Category Archives: Hairston Motorsports

HMR/Elite Motorsports/Pertronix Performance Brands Pro Mod Season Update

HMR/Elite Motorsports/Pertronix Performance Brands Pro Mod Season Update

Alta Loma, CA (August) –We debuted the new Pro Mod program at the Midwest Pro Mod March 1/8th mile race at the Texas Motorplex with Clint Hairston taking a win in the Slammers Class with a hole shot win over Dave Roberts (3.876 to 3.814).

Our NHRA Pro Mod debut came at Houston with Erica Enders driving at her first Pro Mod event. We fell short of qualifying running a best of 5.86. Unfortunately, we DNQ’d at Bristol and Norwalk but found some issues with the car that have been fixed. Our new crew chief, Jeff Pierce, felt that we would have a much better car heading into the $100K WSOPM Denver race. He was right, running a best of 5.92 at Denver altitude and but losing to the eventual winner, Carl Stevens, by .014 in the quarterfinals.

We move on to the Big Go at Indy and feel very confident that we now have a very competitive Pro Mod program. We look forward to the challenge of competing with the best Pro Mod cars in the country and representing our title sponsors Pertronix Performance Brands, Elite Motorsports, Strange, and Lucas Oil our many other product sponsors including: RJ Race Cars, Precision Turbo, Racepak, Precision Racing Suspension, M&M Transmissions, Comp Cams, Motive Gear, and CFE for their continuing support.

Jonathan Gray To Drive the HMR GTO

Jonathan Gray To Drive the HMR GTO

Alta Loma, CA (August)- Jonathan Gray will be returning to NHRA Pro Mod Competition at the “Big Go” driving the Hairston Motorsports Elite Performance powered Pontiac GTO. The Hairston’s and Jonathan have agreed to a three race schedule including Indy, St. Louis and Las Vegas with tentative plans for Charlotte. Clint “The Milkman” has graciously given up his seat to Jonathan but will back in car to defend his Street Car Super Nationals Pro Mod Title later in November. Clint’s business commitments and Jake Hairston’s busy schedule with the Elite Motorsports Pro Stock teams have kept the HMR team away from the track so far this year.

The legendary forced induction guru, Ken Duttweiler, has agreed to come aboard as the crew chief to help with the tuning while Jake maintains his focus on getting Elite powered Pro Stock cars into the winner’s circle. Plans call for a testing session in Memphis the week before Indy to get Jonathan comfortable in the car.

We look forward to the challenge of competing with the best Pro Mod cars in the country and representing our title sponsors Pertronix Performance Brands, Lucas Oil and Elite Motorsports and our many other product sponsors including: Duttweiler Performance, Precision Turbo, Racepak, Precision Racing Suspension, M&M Transmissions, Hoosier Tire, K&N, Lenco, Quick Drive, Comp Cams, Lunati crankshafts, Hogan Manifolds, Jesel, Strange, Motive Gear, CFE, Inland Empire Driveline, SCE Gaskets, Starside Design, Russell, ARP, XS Power and Meziere for their continuing support.

Hairston Motorsports–Clint “The Milkman” Hairston Wins Street Car Super Nationals

Clint “The Milkman” Hairston Wins Street Car Super Nationals

Alta Loma, CA (December) – A dominating performance by the HMR Team at the 11th SCSN in Las Vegas produced a great win and a new elapsed time record of 5.759 in the Pro Modified Class.

Many people didn’t see it coming but Jake Hairston, Crew Chief and Engine Builder, wasn’t surprised. He commented, “With my busy Pro Stock engine building job at Elite Performance and because of several rainouts during the season, we were unable to work on our new Big Block combination the way we needed to be competitive. An October test session at Tulsa International Raceway proved to be a huge boost for the team with several 200 mph 1/8 mile runs in the high 3.80’s. I knew that the combination had potential so we came to Vegas with high expectations.”

