tuners here,” he says. The wide variety of beautiful cars and other racers in the class are what keeps him coming back. “It’s the type of racers and cars in the class: these are cars that guys drove to high school and built them into what they are today. People can relate to these,” he says. The car features a big-block Chevy from Pete Harrell at HED that uses a CN billet block, 18-degree Big Chief heads, a two-speed Turbo 400 transmission from M&M, and a converter from Cameron’s Torque Converter Services. The twin Garrett 88mm turbochargers and AMS2000 boost controller get the car down the track to 190 mph-plus top speeds.

The Haney crew—along with help from Jim Sackuvich’s team were hard at working slamming in a new rack of pistons when I stopped by earlier, after a major boom on-track. “They honed the block and we put in eight new pistons. I couldn’t do this without the help of so many good people,” says the man whose name you know. Haney says the distributor didn’t fire properly and the resulting load-up of fuel and nitrous is what caused the issue. The car also required one new cylinder head to be back in business.

OG NMCA Xtreme Street racers might remember this guy: longtime racer and former class champ Tony Orts. I was so shocked to see his Firebird in the staging lanes that I did a double-take and said to myself “I guess Tony finally sold his car to someone.” Then I walked by, and he was standing there. It’s been eight years since he went down the track in Xtreme Street, and credits the fact that his kid is finally out of college that it’s time to be racing again. Today was his first lick on the car, but he’s currently in the field with a soft 330-hit to make sure all systems were a go. The legendary Pontiac is fitted with a small-block Chevy on squeeze, built by Randy Crowley at Precision Engine Rebuilders in Illinois. “The time away will make this very challenging, but I have confidence we’ll figure it out,” says the seasoned racer.

No matter how many times I see Ron Rhodes’ X275 Camaro, I always stop and try to snap a photograph of it; it’s just that pretty. Rhodes, who hadn’t made a pass int he car since the Lights Out race in Georgia two months ago, double-entered here (in Limited Drag Radial and X275) just to get more passes down the track. His first pass in LDR was a 4.50, and then he cracked off a 4.38 to go number one in X275.

Everyone stepped it up during the X275 second session, especially Jimmy Plimpton, who cruised to a 4.42 in his nitrous-assisted BES 582-powered Fairmont. This car was, is, and always will be just flat-out cool.

Go ahead.. soak it in. Realize that this ’78 Coupe DeVille is running in the MX235 class with a big ol’ 565-cube squeezed big-block Chevy. Then realize that owner Poul Anchersen put this beast into a container and shipped it across the Atlantic from Copenhagen just to run it here in the Outlaw Street Car Reunion. That, ladies and gentlemen, is dedication. Anchersen is solidly in the middle of the field with one round of qualifying left to go.

Nicky Notch turned in a career best tonight in X275; the track came around and his turbocharged small-block Ford responded with a 4.46 at 162 mph. Nicky won the Warrior Outlaw class at Maryland International Raceway last weekend and is looking to continue his streak here in Bowling Green.