Holley’s Doug Flynn Takes His Nova To The Final At Car Craft Summer Nationals


Holley’s Doug Flynn Takes His Nova To The Final At Car Craft Summer Nationals

(Words and Photo by Todd Veney) Our boy Doug Flynn, one of the head honchos at Holley EFI, showed that he knows how to tune and how to drive as he worked his way to the final round at the Car Craft Summer Nationals Midnight Drags. We love Doug and it is super cool to see him out there racing his own car rather than just helping everyone else, although we’re sure he was in the lanes helping Holley customers too. His Nova is bitchin and runs Holley EFI on a big block with two kits of NOS Nitrous! Sounds like our own Ethyl, but with way less weight and a bunch more cubic inches. Here is the story straight from Todd Veney.


Holley’s Doug Flynn worked his way through a huge 46-car field at the Car Craft Summer Nationals at Beech Bend Raceway Park in Bowling Green, Ky., overcoming traction problems early in the race to make it all the way to the final round. Flynn, a Holley EFI engineer who dominated the NMCA race at Beech Bend earlier this season with a barrage of mid-8-second times – quicker than Super Comp dragsters run at NHRA national events – laid down one 8-second blast after another with his powerful, completely street-legal ’72 Nova.

“This time, it knocked the tires off on the first two runs qualifying runs,” said Flynn, whose classic muscle car is powered by a complete Holley EFI system. “I killed the tune for the last qualifying run just to get it to go down the track [without losing traction], and it did.” That’s putting it mildly. Flynn did much more than make it down the track – he qualified all the way up in the No. 2 spot despite shutting off a little early.

“I took timing out and changed the second stage of nitrous,” he said. “It wasn’t even a full run. It lost bottle pressure and laid over before the finish line. I could feel it.” He still managed to record an 8.67 despite coasting across the stripe at just 143 mph.”

Powered by a nitrous-fed 582 cubic-inch beast of an engine, Flynn’s car has run as quick as 8.44 under better conditions. At Beech Bend, he blew away his first-round opponent with an easy 8.76 at 132 mph, then ran as quick as an 8.50 at 160 in the middle rounds before dropping the final with a consistent 8.56 at 161.

To see Doug in the semi-finals click here.

To see Doug in the final round of competition click here.


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