Qualifying #2 behind Rick Snavely with a 5.84 @ 252.66 put us in great position for Sunday eliminations. A semifinal matchup with T.J. Coughlin produced a stunning win running 5.759 @ 253.71 setting up a final round showdown with Kevin Fiscus. Another 5.759 @ 255.24 got the win and validated that the team’s early runs were no accident. “Clint’s driving was solid all weekend” commented Team Owner and proud father, Jim Hairston. “We’ve been close in the past but this year we finally won the biggest race of my career” Clint commented in the Winner’s Circle after accepting the Trophy and Winner’s Check from race promoter Mel Roth. Kathy Hairston, Jake and Clint’s proud mother, said “I am so happy to be part of this dream come true for my husband and sons. They have worked so hard to make it a happen.”

HMR wants to extend a special thanks to Steve Graves at Quick Drive for his hard work at the event, Adam Lambert at Precision Racing Suspension for his assistance and great shocks and Mark Micke at M&M Transmissions for building great converters. We will be announcing our 2016 racing schedule in January so stay tuned. For some great video of the SCSN action visit http://www.facebook.com/hairstonmotorsports.

We look forward again in 2016 to representing our title sponsors Pertronix Performance Brands, Lucas Oil and Elite Motorsports and our many other product sponsors including: Duttweiler Performance, Precision Turbo, Racepak, Precision Racing Suspension, M&M Transmissions, Hoosier Tire, K&N, Lenco, Quick Drive, Comp Cams, Lunati crankshafts, Hogan Manifolds, Jesel, Strange, Motive Gear, CFE, Inland Empire Driveline, SCE Gaskets, Starside Design, Russell, ARP, XS Power and Meziere for their continuing support and our great crew including Jake Hairston, Tracy Holmes and Clint Hairston.

Hairston Motorsports Looks to 2015

HMR is looking forward to great year in 2015. We will be concentrating our efforts mostly on the NMCA series with a year ending appearance at the Street Car Super Nationals in Vegas.

The big news for 2015 is that we will be changing from Small Block power to a Big Block engine. Elite Motorsports will be providing the big block power featuring a 526 CID billet block and head 5.0” bore space engine built by Elite Performance engine specialist Jake Hairston with input from the legendary Ken Duttweiler. Our tentative 2015 race schedule is as follows:

Association Location Dates

NMCA Bradenton, FL March 20-22 NMCA Bowling Green, KY April 9-12
NMCA Indianapolis, IN June 18-21
NMCA/NMRA Joliet, IL July 30-August 2
NMCA Norwalk, OH August 27-30
SCSN Las Vegas, NV November 18-22

We ended the 2014 campaign with a good performance at the SCSN Las Vegas event qualifying #13 in the 32 car field with a 6.02 @ 243.06. Running a 6.06 for a first round win over Robert Costa but losing to Rick Snavely in round 2 with a very uncharacteristic red light from “The Milkman”.

Hairston Motorsports & Racing looks forward again to representing our title sponsors Pertronix Performance Brands, Lucas Oil and Elite Motorsports and our many other product sponsors including: Duttweiler Performance, Precision Turbo, Racepak, Hoosier Tire, K&N, Crower Clutches, Lenco, Comp Cams, Lunati crankshafts, Hogan Manifolds, Jesel, Strange, Motive Gear, CFE, Inland Empire Driveline, SCE Gaskets, Starside Design, Russell, ARP and Meziere for their continuing support and our great crew including Jake Hairston, Tracy Holmes and Clint Hairston.

Hairston Motorsports–Madison IL

Clint “The Milkman” Hairston Qualifies #6

 

Madison, IL (May 2014) – HMR arrived at Gateway Motorsports Park for the inaugural NMCA Muscle Car Nationals with our new Elite Performance small block twin turbo “bullet”.

 

Jake Hairston along with Kenny Duttweiler, CFE Racing Products and Hogan manifolds came up with arguably the powerful GM turbocharged small block in history making over 7.9 horsepower per cubic inch. Expectations ran high for this engine’s first outing. Unfortunately no pre-race testing left us guessing on the right set-up.

 

Qualifying proved difficult as we learned quickly that the increased horsepower and torque from our new engine required different transmission gear ratios than we had available for this race. After some drastic clutch and power management adjustments, we were able to come with a disappointing #6 qualifying position running 6.079 at 245.90. Rain welcomed us on Sunday morning delaying the start of the race until late in the afternoon. Track conditions proved tricky and with a new combination and limited data, we went to the starting line against Billy Glidden with our best guess. Our 6.19 fell short of Billy’s outstanding 6.041 sending us home early. We’ll be back at Joliet in July with a better package.

