(Words and photos by Doug Gregory) – Superchargers.  Blowers.  Turbos.  Forced-Induction.  Mention any of those four and gearheads the world-over will know the excitement and noise potential is quite high.  Increasing atmospheric pressure exponentially is a great way to make a small engine seem bigger.  It also is a great way to make a large engine take on epic proportions.  With great power comes great potential to cause the magic smoke inside these engines to be released.  Its rare for me to say I’ve been to see these classes run without someone letting the genie out of the bottle.

First up are the Super Modified four-wheel-drive trucks.  This is not as unlimited as most folks might think.  They can carry no more than 500ci, must be an OEM cast-iron block, and ‘only’ sport an 8-71 series blower or smaller.  There are sometimes an exception or two made and the Ratical Chevy is one of them.  This thing has a naturally-aspirated mountain motor that didn’t fit anywhere else in the program.  There is some good action in this class as they throw dirt everywhere as tires claw for traction.  The stretched, bright green Ford of Jeffery Bennett was a fresh build, but you wouldn’t know it due to the 2nd-place finish.  New rig gremlins must have been exterminated beforehand.

Next up is the Super Modified two-wheel-drive class.  This is the unlimited-type class people with more racing adopted.  Automotive-type engine.  No blower larger than a 14-71 hi-helix.  6200lbs.  Except for safety rules and some details about length and looks – that’s pretty much it.  Talk about some thunder.  Everyone should be wearing ear protection when these bad toys come screaming by.

Event organizer, Jason Gibson, had his Arias-powered Young Blood machine out for a hook in the class and it didn’t disappoint.  All the stuff mentioned above happened in the span of about 15 seconds.  We stopped by his hauler afterwards and witnessed the exploratory teardown.  Could be worse I suppose, but that kind of catastrophic failure is not uncommon at this high level of competition.  The lone twin-turbo setup did pretty good, but it seemed to have some bounce early in the run and that kills distance.  We really like Dave and Andy Skinner’s ‘Bad Company’ truck.  This is the 3rd body/look I’ve seen on this rig.  Its about the only one out there that doesn’t need washed and waxed regularly.  They might be on to something.

CLICK ON THE PHOTOS BELOW TO ENLARGE THEM AND THEN SEE ‘EM ALL –