We stopped by the track Thursday for a bit, to see some of the early birds that have shown up for the Shootout. The turnout for Thursday's evening test and tune session was a lot more then we all expected. I can't imagine how many more are going to show up through tomorrow. Our full coverage will start tomorrow, but here is a little preview.
We will start with last year's Drag Radial Champion Tom Kempf. There has been a lot of updates done to this record setting Camaro. The turbo has been increased from a 101 to 106 mm turbo and a four inch stroker crank. This has helped Tom jump the power to over 1800 horsepower, to the tire. This is an increase of over 300 horsepower from last year. The suspension has been swapped out and they managed to drop 30 pounds off the car. Tom has made a 7.51 pass out of it and hopes for lower this weekend.
2007 All Motor finalists and top qualifier, Jud Massingill is back with the SAM School built Camaro SS. They are running a twin throttle body setup, which they found out will cost them an extra 50 pounds. The motor is a refreshed 401 C5 block that they used last year. The engine is up on power and is making 938 horsepower. Jud was plagued with transmission problems last year. They also hope to break into the upper 8 second range with the extra found power. Wife Linda Massingill will be campaigning their other Camaro in an index class.