Big-block powered Outlaw 10.5 cars—you’ve been warned. Tim Essick might carry a small-block (built by Essick) with a pair of Precision 88mm turbochargers onboard his 2003 Mustang but that doesn’t mean he can’t unleash the fury against 600-plus cubic inch monsters with 94mm turbochargers. This past weekend Essick qualified on top of the Outlaw 10.5 ladder with a 4.28 at 171 mph blast during the Ford Fever Classic, held at Maryland International Raceway (MIR). He would go on to win the race despite running against a few heavy hitters with larger engines and turbos.
By our calculations and detailed Outlaw 10.5 notes, Essick is the world’s quickest and fastest small-block powered car in the category’s history. Billy Glidden previously held the record with a 4.32 in his famous “black” car. It was set two years ago at Milan Dragway during the Ultimate Outlaws race. Essick has been chipping away at his times since returning from an accident earlier this year. The car was back on track during the NMRA/NMCA Super Bowl of Street Legal Drag Racing this past July. The car is lighter and Essick, along with crew chief Dan Whetstine, made some unique and very effective changes to the back-half car. These changes allowed more weight to come off of it while simultaneously helping the car apply more power to the Mickey Thompson 33×10.5W slicks. The result has been a stellar 6.58 on the long track with a previous best of 4.35 on that same run during the NMRA World Finals in Bowling Green, KY.
Essick got back home to Maryland after the finals and a few short days later loaded up to head north to Englishtown for the Shakedown Nationals. Essick and Whetstine did some more chassis tuning and managed to coax some 4.40s from it. Determined to go quicker, the team was back on track one week later for the third weekend in a row. The Ford Fever Classic is the site where Essick qualified on top with a career best of 4.28 and went on to win the event.
Essick has one weekend off and will be back at MIR for the world-famous World Cup Finals, aka Import vs. Domestic. The event is the final one of 2012 and all categories race the ¼-mile. The blue bullet ran 6.58 at Bowling Green with a 4.35 1/8-mile time. Using our logic (or illogical?) reasoning, a 4.28 could push Essick to the bottom 6.50 range or possibly into the high 6.40 zone. Stay tuned to NMRADigital.com, as we will track the Pro Outlaw 10.5 racer’s World Cup Finals efforts.