Hairston Motorsports & Racing would like to give special thanks to Lucas Oil for being our title sponsor this year and Elite Motorsports for helping us with transportation to the races and our many other loyal sponsors; Pertronix Performance Brands,Duttweiler Performance, Precision Turbo, XS Power, Powermaster, Racepak, Hoosier Tire, K&N, Crower Clutches, Lenco, Comp Cams, Dart, T&D Machine, Lunati crankshafts, Hogan Manifolds, CFE Racing Products, Accufab, Jesel, Strange, Motive Gear, Inland Empire Driveline, SCE Gaskets, Starside Design, Specialty Fasteners, Russell, Brodix, Embee Performance Coatings and ARP for their continuing support and our great crew including Doug Stewart, Tom Esbri, Tracy Holmes, Dustin Lee and Bill Hickok.

Hairston Motorsports Looks Toward 2014

HMR 2013 Year End
Recap 2014 Plans

 

Alta Loma, CA (March) – HMR is looking forward to great year
in 2014.  We will be concentrating our
efforts mostly on the NMCA series with a year ending appearance at the Street
Car Super Nationals in Vegas.  Still in
the works is a NHRA Competition Eliminator entry at the 2014 Big Go in Indy.

 

Several off season changes include more testing with a B
& J Quick Drive with a Pro Torque Converter using a 3 speed Lenco CS2
transmission.  We are also hoping to find
some more power and reliability with a new cylinder head design for our primary
small block engine.  We are definitely
working on consistency along with quicker times.

 

We ended the 2013 campaign with some good performances
qualifying #4 at the World Finals with a 5.99 going out in the semi-finals,
qualifying #1 in Competition Eliminator at the NHRA  Vegas National with a 6.14 and qualifying #4
with a 6.00 at SCSN going out in the quarterfinals.  We finished in 4th in NMCA Pro
Street with our 3rd straight top ten finishes.  Our best run of the season was 5.93 at
253.38.

 

Hairston Motorsports & Racing looks forward again to
representing our title sponsors Lucas Oil and Pertronix Performance Brands and
our many other product sponsors including:  
Duttweiler Performance, Precision Turbo, XS Power, Powermaster, Racepak,
Hoosier Tire, K&N, Crower Clutches, Lenco, Comp Cams, Dart, T&D
Machine, Scat crankshafts, Hogan Manifolds, Jesel,

Strange, Motive Gear, Inland Empire Driveline, SCE Gaskets,
Starside Design, Specialty Fasteners, Russell, Brodix and ARP for their
continuing support and our great crew including Doug Stewart, Tom Esbri, Dustin
Lee and Bill Hickok.

Hairston Motorsports–#1 Qualifier Competition Eliminator

HMR Goes to the Big Go….#1 Qualifier Competition Eliminator


 

Indianapolis, IN (September 2013) – HMR and Elite Motorsports joined together and entered the HMR Small Block Twin Turbo Pontiac GTO at the 2013 U.S. Nationals running in the Competition Eliminator AA/AT class.

 

Clint graciously gave the driving duties up to Mike DePalma since grade points are required to enter a NHRA race.  Of course Mike needs no introduction  since he has been one of the most successful Competition Eliminator drivers around.  Testing with Mike in the seat before Indy certainly showed that he was more than capable of handling the car even though the little GTO was “faster than anything I have ever driven by a bunch”, commented Mike.  With Jake Hairston’s tuning skills and Mike’s driving the car qualified #1 running an incredible .926 under the 7.04 index (6.114 ET).   Although confidence was running high that this was our race to win, the Semi-Final loss was hard to take.  The car had been making great runs up until “uncontrollable” wheel spin caused Mike to abort the run.  Our congratulations go to Jason Coan and his team for winning the race.

     

Hairston Motorsports & Racing would like to give special thanks to Lucas Oil for being our title sponsor this year and Elite Motorsports for making the Indy experience possible and our many other loyal sponsors; Pertronix Performance Brands, Duttweiler Performance, Precision Turbo, XS Power, Powermaster, Racepak, Hoosier Tire, K&N, Crower Clutches, Lenco, Comp Cams, Dart, T&D Machine, Scat crankshafts, Hogan Manifolds, Accufab,  Jesel, Strange, Motive Gear, Inland Empire Driveline, SCE Gaskets, Starside Design, Specialty Fasteners, Russell, Brodix, Embee Performance Coatings and ARP for their continuing support and our great crew including Doug Stewart, Tom Esbri, Tracy Holmes, Dustin Lee and Bill Hickok.

