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Flaming Fury: Jet Dragster Breaks the 200-mph Barrier at Irwindale


Flaming Fury: Jet Dragster Breaks the 200-mph Barrier at Irwindale

Believe it or not, there isn’t too much iron on the drag strip that can touch 200 mph in the eighth-mile. Odd as it may sound, dedicated eighth-mile tracks see even fewer 200-mph laps for some fairly obvious reasons, the major one being shutdown length. Lots of tracks are just too short for guys to run it out the back door. Toyota Dragstrip at Irwindale, California, is apparently not one of those tracks. 

Jet Dragster pilot Tony Franco, in his Terminal Velocity jet digger ran 207.61 mph at the Irwindale strip last week and became the first person to ever hit two bills there. It was certainly an e-ticket ride with the car getting to sixty feet in 1.002 seconds and crossing the strip at 3.827.

That’s not too far off of what Top Fuel dragster racers see in that distance! The car had to have been set on absolute kill and his .843 reaction time has us thinking that Franco spent a little extra time getting everything spun up and prepared for him to hit the afterburner button to launch the car off the starting line. 

So how does 207 compare to other stuff in the eighth mile?

A modern Top Fueler is at about 275 mph

A modern Nitro Funny Car is around 255 mph

An ADRL Pro Extreme door slammer on a record lap at 207-210 mph

Like we said before, this was a legit bad-ass lap!

Here’s a video of the same car runing 6.35 at 250 mph at the quarter mile in Las Vegas in 2009. Jump to :30 for the action.

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Here’s the press release from Toyota Dragstrip at Irwindale:

200 MPH Barrier Busted At Toyota Dragstrip!
Irwindale, Calif. In what was the fastest-ever warm up pass on the ten year old 1/8-mile Toyota Dragstrip, Pro Jet Dragster driver Tony Franco scorched the 660-foot distance in a record 4.54 seconds and flashing through the top speed traps at an astonishing 182.26 miles-per-hour! 
Back at the pits, the Oxnard driver indicated that he was happy with the car, the strip, the set-up, and the wind, and was quite ready to top off his aptly-named, 12,000 horsepower, “Terminal Velocity” with a couple of gallons of Diesel 2 and go for “2 Bills” on the well-known dragstrip.
The timing slip told the tale, but anyone watching along the spectator fence got the idea long before the announcer could yell out the incredible litany of numbers that read: .843 (reaction time), 1.002 (0-60 feet), 2.617 (1/2-way 330 feet) and 3.827 (the1/8-mile). And then came the top speed: Two Hundred and Seven (.) Sixty-one Miles Per Hour (207.61)!
The forty-six year old Franco has been racing professionally for “about eight years … all in jets,” he told us. Asked how the Toyota 1/8-mile looks at two hundred plus miles an hour, Franco simply told us that good concentration is must with this kind of horsepower and at these speeds. His long, low wild racer is powered by a Pratt & Whitney J60-6 engine with “AB” (afterburner).
“Needless to say we were all astonished with Tony's record-setting first run at 182 and change,” said track GM Bob DeFazio. “Until last night 200 was just the number that comes after 199. We've invited Tony back and he's accepted our invitation. We'll have the date on our website as soon as we can set it.”

Drag racing happens every Thursday night at Toyota Dragstrip at Irwindale. Fans can park right in the pits and watch hundreds of runs up close for only $10 or go up against the NHRA “Christmas Tree” starting lights themselves for only 20 bucks. For more information: toyotadragstripatirwindale.com. See you at the Strip on Thursday! 

Terminal Velocity lighting it up! 


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