25th Haltech World Cup Finals

The 25th annual Haltech World Cup Finals was arguably one of the best runnings yet! 400 racers invaded Maryland International Raceway for a 5-day battle to see who was the quickest on the property. 

With over 10 classes on tap, spectators got a chance to see a little bit of everything that drag racing had to offer. We were fortunate enough to be on-site providing tech support and got to witness our customers take home three class wins!

Radial vs. Modified

Radial vs. Modified was one of the quickest classes of the week, with racers running deep into the six-second zone on a small drag radial. Haltech Hero Bill Lutz sent shockwaves through the field after he went 6.187 @ 227 MPH in qualifying, confidently putting him atop the ladder for eliminations. 

Bill and his screw-blown Camaro Pro Mod was dealt hard racing and broken parts through eliminations and faced fellow Haltech controlled racer Andy Manson in the final round. Andy and his twin-turbo Mustang just came off an impressive run at No Mercy in October and qualified #4 for this event with an equally impressive 6.503 @ 211 MPH.

Both drivers pre-staged, waiting for the other to turn on the second bulb, after several tense seconds, Andy lit the final stage bulb. The tree dropped and Andy had a slight reaction time advantage, but Bill’s 60 foot was arguably better. It was dead even until the 100-foot mark when Bill suddenly broke loose ending the race. Andy cruised to a 6.458 @ 201 taking home the win! Congratulations to both drivers for a great effort this past week and for putting on an awesome show for spectators!

Wild Street

David Consentino has been flying the MK3 Supra banner for several years and his car can proudly claim the title of World’s Fastest MK3. The 2J powered Supra set a new personal best in qualifying with an impressive 7.619 @ 182 MPH in the cool Maryland air. Although that was good enough to put him fifth in qualifying for the Wild Street class, eliminations proved to be tough as there was a .3 spread between the top five cars. 

Always up for a challenge, David dug deep and kept edging out wins, round after round until facing the #1 qualifier of Christine Dodworth and her ‘13 GTR in the finals. Both cars staged, but David got way out ahead on the tree and Christine played catch up through the rest of the pass. David not only took home the win but backed up his previous record with a 7.622 @ 183 MPH. Huge shoutout to David and his team for an epic victory in a very tough class!

All Motor

When you think of an all motor class, you might picture Domestic cars with V8’s and you would be right. But Adam Hall likes to do things differently, and his ‘97 Honda Civic with its naturally aspirated K24 is one mean little front-wheel-drive racer. After qualifying fifth with a 9.404 @ 144, Adam was stuck in the bottom half of the ladder where he had to face faster cars all weekend. 

Adam made his way through the field and faced off against Keith Vaughn and his LS3 powered ‘87 Corvette in the final round. Keith left first and packed the front wheels to the 60-foot mark, but Adam didn’t give up. Slowly reeling the C4 Corvette in through the entire pass, the little Civic crossed the line less than half a car length in the lead. Not only did Adam take home the win, he set a new personal best with a 9.357 @ 145 MPH. A great way to cap off a tough, but a rewarding week, great work Adam! 

Honorable Mentions

There can only be so many winners, but we’d still like to give a nod to these Haltech controlled racers who put in a great effort this past week at World Cup Finals.

Mark Benston Jr. is a true wheelman, racking up win lights all over the country. This past week he brought his new hot rod, an ‘02 Camaro with a 959 powerplant, to take on the top-dog Outlaw vs. Extreme class. The best part? They wired in a Nexus R5 at the racetrack on Wednesday! 

As Mark tells us, he “Got the car up and running and planned for testing on Thursday. But when that got cancelled, we had to go straight into qualifying. The second run on the new system, we ran a 5.89 @ 222 MPH! This was on a planned early shut off pass that put us number #3 qualifier.” 

An incredible feat, and after taking out both imports in rounds 1 & 2 he looked to be a top contender. Unfortunately, a mishap with an unplugged sensor ended his weekend and he did not advance past the semi-finals. We look forward to seeing what this combination can do next season!

Jacob Conant and his beautiful ‘14 Ford GT500 made the trek to World Cup Finals to try and take home the win in Street Fighter. After multiple passes in the cool Maryland air, Jacob qualified third with his 7.107 @ 189 MPH blast. Putting up the good fight, he went multiple rounds but unfortunately ended his weekend in the semi-finals. We want to thank Jacob for choosing us to control his wicked fast Mustang and wish him good luck this weekend at the ModNationals event in Georgia.

Devin Schultz has been trying to break into the six-second 1/4 mile zone for the last few seasons and this year he came closer than ever! His all-wheel-drive DSM reset his existing E.T. record and claimed the H-pattern shifted MPH record with a 7.012 @ 216 MPH pass in Stick Shift eliminations! It’s likely we will see him finally get that six-second time slip next season!

See you all next year!

We want to thank all of our customers who made the long haul to Maryland and helped make the 25th Haltech World Cup finals one of the best ever! While the season draws to a close, we look forward to seeing what new combinations our customers come up with for 2022!