 

Hairston Second In Points

HMR Semi-Finals NMCA
Norwalk…Now Second in the Points Chase

 

Norwalk, OH (August 2013) – HMR arrived at Summit
Motorsports Park for the NMCA Muscle Car Nationals still looking for our first
win of the season and more points toward the championship.

 

Qualifying went well finishing in the #2 spot with a 6.01
but well off Jeff Lutz’s blistering 5.93 effort for the #1 spot.  The good news was that our engines were
running good, a much better situation than the experience earlier in the month
at Bowling Green. Our first round competition, Jennifer Green, had problems at
the starting line which was lucky for us since the engine lost the dry sump
belt which automatically shuts off the fuel pump allowing Clint to coast to the
finish line.  We had a second round bye,
which put us next to Jeff Lutz in the Semi-Finals.  Jeff was putting on a real clinic running
consistent 6.0’s and high 5.9’s the whole weekend.  Clint took a swing at the tree with a .006
reaction time but Jeff was on his A game with a .008 leave.  Pretty stout driving by both guys.  Our 6.11 wasn’t good enough to cover Jeff’s
stout 5.99.   

 

The Semi-Finals finish moved us into second place for the
Championship race.  With only the Indy
race left a win and probably an ET record will be our only chance to get by
Lutz who lost to Steve Summers in the finals in a very close race (margin of
victory .0003 seconds).

     

Hairston Motorsports & Racing would like to give special
thanks to Lucas Oil for being our title sponsor this year and Elite Motorsports
for helping us with transportation to the races and our many other loyal
sponsors; Pertronix Performance Brands, Duttweiler
Performance, Precision Turbo, XS Power, Powermaster, Racepak, Hoosier Tire,
K&N, Crower Clutches, Lenco, Comp Cams, Dart, T&D Machine, Scat
crankshafts, Hogan Manifolds, Accufab,  Jesel, Strange, Motive Gear, Inland Empire
Driveline, SCE Gaskets, Starside Design, Specialty Fasteners, Russell, Brodix,
Embee Performance Coatings and ARP for their continuing support and our great
crew including Doug Stewart, Tom Esbri, Tracy Holmes, Dustin Lee and Bill
Hickok.

Clint “The Milkman” Hairston in the Semi-Finals at Commerce…and then the Rains!

Clint “The Milkman” Hairston in the Semi-Finals at Commerce…and then the Rains!

 

Commerce, GA (April 2013) – HMR arrived at Atlanta Dragway for the Nitto NMRA/NMCA All Star Nationals looking for a quick start to their 2013 season.

 

Qualifying proved difficult for the team although the track and weather conditions were ideal on Friday and Saturday.  With little testing time in the off season, the team’s new converter and transmission package gave us some unexpected trouble during Friday’s test session and Q1 on Saturday.  Jake decided to put the clutch and 4 speed Lenco back in for Q2 but ran out of time missing the session.  Q3 looked promising on the launch with a 1.01 sixty foot short time but too much power early caused excessive spin.  Clint wisely shut off coasting through the lights putting us in the number nine qualifying spot.

 

Clint was able to get by Josh Green in round one giving us a bye in the second round.  As predicted the rains came in the afternoon washing out the race.  The final cars left in Pro Street will race at Joliet in July to determine the winner.  We’ll have Chris Rini in semifinals with the winner moving on to the final against Billy Glidden.

     

Hairston Motorsports & Racing would like to give special thanks to Lucas Oil for being our title sponsor this year and Elite Motorsports for helping us with transportation to the races and our many other loyal sponsors; Pertronix Performance Brands, Duttweiler Performance, Precision Turbo, XS Power, Powermaster, Racepak, Hoosier Tire, K&N, Crower Clutches, Lenco, Comp Cams, Dart, T&D Machine, Scat crankshafts, Hogan Manifolds, Accufab,  Jesel, Strange, Motive Gear, Inland Empire Driveline, SCE Gaskets, Starside Design, Specialty Fasteners, Russell, Brodix, Embee Performance Coatings and ARP for their continuing support and our great crew including Doug Stewart, Tom Esbri, Tracy Holmes, Dustin Lee and Bill Hickok.

