FuelTech Customers Dominate Shakedown!
The hallowed grounds of Virginia Motorsports Park were shaken over the weekend with the COMP Cams Shakedown Nationals XVII as FuelTech customers dropped record runs and dominated the winner’s circle. The legacy event is the unofficial kick-off to the fall racing season that is stacked full with sanctioned racing finales and special one-off Outlaw events.
The Shakedown is a unique event as it brings Pro Mod together with Outlaw Radial categories, setting the stage of an action-packed event. Unlike PDRA, the Pro Modified category brings all the power adders together—nitrous, centrifugal superchargers, Roots-blown, Twin-screw ‘charged, and turbo—for a throw down to see who can reign supreme.
The category didn’t disappoint with the top eight qualifiers strung out from 3.612 and 3.649. Ron Muenks pushed the Dave’s Claremore RV backed “Purple Gorilla” to a career best of 3.625, putting him fifth in the field. The team cranked open the nitrous bottles for eliminations and dropped consistent 3.60s from their Reher Morrison powered 1968 Camaro, finding themselves in the winner’s circle. Muenks runs a FuelTech FT600 and relies on the Pro Nitrous functions in the FT Manager software for tuning the nitrous systems.
FuelTech’s Chief Technology Officer, Luis de Leon, is more than an executive at the international engine management company. On the weekend he slides behind the wheel of Brian Shaw’s Radial vs. The World 1969 Camaro and his trip to Virginia was a memorable one. The team dropped into the 3.50 zone with the nitrous-powered Camaro for the first time. They are the second quickest of only 4 nitrous-powered vehicles to do so in door-slammer drag racing, 3 of those sporting FuelTech FT600. By Sunday afternoon he finished runner-up to the category’s record holder and the team is prepared to go even quicker when racing resumes in a few weeks.
Mark Micke and Jason Carter’s 1978 Chevy Malibu is iconic not just because it looks great but because it is fast no matter which category they enter with it. This season they are focused on Pro 275 with its unlimited powerplant under the hood and smallish 275/60R15 radial tires. The Malibu ran an impressive 3.788, officially marking them as the first in the 3.70s during competition.
Ron Green would lower the record to a 3.760 and capture the Pro 275 category win with his ‘screw blown small-block combination. The Micke/Carter juggernaut rely on a FuelTech FT600 engine management and FTSPARK, along with many other FuelTech products, to tune and manage the power in their powerful big-block Chevy combination. Green’s wild supercharged setup uses the FTSPARK, which features 600mj of energy to ignite a large volume of methanol under the duress of big boost.
Young driver Blake Copson continues to shake up the Outlaw 10.5 world with his family’s “Root Beer Rocket,” which is a C6 Corvette that utilizes a twin turbo Pro Line Racing HEMI under the cowl hood and is tuned by Josh Ledford. The team has been on fire all summer long, dominating the Outlaw 10.5 category, and he added a Shakedown win to the family’s trophy case. The weather and track conditions helped the team push deep into the 3.70s.
FuelTech customers commanded attention in X275 as a few traded the record back and forth while a third customer stood on top of the quickest and fastest field in category history.
Manny Buginga ran 4.19 to be the first X275 racer in the 4.teens and one run later Charles Hull pushed it to 4.18 for the top qualified position. The Team Buginga Mustang would ultimately walk away with both ends of the record thanks to a 4.17 at 175 mph effort in eliminations.
As the cars went down one by one during eliminations it was FuelTech customer Rob Goss and his 2010 Dodge SRT Challenger Drag Pak that survived the onslaught of boost and nitrous. Goss ran a career best of 4.20 during his path to the winner’s circle.
At the Ultra Street Class, Louie Filippides / Farks Supercars, took the win and the record for the class.
Record runs and victories are common occurrences for our customers and it is why you’re seeing #FuelTechEverywhere
Photo Coverage presented by Jim Dyas Photography
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