As Hot Rod Drag Week presented by Gear Vendors Under/Overdrive day two draws to close, we’re going to being you a quick update on the action that happened at the track today and what went down as competitors were heading off on the road work portion of the day.

Our embedded reporter Chad reported that:

Larry Larson, who currently leads the unpredictable Unlimited class by a wide margin ran a 7.01 second blast at well north of 200mph and the car wasn’t working all that hard. We had heard that Larry was going to try and uncork a six-second lap at Indy, but perhaps it will be coming tomorrow, or even later in the week. His early week clutch issue behind him, Larry has to be feeling good right now. 

The clutch in Walt Reynold’s Camaro was heading south in a big way as the group was preparing to leave the race track. The pressure plate was failing and Chad expected that they would be having to make the drive by literally bang-shifting the thing by matching revs on the way to the next stop. The phones were melting down with suggestions and leads on a new clutch for the car.

Jeff McConnell suffered a heartbreaking elimination today when he was unable to get to the race track before the designated arrival time and was disqualified from further competition this week. His car had suffered a fuel injector failure (apparently the body of the damned thing cracked….when does that happen?!) and he was also looking for a vacuum pump as the one on the car had failed. Jeff was leading the Small Block Naturally Aspirated class by more than 6-tenths of a second.

The crazy group of Aussies campaigning a Chevelle at the event ran into what should have been a week wrecking issue, but with the help and encouragement of their fellow Drag Week racers, they have turned it into an epic story. The put the rods out of the big block in the Chevelle, rendering it, and their hopes of Drag Week glory all but dead. This was a bad one too, apparently there were holes in the block and all. Instead of giving up, the guys went to O’Reily’s Auto Parts, bought a long block and were installing it at the track. While this disqualifies them from competition, they will finish the week with the group. Apparently the track crew at IRP loaned these dudes a fork truck to remove their blown up junk and to install their new re-man long block. Epic fun!

Jeff Lutz’s 7.20-zone pass and 200 mph trap speed qualifies him for the Hot Rod Drag Week 200mph club. Now all he has to do is make it the rest of the way and he’ll join a very elite club!

Stay tuned for photos and video from Indy coming late tonight on the east coast or late evening on the left coast!