Clint “The Milkman” Hairston Goes #1 at NMRA/NMCA Joliet

Clint “The Milkman” Hairston Goes #1 at NMRA/NMCA Joliet

 

Joliet, IL (July) – HMR returned to action at the Nitto Tire NMRA/NMCA All-Star Nationals after sitting out the Maryland race while repairs and updates to the car were being finished up at Jerry Bickel Race Cars.

 

Sporting a new front end design and fresh paint job, Clint Hairston hit the ground running going 6.03 in qualifying to capture the #1 spot in the tough Pro Street class which included Donnie Walsh fresh off a NHRA Pro Mod win at Norwalk.

 

Running consistent 6.0’s in qualifying, the HMR team felt confident that this could be the weekend to win their first NMCA title.  A competition bye in Round One netted a strong 6.06 pass in the heat of the day low for the round.  Clint turned on the win light in Round Two against Tony Williams running 6.12 followed with a Semi-Final win over Dan Stevenson setting up the Final against Donnie Walsh.  Unfortunately, we did not have lane choice, which lead to a poor pass by spinning the tires at mid-track.  We probably wouldn’t have an enough to cover Walsh after he made his best pass of the weekend.  Congratulations to Donnie and his team for great outing.

 

Our next event will be at Bowling Green, Kentucky for the Quick Fuel NMCA Muscle Car Nationals August 3-5.  Make sure you visit www.hairstonmotorsports.com to view new exciting race action video.

Hairston Motorsports is Ready for 2012

Hairston Motorsports is looking forward to great year in 2012.  We will be concentrating our efforts mostly on the NMCA series with hopefully a year ending appearance at the Street Car Super Nationals in Vegas.

Several off season changes to the GTO body and chassis setup should make the car more consistent this year.  We will be working with Ken Duttweiler again with our small block engine packages looking for even more reliable horsepower.

HMR GTO/ JEGS PRO MOD Qualifying and Going Rounds

With Jake Hairston coming aboard this year at Coughlin Brothers Racing, Troy Coughlin has been using the HMR Jeg’s wrapped GTO in the NHRA Get Screened America Pro Mod Series until his new Bickel 68 Camaro is finished.  Troy’s new car will be debuted at the U.S. Nationals and will be powered by a Duttweiler built 504 CID twin turbo 5 inch bore spaced big block Chevy using a Donovan block and CFE billet heads and manifold with Precision Turbo 88MM NHRA Pro Mod  turbos. 

Trying to compete in Pro Mod with a small block twin turbo Pro Street car seemed like an impossible task but the Jeg’s team has done an incredible job all season.  Remember that the 377 CID Duttweiler motor equipped GTO is running against 500+ CID blown and turbo entries with NO weight break and is giving up 230 pounds to the 800+ CID nitrous entries.  Troy has qualified at 5 of 7 events running a best ET of 5.965 and 249.16 MPH going to the quarters in Vegas and Bristol and the semis in Atlanta.  The FASTEST small block powered race car in NHRA history, PERIOD!

Clint “The Milkman” Hairston will be taking over the driving duties at the upcoming NMCA Bowling Green Pro Street event August 5-7.  “I’ve only driven the car once this year at the NMCA/NMRA Atlanta race but was happy give up the seat to Troy so he wouldn’t miss any of the NHRA events.  I’m sure I’ll be shaking off some rust at Bowling Green but I know I have a really fast hot rod,” commented Clint.

Hairston Motorsports & Racing would like to give special thanks to Lucas Oil for being our title sponsor this year and also thank our many other loyal sponsors; Pertronix, Duttweiler Performance, Precision Turbo, XS Power, Powermaster, Racepak, Hoosier Tire, K&N, Crower Clutches, Lenco, Comp Cams, Dart, T&D Machine, Scat crankshafts, Hogan Manifolds, Jesel, Strange, Motive Gear, Inland Empire Driveline, SCE Gaskets, Starside Design, Specialty Fasteners, Russell, Brodix and ARP for their continuing support. 

