W
hen Alex Hays and his
father, Pat, loaded up their
naturally aspirated ’92
Ford Mustang and made the
18-hour drive to Valdosta
from their garage in Canton, Michigan, they
admittedly had no expectations for the weekend.
An offseason switch from a carburetor to
electronic fuel injection would inevitably lead
to some growing pains, but the new combination
instead resulted in new personal bests in
Ultra Street.
“This thing is just a rocket
ship now,” Hays says. “I can’t say
enough about the guys at Holley
and their EFI program. They’ve
been nothing but helpful in this
transition. We’ve had numerous
engineers coming over here all
day long, checking in on us and
making sure everything is cool.”
Everything was most assuredly
cool after the first few hits at a
green South Georgia Motorsports
Park eighth mile. Hays recorded
the all-time quickest Ultra Street
60-foot time on his way to the
No. 1 qualifying position. He was
also qualified No. 13 in Radial vs.
the World after the first quali-
fying session, when most of the
high-powered regulars failed to
make it down the tricky track.
Hays would later slip out of the
Radial vs. the World 32-car field,
but he wasn’t worried about that.
His Radial vs. the World entry
was merely a tactic to double his
shots at the track.
“We come to this race and we
know Ultra Street is kind of
like the red-headed stepchild,”
Hays says. “But it’s been getting
better over the years. The race has
definitely improved since the first
time we came down here in 2015.
Donald has been doing a great job.
We figured if we want to make
passes, let’s enter Radial vs. the
World because we know they’re
going to get passes and the track
prep will be on kill – and it was.”
While Hays’s weekend ended
early when his high-winding,
Uratchko Racing Engines-built
588 ci big block Chevy ate a valve
on a first-round single, the outing
was still considered a victory by
everyone involved. The offsea-
son changes did what they were
supposed to do, and perhaps more
importantly, Hays continued to
prove that his all-motor Mus-
tang is a legitimate Ultra Street
power player.
“We like to do stupid things like
go out and try to run a naturally
aspirated combination in a power
adder class,” Hays laughs. “I just
like stuff that’s loud – high-rev-
ving, loud stuff that takes a lot
more ingenuity behind it to make
it work. It’s hard to make a natu-
rally aspirated car run up front in
a class full of ProChargers, turbos,
all that stuff.”
As for the Mickey Thompson
Pro 275 radials Hays uses to put
all that power to the ground, don’t
expect those to change anytime
soon either.
“I’ll never go back to slicks,”
Hays declares. “After taking the
29.5s off, running all-motor
NMCA stuff, I would never put a
slick back on my car. I’ll go down
a slick-prepped track or a no-prep
track before I try to put slicks
back on.”
– NATE VAN WAGNEN
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