PHOTOS : GREG BURROW can go a little bit faster . It ’ s cool because [ Asphalt Wars ] is a no-rules deal . So as creative as you can get or as hard as you want to work , you can see payoff for it .”
Hard work and creativity are two concepts that are certainly familiar to Hutter and his team , made up of crew chief and owner Ron Hutter , Rich Bertleff , Doc Holliday , and EFI technical advisor Trevor Hutter . With Asphalt Wars ’ primary track , Thompson Raceway Park , just down the road from Hutter ’ s shop , he estimates he made around five test passes nearly every week for the last few seasons . The elder Hutter would keep the R & D flowing away from the track , spending countless nights on the dyno to make the nitrous combination work , with little to no avail . Upon switching to a pair of 80-millimeter Comp Turbo oil-less turbochargers , the duo quickly found themselves reaping the rewards of their efforts .
“ All the nitpicking on making the car light and all the figuring out how to get the car to 60-foot and figuring this out and figuring that out , now that we ’ ve got the motor combination pretty well nailed down where it should be , all of that other stuff is coming to the surface . It ’ s kind of like all the results of that work are all showing up at once . It ’ s almost like we came out of nowhere , but really we ’ ve been working at it a long time .”
When all that performance made itself known in the form of a very promising debut weekend with the turbocharged combo , inevitably the naysayers chimed in . “ In the space of a week , we went from being those crazy guys that don ’ t know you need a huge motor in a Pro Mod to being those cheating guys with the car that ’ s too light ,” Hutter chuckles .
With his first Asphalt Wars season championship sealed up , Hutter ’ s focus is set firmly on defending his title , but also making the step up to the Professional Drag Racers Association ’ s Pro Boost class . He ’ s upgraded to 88-millimeter turbos to feed the 434-cubic-inch motor , built by Hutter Racing Engines out of a CFE block and cylinder heads . The ultra-light , potent Stratus will follow the full to-be-announced Asphalt Wars schedule , as well as a few of the closer PDRA races .
“ Asphalt Wars is just a good series for us ,” Hutter confirms . “ Even the furthest race for us is Empire Dragway . You can get up early , go race and come home all in the same day . As far as PDRA , I don ’ t know what to expect . We ’ ve had the car running pretty good in Asphalt Wars . During testing in the fall , we went a 3.88 out at Thompson , and I think that puts us on the fringe of making a Pro Boost show . But I feel like if you put the car on a track that ’ s prepped like those PDRA tracks are prepped and throw some more power to it , maybe it ’ ll go faster . That ’ s what you would hope , anyway . I don ’ t have a lot of expectations other than to know that we ’ ve run good in where we ’ re at and feel like we ’ ve run good enough to be ready to try the next thing .” - NATE VAN WAGNEN DI
Big Dog
Charles Richards Jr .
As with any series in the sport of drag racing , a new rules package for historic Piedmont Dragway ’ s Big Dog series caused speculation that the 2016 season might not be as successful as past season . But no one envisioned that a great cross section of competitive cars would show up for the coveted porcelain dog at Piedmont . The track , in continuous operation since 1957 , opened its doors on a new season with nitrous cars , blower cars , and naturally aspirated cars . Nineteen cars made the trip to the track during the season , with the top five finishers consisting of four nitrous cars and a blower car in fifth . Behind Charles Richards Jr . came Ronnie Gardner ’ s nitrous-assisted Camaro in second , followed by John Lassiter ’ s Pontiac , Larry Pearce ’ s Cobalt , and Bubba Turner in fifth with Jimmy Green ’ s blown 1968 Camaro .
Winners for the season were Larry Pearce , Ronnie Gardner , Tim Siler , and Bubba Turner . Points champion , Richards , was the only repeat winner . The summer brought Richards ’ Tommy Mauney-built 1963 Corvette into his own , winning the annual Power Jam in July , as well as the August event . The split-window ‘ Vette , powered by a 780-cubic-inch combination from PAR Racing Engines in Spartanburg , SC , always went straight down the track . Having won two previous Renegade Eliminator points titles , Piedmont ’ s tricky eighth mile was familiar territory to Richards and his father , Charles Sr ., as well as his brother , Jason , and TM Race Cars employee Dean Jonas .
Richards , a mechanic by trade in Gastonia , North Carolina , says his trusty nitrous motor has been sold and a blown combination likely will be forthcoming for the 2017 season , a season that will see no rules changes for the series ’ 21st season . - GREG BURROW DI
NHRA SUPER COMP NICK FOLK // NHRA SUPER GAS MIA TEDESCO // NHRA STOCK JEFF STRICKLAND // NHRA SUPER STOCK JIMMY DEFRANK
January 2017 DragIllustrated . com | Drag Illustrated | 77