(Photo credit: Radial Tire Racing Association) – It was late last night when we were declaring Kyle Huettel the king of the drag radial world after running a pair of 3.87 elapsed times in his screw blown, Stocklin/Taylor tuned Corvette but we were way to early on the tree with that coronation because as the night wore on at the 2016 Radial Tire Racing Association season opener at North Star Dragway in Denton, Texas a new and quicker star emerged. His name is Rob Valden and he worked the magic while driving the Corvette owned by Andrew Alpea and tuned by Josh Ledford. ProLine turbocharged power is the name of the game for this car and the guys used as much of it as anyone ever has during the later elimination rounds of the Radial Round Up race that we broadcasted live right to you last night. Yes, Valden did get the event win but he also got a spot in the history books by running 3.85 at more than 212…TWICE.
Because we like being repetitive, that is the quickest elapsed time and the highest speed ever recorded in the history of drag racing on a radial tire at an eighth mile distance. The crazy part is that these guys are far from done. That car is relatively new and they are really learning how to lean on it and make it faster race by race. During this early part of the year we would not be surprised to see the record drop by several more hundredths before we get to the heat of the summer time.
Not that we would call a single 3.85 run a fluke, especially out of a car that exhibits the quality of the Alpea owned and Valden driven Corvette but a pair of runs like that is a statement. It is also a statement on the larger state of “unlimited” drag radial racing and we’ll have lots more on that tomorrow. Until then, celebrate the accomplishments of this team and this car which is still so new, we know it ain’t tapped out by a long shot.
Think about this. These cars are not within a tenth of a nostalgia nitro funny car in the eighth mile…and closing fast.
This car is VERY IMPRESSIVE in many ways (beautiful and fast)
WISH WE COULD SEE WHAT IT DO IN THE 1/4
MY BE HE WILL GO TO THE RACE IN VEGAS IN THE UPCOMING NHRA 1/4 MILE RACE AND RACE WITH THE BIG BOYS
That’s swell. To bad an actual drag race is a 1’4 mile. These 1/8 mile (half passes) are fine for the flat billed hat – tattooed crowd but that’s all it amounts to.
Limited tire drag racing. Really what’s the point in this? So you put a skinny tire on a high HP car and try to get it to hook up. You can no longer run 1/4 mile since the skinny tire can’t keep a big enough contact area to keep the car from twirling like a top past half track. Where to from here? It’s no longer about the car it’s the tire, and spraying the Hell out of the track.
I see a lot of guys putting narrow tires on and splattering their pretty nice cars so that the flat billed cap crew on the starting line can jump up and down and think their a bad ass. LAME
What makes this exciting is the big personalities and the variety of each car.
If you want to talk about half assed you’d talk about the guys that all run the exact same set up in the same chassis running the same times.
And by the way even the super duper full assed Top Fuel cars run 1000ft now.
It’s come to a point where the cars are so fast there is no reason to push them past 660ft. Besides the point that a majority of the drag strips in the US are 1/8th mile.
A half pass just seems so… well ….half ass.
Gee Bud,your sour
If you ever have an opportunity to watch small tire Radial racing, take full advantage of it. It is crazy fast, and the cars are works of art. Beautiful in their simplicity, and brutal with the mind-blowing power under the hoods.
Also, I race both 1/8 and 1/4. I love both for different reasons, but 1/8-mile racing takes more skill, and you definitely need to have your car dialed hard for it.
Don’t knock it, until you have been there and seen it. Way more exciting than any NHRA event, and I have been to many of those.