Paint v2!

We've gone glossy ;)

WCHRA Season Finals & Shootout

Well, this one got away from us but I was happy with the performance of the car. We ended up taking the race but losing the shootout... You can see some brief coverage from Dragzine here.

Some press with Vortech as we took #1 qual in Pomona!

You can see the full story on Vortech's site here.

Here are some photos and videos from the race.

Wanna see what a 1.17 60' looks like on radials and leaf springs?

4.79 laying over... this thing is turning out to be a monster!

No Mercy 3 was AWESOME!

What a weekend!

We came 2500 miles out from California this weekend to run the baddest of the bad in SGMP and let me say there were no shorts at this race.

If you stayed at home, you punked nobody but yourself!

We had a tiring hardcore weekend with many highs and lows. We rolled in Thursday night to find water in the chambers and [later] realized we broke #'s 1&2 in an 8.5 the previous week. After a hundred hits on this thing, we knew it was tired but figured we could get No Mercy, PSCA and SCSN in before tearing it down... we were wrong. After several hits on Thursday and a new personal best (4.83@151) on Friday, we torched both heads and had to beg borrow and steal for help.

Brian Harrell form QuickTime Motorsports dropped his drink and his business at the track to fire up the tig in his trailer and weld BOTH heads up on the spot.

With the help of Robert at VP (rrodgers036), we were then able to get Jack at Green Flag Motorsports to open up his shop on a Saturday at 8AM to mill them down.

From there it was a matter of not sleeping, tons of brake clean and lots of questions as spectators looked at our clapped out camaro with just a shortblock in it while we frantically tried to fix it.

This was our second race on the 275 Radial (we normally run 26x8.5's) and we were able to gather several personal bests! A 4.79 @ 151 with a 1.17 60' was good enough to bump our previous best of 5.88 @ 152 all on leaf springs. Part of me is happy we were able to top our previous best of 1.23 in the 60' while the rest was pissed that the head gasket (1) let go at the 1-2 shift on the 4.79, running a pass with a 0.050 faster 60' and 0.10 faster 330' to simply slow down to a pass that was our fastest but short of what could have been and (2) completely letting go in the 2nd round of elims to end our weekend.

Not bad for a old circle track motor with a blower on it...

When we talked about coming to Georgia a month ago, I thought, "we just can't run with those boys, they are BAD DUDES", but now seeing that we have enough and then some to run at the front of the pack, I have to thank -

• Donald Long for putting on, bar none, one of the baddest races at the baddest track I have ever been to in my life.
• Tim Rigby for gathering up us West Coasters and getting us out there.
• My wife, for not divorcing me just yet (but I think she's almost there).
• Brian (Vader) for the phone a friend connection.
• Tucci for the the jokes and helping me understand that I have to do something to quiet this car down.
• John Paul who showed up out of nowhere and stayed with us until the heads where back on the car and it was running.
• The racers at SGMP who were constantly checking in on us to make sure we had what we needed.
• Darren for the advice and random fix it fast items.
• The Connelly and Mitchell crew... Kevin Neal, Pooch and all those folks trying to find what we needed (you guys flat out rock).
• John Sears, for a guy that always gets the rules wrong... at least you made sure the hood showed up where it needed to.
• All the Yellowbullet crew for giving us support and really pushing us to move on when it would have been easier to pack it up (sorry we couldn't make a bad ass final for you folks).
• Last but not least, my crew chief Eric. He pulled the trailer and car out here in his rig. If it broke, he said let's fix it (and a lot of stuff broke). He makes everything happen and has no problem arguing with me to do it.

It was a lot of time, money and effort spent... a real emotional roller coaster but I can honestly say, I'd do it all again even if I knew the motor wouldn't hang in there.

After a long weekend, I'm not sure I could ask Eric to tow out here again and I'm sure he'd punch me in the face if I did but I will do this again.

We will be back.

California will be taking home a stetson and the prize money. I will find the transportation, the money, the whatever, I will find a way and this time I will make sure the West Coast is represented to the fullest in the most proper way.

Georgia Bound! (Duck XXX - No Mercy 3 - SGMP)

This is a big week for team AfroMaro as we prepare to take on the best and baddest in the country at No Mercy 3 in Valdosta Georgia.


Big thanks to Eric Kvilhaug for driving, Tim Rigby for getting us all together and Donald Long for hold such a great event for the small tire crowd.

152 maks us the fastest 8.5 car on the planet (and working that E.T. down to be the quickest too).

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.

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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