Drag Illustrated Issue 150, November 2019 | Page 22
Dirt
up to race with the high-horsepower car.
“No one could tell which one I was driving,”
Holt says with a smile. “I would troll people hard.
One car made 250 horsepower, the other one
made 450!”
As he became more familiar with the street
game, life would bring him back to Oklahoma on
a regular basis, and this would thrust him into
one of the biggest racing scenes in the country.
“I was driving back and forth from Oklahoma
City to Florida a couple times a year to see my
girlfriend [now wife],” Holt says. “And while I
was home, I started street racing in OKC. The
car ran mid 11s and was pretty quick for ’05
or ’06. That’s when I met all the, now-Street
Outlaws guys. There was not many import guys
around OKC trying to street race. I remember
“Big Chief ” [Justin Shearer] making a callout
on a local forum, and I was the only dumbass to
come race him. It was a good memory, though.
We roll raced from 40-160, with cops watching
us on a bridge. We both kind of said, ‘F*ck it,’
and still went. I did lose the race, but I don’t
think he thought the car was as fast as it was.
He only got me by a car or so.”
As fate would have it, a freak accident nearly
took his life, forcing Holt to step away from golf.
“I had to give up my golf dream due to get-
ting ran over by a car in February of 2007,” Holt
explains. “It was a freak deal where a guy had a
seizure and hit me and my wife while walking
in a parking lot.”
This meant Jared would need to find other
means of supporting his racing habit.
“I started making money in the car business,
and I began to buy the cars I always wanted,” Holt
explains. “I had a Viper, Rx7, Supra, Syclone, ’99
VR4, etc. Then around 2012, I got the chance to
get on Street Outlaws and race Farmtruck. The
Supra only made 700 horsepower and I got de-
stroyed. I reached out to the best in the business,
Real Street Performance, and they transformed
the car into what it is today. In 2016, Jay Meagher
[owner of Real Street] took my car to Hot Rod
Drag Week. This was the first time an import had
placed during the history event (James Meagher
– 8.277 MPH, 163.272).
The car showed promise, and proved to the
world that small displacement, forced induction
combinations are competitive against domestic
muscle. But this wouldn’t be the last of Jared and
Jay’s successes on the big stage.
“After Drag Week, the car was put back together
and we brought it to Oklahoma to run Outlaw
Armageddon,” Holt adds. “This was the first time
no-prep racing the car, and with very little testing,
we made it all the way to the semis and lost to the
eventual winner. We skipped the 2017 and 2018
Armageddon events due to scheduling issues, but
we returned in 2019. The field was as big as it ever
has been, with the heaviest hitters in True Street.
“Once again with zero testing time and two
passes on Thursday night, we were able to go
faster and faster, and eventually win the event,”
Holt says. “This is the largest no-prep race in
the world, and we won with a real street car!
I’m talking OEM glass windows, all OEM body
panels, power windows, power mirrors, etc. It’s
a 183ci inline 6-banger, with IRS suspension.
It’s a pretty crazy feat. And for someone like me
who only gets to race a few times a year, I was
super pumped!”
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Issue 150
I
n recent years, street racing has
made a rapid move from backroads at mid-
night to the forefront of the racing world.
While “Mexico” has been alive and well
for decades, the less-than-legal side of the sport
packs a whole different attitude and allure, which
has reinvigorated certain corners of the sport.
While many aspects of drag racing are ruled
by domestic muscle, the import market has con-
tributed some of the coolest rides in straight-line
motorsports. As of late, a Deep Jewel Green 1997
Toyota Supra has been making waves and bring-
ing home big wins across the country. The car
belongs to Jared “Jrod” Holt of Luther, Oklahoma.
Don’t let the mere 183ci engine fool you. This
Supra isn’t Brian O’Conner’s 10-second ride.
“Man, where to start with my story. I first got
into cars back in ’00 or ’01,” Holt starts. “I was
in high school and about to start driving, and
my dad told me he would buy me a car within
reason if I got a full ride to play college golf. So
after winning back-to-back state titles, I got an
offer to play golf, and 100 percent of my school
was going to be paid for. [At the time] The Fast
and the Furious was the movie, so of course I was
attracted to imports. We found a Pearl Yellow
’95 Mitsubishi 3000GT non-turbo. Soon after
we got it, I added underglows, stickers, 4-inch
straight pipe and cold-air intake. It was ’02 or
’03 – don’t judge me!”
Judgment aside, sometimes the silly things we
do as kids lead us down a path that is filled with
good friends, cool cars, and loads of awesomeness.
Not only is Holt’s Real Street Performance-built
Toyota Supra awesome, it’s incredibly fast, and
Holt has been logging big wins in high-profile
races all over the country. But it all goes back to
that 3000GT.
“I played college golf, and made it to two back-
to-back national championships,” Holt continues.
“I left school after my sophomore year to move to
Florida and work and try and play golf to make a
buck. I found a (different) Pearl Yellow ’95 VR4
3000GT in Fort Rucker, Alabama, and I snagged
the car. I went back to Panama City Beach, where
I was living, and got heavy into the car scene there.
There was lots of street action.”
Having nearly identical cars with vastly differ-
ent power levels in the street race scene allows
you to play next-level mind games. Line up a race
with your lower horsepower car, and then show