With his third win in as many races, Michigan’s Dan Millen (shown) is making a statement in the Turbonetics Pro Outlaw 10.5 class that headlines the NMRA’s stable of classes.  Millen took the car to Keith Engling’s Skinny Kid Race Cars in his home state over the offseason with the express intention of being able to make the car lighter and thus more able to move ballast around to help tame his tricky combination.

Millen bucks the current trend in the Pro Outlaw ranks of having a big-block, twin-turbo-powered hotrod, as his combination is just a single 106mm turbocharger atop a 400-cubic inch small-block.  He is also one of just two competitors trying to make the manual transmission work in the class – made even more difficult due to the complexities of getting the turbocharger to make boost properly with the stick-shift transmission.  With the turbocharger needing a load to help it spool properly, Millen uses the trick of dumping more fuel into the engine when the car is on the two-step, as this makes the turbo think there’s more load than there really is, helping limit spool-up time and making the car easier to drive. 

Millen and 2008 Champion Conrad Scarry battled for the top qualifying spot, with Millen coming out on top by .006 – a 6.801 to Scarry’s 6.807.  Scarry and Millen eliminated the competition to meet up in a fitting final round between the top two qualifiers.  When the tree dropped, Millen was out first with a stout .017 reaction time, and it was all over except the shouting – Millen pulled a 6.72 at over 215 mph out of his pocket and showed it to Scarry, solidifying his points lead heading into the season’s final race in Bowling Green, Kentucky, on the first weekend of October.

Another racer that’s been making some noise this season is DiabloSport EFI Renegade racer Larry Hourcle (shown).  The Renegade class is not for the faint-of-heart, as these are cars using the upper echelon of ‘street-style’ centrifugal superchargers and nitrous oxide systems.  The supercharged cars typically see inlet temperatures in the 300+ degree range, which makes tuning skill and driver smarts a hot commodity. 

Hourcle’s hot rod is motivated by an Ed Thomas Racing Engines 310-inch small-block Ford, boosted with a Vortech YSi supercharger, and won the EFI Renegade class for the first time Sept. 6 in Columbus.  What makes Hourcle’s achievement even more impressive is the fact that he won the race not on slicks, but a set of Hoosier Drag Radials.  Nearly everyone else in the class is using a 28x10.5 slick of one brand or another, but Hourcle runs a local series where the 275 radial is the spec tire, so he continues that trend when racing in the NMRA. 

He qualified third in the class with an 8.58, then turned around on Sunday to be consistent and fast. Both traits win races, and this time around it was Hourcle’s turn.  He ran an 8.58, 8.57, 8.61, and 8.64 through the course of eliminations, defeating number one qualifier Alton Clements in the final round.