Justin Price pulled into the burnout box with his solid, but worn-looking, 1996 Formula without drawing any attention to himself-at least not until the wail of the Formula's LT1 and T76 turbo drowned out the sound of pretty much everything and he promptly disappeared into a cloud of tire smoke. With so many beautifully finished cars at the shootout, Justin's Bird stood out because it appeared so purposefully modest-at least until the hood came up and revealed a meticulously detailed turbocharged LTX. Justin has built a kick-ass sleeper on a budget and has already squeezed out a 10.80 with stock heads and cam. He was hoping to break into the 9s at the shootout, but had a turbo failure the day before and barely got the car back together. He still managed to run in the 11s with a mismatched combination.
Tony said, "Even after we picked the best suitable classes and rules that would allow the most racers to participate, it still upset some whose cars did not benefit. Unfortunately, a first-time event always has issues, because everyone has built their car around other racing series or local events that the car will fit into. Since this will be an annual event, these racers can now make changes to fit the rules to give them an advantage."
According to Tony, the classes-which paid out a total of $3,500-were broken up as follows:LTX Outlaw was designed to attract the fastest LT1 cars around, but at the same time keep out the tube chassis style race cars. This class had an almost unlimited engine combo, allowing any EFI, larger-tire, and lighter-minimum-weight requirement. Although this class had a low turnout, there were some heavy hitters capable of 8-second passes.
LTX Heads Up Power Adder, which turned out to be very popular, was intended to attract the fastest street/strip cars. These cars are not full-out drag cars. They still have a sense of streetability, but have the power to run with the big dogs. This class has a few restrictions to keep them in line, such as valve angle, single power adders only, tire size, stock-style suspension, and the car must be tagged.
LTX Heads Up N/A had the same intention as the above class, but the cars had to run without a power adder. This class had some of the closest finishes of the event.
LTX Heads Up Six-Speed allowed the gear bangers to duke it out. It had a few more restrictions from the above two classes, such as weight penalties for non-stock PCM, aftermarket intakes, and smaller tires. This class was a real crowd-pleaser, as driver errors could easily win or lose a race.
LTX Extreme Street was aimed at the majority of the racers with milder mods, such as heads/cam pushing the weight of a daily driver, and intended for the average Joe to compete against cars of a same caliber and type. Getting the most hype online, this class was one to watch at the event. Restrictions include Opti-spark distributors only, stock PCMs, DOT tire only, and a mandatory full interior.
LTX Bracket 12.49 & Faster gave guys who can't hang in Extreme Street a chance to race with others cars of the same caliber and power. A normal bracket class with rules such as no electronics, delay boxes, and throttle stops. Lots of new best e.t.'s came out of this class at the event.
LTX Bracket 12.50 & Slower class was the same as above, but grouped the slower cars together to give them some competition of their own.
There was some killer racing at this event-check out the pics to find out who came out on top!
 Speed Inc.'s Larry Hamilton...  Speed Inc.'s Larry Hamilton sprayed his '97 Z28 for a 10.68 at 125. Larry's Z had one of the cleanest engine bays we've seen under the hood of a fourth-gen F-body. If it weren't for the 10-second timeslips, you would be forgiven for thinking this car was all show. |  Winner of Heads-Up Naturally...  Winner of Heads-Up Naturally Aspirated: Brady Matysek. |  By the time the drivers' meeting...  By the time the drivers' meeting rolled around, the rain had stopped and the weather was just starting to cooperate. After the meeting, drivers were directed to make laps down the track to dry it off, which seemed to do the trick as racing got underway on schedule. |