Hairston Year End (late on my part)

Wow, please accept my apology.  The chaos of the SEMA/IMIS/PRI shows made this one fall off the radar.  Thanks to the Hairston team for keeping us in the loop and best of luck in 2011.

(November 2010) – Clint “The Milkman” Hairston has won the 2010 Pacific Street Car Association Pro Street World Championship driving the Hairston Motorsports and Racing Jerry Bickel built 2007 GTO powered by a Duttweiler Performance 377 CID twin turbocharged small block Chevy.

Hairston finished the season with a 75 point lead over John Scialpi’s beautiful blown 57 Chevy.  “John was really coming on strong in the second half of the season but we got the job done based our strong first half of the season performance,” commented Clint.  “We are really excited about next year because Duttweiler has just finished our new engine which should be up on power over our old reliable 377 engine.  I think 5 second runs will happen in 2011,” Hairston further stated.

Hairston currently holds the Pacific Street Car Association (PSCA) Pro Street National E.T. (6.084) and MPH (239.44) records and the West Coast Hot Rod Association (WCHRA) National Speed record (240.77 mph).

Hairston Motorsports & Racing Qualifies First And Goes To The Finals

The Hairston Motorsports & Racing team just attended the Pacific Street Car Association (PSCA) Accufab West Coast Nationals, at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway.  Clint “The Milkman” Hairston of Bakersfield qualified first on Saturday out of a 12 car lineup, achieving both the low ET and top MPH of the day (6.18 @ 237 mph).

The race was challenging with temperatures reaching 100+ degrees over the weekend.  Hairston and his Jerry Bickel built 2007 GTO raced Randy Walker and his 1974 Chevrolet El Camino in the first round of eliminations.  Hairston running a 6.479 @ 229 mph, took the win over Walker running a 6.99 @ 153 mph.  In the second round Hairston was able to beat the heat with an amazing run. Up against Tony Marino and his 57’ Chevy Bel Air, the Hairston team stepped it up, knowing that a win would automatically advance him to the finals and that’s exactly what they did.  Hairston managed to beat his qualifying time the previous day running an astonishing 6.18 @ 241.54 mph, making that his fastest run yet.  In the final round Hairston was up against John Scalpi in his beautiful 57’ Chevy Bel Air.  Unable to keep up with John running a 6.34 @ 255 mph, Clint happily took a very close second, with a 6.48 @ 235 mph.

Hairston still holds the Pacific Street Car Association (PSCA) Pro Street National E.T. and MPH record that was set at Fontana on May 23, 2010 (6.084 @ 238.30 mph) and the West Coast Hot Rod Association (WCHRA) national speed record that was set in Famoso on July 17, 2010. (240.77 mph)

Hairston Motorsports Sets Another Record!

The Hairston Motorsports & Racing team attended the West Coast Hot Rod Association (WCHRA) California Nationals, at the famous Famoso Raceway, this past weekend.  Clint “The Milkman” Hairston of Bakersfield qualified 3rd with a 6.79 @ 230.94 mph struggling with traction problems on all three qualifiers.  Randy Walker set the bar pretty high with a stout 6.281 pass for the #1 spot.

Dealing with extreme heat all weekend was a struggle but Jake Hairston, Crew Chief, and Doug Stewart, Co-Crew Chief/Clutch Specialist were able to make the right changes allowing Clint to take his Jerry Bickel built 2007 GTO to the final round against Randy Walker’s 1974 Chevrolet El Camino, the reigning 2009 WCHRA Pro Street Champion.  Clint took out Jay Diedrich’s beautiful Pro Mod 57 Chevy in the Semi-Finals with a blistering 6.201 @ 240.32 mph setting up the final with Walker.  Unfortunately, Walker was unable to restart his car after stalling in the water box giving Clint a single for the win.  Jim Hairston, Team Owner, commented that “Clint asked Jake if he should just take the bulb and idle down the track, but Jake rifled back NO WAY, we want the record GO FOR IT.”  Clint did not disappoint the crowd running a 6.183 @ 240.77 mph setting the new WCHRA National Speed record.

