Holley EFI Breaks Records at 17th Annual Shakedown Nationals!

09/23/2019
10 min read

Holley EFI Breaks Records at 17th Annual Shakedown Nationals!

09/23/2019
10 min read

Holley EFI powered racers showed their strength over the weekend after claiming the top three spots in Radial versus the World (RvW) at Virginia Motorsports Park. The 17th annual Shakedown Nationals was arguably the best radial race of the year with multiple records broken and close finishes being just a few of the many highlights. Kicking off the weekend, Marcus Birt put the field on notice after becoming the first nitrous assisted car to break into the 3.50’s with his 3.579 pass in RvW Qualifying. As if this was not enough he backed it up and claimed quickest of all-time with a 3.575 @ 206 mph during the “Judgement Day” class eliminations.


Jeff Miller and his Bumblebee Camaro headed into the event on a 7-win streak and laid down an impressive 3.615 @ 205 to put the blower car into the number three qualifying spot. Bumblebee Racing had an excellent run throughout the weekend including defeating Norman Bryson in the second round before facing Birt in the semi-finals. While Miller and team put up a good fight, ultimately Birt would enter the final round.

“Stevie Fast” Jackson wheeled Phil Shuler’s Shadow 2.0 over the weekend and faced tough obstacles heading into eliminations. A u-joint failure on Friday destroyed the driveshaft, transmission tunnel, hurt the transmission, and sent debris into the car and into the stands. Over-nighting parts from Liberty allowed them to repair the driveline; they ran out and purchased an exhaust stack from a local Peterbilt dealer to stitch a new transmission tunnel into the car. The incident did put them at the bottom of the qualifying ladder forcing them to face #2 Qualifier Jamie Hancock in the first round. Hancock withdrew prior to eliminations allowing Jackson to move on where defeating Michael Decker Jr and Taylor Laster before drawing the Bye run in the semi-finals. Heading into the final round, the crew found a broken header and put their heads down to get it back in one-piece. The final beads were laid just in time and they rushed to the staging lanes to face Marcus Birt.
This final round was one for the ages, Birt now the quickest nitrous door car in the world, would be taking on his tuner and friend Steve Jackson at Virginia Motorsports Park with one of the best starting line prep jobs seen this year. Marcus entered the beams and Jackson followed suit getting up on the two-step. Unfortunately, Birt’s finger was a little too quick and left early giving the win to Jackson. Stevie Fast did what was needed with an .026 reaction time and chased down Birt to have the quickest side-by-side pass in Radial tire history. The boards lit up to show Jackson winning with a 3.594 @ 210.67 (the quickest screw-blown RvW pass) and Birt’s 3.588 @ 205.19.


A few honorable mentions include Holley EFI customer Taylor Laster who qualified #4 in RvW with a 3.64 and made it into the ¼ finals as well as Dan Kinzie who qualified #2 in X275. Kinzie won his first two bouts, but ended up losing to Ron Rhodes in the semi-finals.



Birt’s runner-up finish added to an already fantastic weekend for him and his crew who will be analyzing the run-data to see where they can improve. Jackson who tunes the nitrous combination for Birt expects an quicker field heading into Duck X Production’s No Mercy race in mid-October. When asked if he thinks there will be more 3.50 passes, Jackson said “Oh yeah, once someone knows it can be done, they’ll keep working until they figure it out.”




It's also worth mentioning that this was the first outing for MSD's new Pro 600 CDI Ignition system in radial racing, both Stevie Fast Jackson and Jeff Miller had it on board with them this weekend and Jackson put it in the Winner’s Circle!


Congratulations to all of the competitors using Holley EFI this weekend at VMP on a job-well done! Holley EFI now controls the fastest radial tire racecar, the fastest nitrous assisted car and the fastest screw-blown radial racecar, not to mention these titles were all written in one weekend!



To see the fastest side-by-side radial pass in history, click Motor Mania TV’s video below:




author

Staff Writer
1716 Posts