This weekend was a hot and long one for the Outlaw 8.5 shootout at Sacramento Raceway... here is the press release:
DJ Reid & team AfroMaro take home
another Outlaw 8.5 Win
Sacramento, CA
(September 17, 2012) Roosevelt once said, “Speak softly and carry a big
stick; you will go far”. However, as the likes of DJ Reid, Eric Gustafson,
George Raygoza and Tim Rigby motored in Sacramento Raceway this weekend, “stomp
loudly and carry little shoes” proved to be more appropriate. As the dust eventually
settled, it was a mixture of Chevrolet, Procharger and Hoosier that would
propel Outlaw 8.5 veterans DJ Reid & Eric Kvilhaug to the winner’s circle
for the $5,000 purse.
Outlaw 8.5, a class that requires participants to use
nothing larger than a 26x8.5 slick, was the talk of the grounds as event
spectators didn’t know what to think of these cars and their drivers, stated by
the announcer’s booth to be “… madmen sitting on tires about 7 inches too short
and 8 inches too narrow”. That chatter
soon turned to bewilderment as DJ Reid and crew set low E.T. in the first round
with a 5.28 E.T. at over 148 MPH! As the day progressed, they would continue to
power through Mike Orban of Santa Maria, and Anthony Valentino of Southern
California, to eventually meet the #1 qualifier from Orland, CA, George Raygoza,
in his 1971 big block, nitrous-powered Chevrolet Nova. In the end, nitrous proved
to be inadequate as Reid motored to the top the field by one full tenth to
Raygoza’s 5.28 with a 5.18 @ 151 MPH.
This would make Reid the fastest man to ever to bolt on the 26x8.5 tire in
competition. The final round pitted two classic Chevy’s against each other.
Corvette vs. Camaro. SBC vs. SBC. Nitrous vs. supercharger. Tim Rigby of
Tehachapi CA, in his 1963 Corvette, stepped up his tune-up for the final in an
attempt to match DJ Reid’s previous 5.18 round win. When the smoke cleared, Reid
and Kvilhaug repeated their prior performance with a 5.19 @ 148 while Tim’s
chances slipped away when he spun shortly after launch.
After a long weekend of racing, Reid took home the bonus
cash for low E.T. under the 5.20 mark from Schmidl Performance and the big
payday for the event win. With a quick change in rear rubber to the 275 radial,
the team plans to be at it again in two weeks when they take on all comers on
leaf springs and 275 radials at South Georgia Motorsports Park in Valdosta,
Atlanta for No Mercy III.
###
If
you would like more information about this topic, or to schedule and interview,
please contact DJ Reid at 408-393-7612 or e-mail at dj@afromaro.com
So after some feedback about the less than stellar appearance of the car, we decided to whip up a quick paint job that while not elaborate, should take a bit of heat off on the appearance.
Thanks to Mikey and his dad for their quick and professional know how!
Wow... I really don't know what to say other than, our 3rd outing on radials, and this was the result of our 13th run down the track on the radial in WCHRA's X275 final.
Next stop... Valdosta for some leaf spring 275 action. "Contact Us" if you'd like to help.
For those of you that have not seen it, we started a new page to keep track of Outlaw 8.5 racers and times across the country. At the moment, we're carrying the flag for Mickey Thompson and are hoping to bump them further up the page in our next 8.5 outing. Wish us luck!
It's been a while since the last update. April was a crazy month but since then, the West Coast racing scene has been a bit quiet for the hot months and with Fontana closing some associations had to make quick changes or cancel races altogether.
What have we been up to?
Making changes like:
Trying a few converters with the help of Hughes.
Changing the water setup with the help of Dad's.
Modifying the shocks with some much needed insight from AFCO Racing.
Bullhorns (yeh I know...)
Testing on a larger 28x10.5S tire.
Trying out the new Mickey Thompson 275 radial for WCHRA racing
This weekend was the inaugural event at Nevada's Las Vegas Motor Speedway for the PSCA 2012 racing season. This year, the PSCA decided to add Outlaw 8.5 to their class lineup and we just had to make a showing. Much like SCSN, we started the weekend a little bumpy with tuning issues. In the end, we came out of quals with a 5.69, 5.68 and a terrifying 5.57 where the tires lost it at 130.
The SCSN similarities stopped there...
After spending the entire night trying to figure out why the car kept dying off the line, we made one very, very small... change and blasted off to a nationalrecord breaking 5.22 at a nationalspeed record shattering 141.75 in the first round of elims. We were hoping for a high 5.30 and were completely blown away at the low 20. The next pass we backed down the dials a bit but not so much as to risk not backing the records up. From there it was just about staying focused and not giving anything away. That Procharged Camaro drove its little heart out through the finals topping both Washington's and Brandt to take home the trophy.
This race was a fun and big step in the learning curve but we have a lot more to do. We know Manny F. has been almost as fast with a N20 SBF, Mike O. has some mystery magic propelling him into the 20's with that N20 BBC and Rob M. will be going crazy with his new turbo inspired combo.
With PSCA, WCHRA and NMCA, 2012 is shaping up to be a great year of Outlaw 8.5 racing on the West Coast.