Hairston also holds the Pacific Street Car Association Pro Street National E.T. and MPH record that was set at Fontana on May 23, 2010 (6.084 @ 238.30 mph).

Hairston Motorsports Statement re: LVMS

Hairston Motorsports & Racing Qualifies #1 In Las Vegas & Goes to The Finals

 LAS VEGAS, Nevada (June 18-19, 2010) – The Hairston Motorsports & Racing team attended the Pacific Street Car Association (PSCA) California Nationals, in Las Vegas this past weekend.  Clint “The Milkman” Hairston of Bakersfield qualified #1 with a 6.18 @ 238 mph, achieving both top speed and low E.T. of the day.

Clint and the Jerry Bickel built 2007 GTO made it to the final round on Saturday against Randy Walker’s 1974 Chevrolet El Camino, the reigning 2009 PSCA Pro Street Champion.   The final race ended in controversy.  During engine maintenance between rounds, the Walker team was unable to replace damaged oil rings on the driver’s side of the motor.  In the staging lanes, Walker’s crew warned us that the engine would probably smoke until the nitrous system was activated but they didn’t think it would be problem.  Unfortunately the engine smoke was much worse than expected and in HMR’s opinion may have affected the timing system allowing the Walker car to leave the starting line early without red lighting. 

An official statement from the PSCA states “Representatives from Hairston Motorsports along with Track Manager Chris Blair, Nate Hirshi and PSCA President Mel Roth reviewed the LVMS video replays and could not find conclusive evidence that Walker’s car left the starting line before the tree went green.. There was questions raised that Walker left too early but the smoke prevented the red light to activate…” What was not mentioned is that because the smoke was so thick several of the camera views were obstructed.  When asked about looking at any other video evidence, Chris Blair said that only official track video could be accepted. 

Walker’s time slip numbers were not realistic showing a 5.886 ET, .468 60’, 2.301 330’ and 3.698 1/8 further indicating a timing system malfunction.   Mel Roth, PSCA President and Race Director, also agreed the time slip was not valid and decided to disallow the numbers but awarded the win to Walker.  Although we agree that the Race Director does have the final word when there is controversy, Mel’s decision is not consistent with the National Hot Rod Association’s race day competition guidelines.  There is much precedent in this area both at NHRA National and Divisional events.  Had this same situation occurred at an NHRA event the run would have been disallowed because of the invalid time slip.  Further, if NHRA officials determined that the timing system failure was caused by one of the competitor’s cars, the offending competitor would have been disqualified regardless of the win light results.  If no fault could be found with the car then a rerun would have been required.

HRM wants to make it clear that in know way do we feel that Walker Racing did anything wrong.   Although their car was smoking badly literally obstructing our driver’s view of the track, the LVMS starter found no reason to shut their car off and motioned for both cars to stage.  Again it is HRM’s opinion that the smoke created an unacceptable safety situation because of limited starting line visibility.  Video of the run can be found on our website www.hairstonmotorsports.com showing visibility in our lane. 

HRM thought it important to share our position on this incident with our sponsors, fans, interested racing media; LVMS track personnel and management and PSCA officials.  We have the utmost respect for the LVMS race track officials and PSCA officials and although we disagreed with the outcome, our team will move on to the next race with no hard feelings only disappointment.       

Hairston set the event low E.T and high MPH on Saturday, 6.12 @ 240 MPH, and still holds the Pacific Street Car Association Pro Street National E.T. and MPH record that was set at California Nationals, in Fontana on  May 23, 2010.  (6.084 @ 238.30 mph)

Hairston Motorsports & Racing would like to give special thanks to Lucas Oil for being our title sponsor this year and also thank our many other loyal sponsors; Pertronix, Duttweiler Performance, PrecisionTurbo, XS Power, Powermaster, Racepak, Hoosier Tire, K&N, Crower Clutches, Lenco, Comp Cams, Hogan Manifolds, Jesel, Strange, Motive Gear, SCE Gaskets, Starside Design, Specialty Fasteners, Russell, Brodix and ARP for their continuing support.  Special thanks go out again to Doug Stewart, Bill Hickok and Tom Esbri for their amazing support for this team.

The Hairston team’s next event will take place at the Pacific Street Car Association California Nationals in Fontana, CA on September 10-12, 2010.