said.“ He’ s felt pressure, he knows pressure, and I have too. I’ ve raced in every type of racing you can do and I feel we can excel at anything, so I never let pressure get to me, but to beat a guy that is quite possibly one of the best NFL linemen ever, it means more than just outrunning a typical guy.”
BILL LUTZ, LARRY LARSON, TOMMY HOSKINSON, BRIAN WEDDLE AND JOEL GREATHOUSE LEAD ADDITIONAL SNOWBIRDS WINNERS
BY NATE VAN WAGNEN • PHOTOGRAPHS BY LUKE NIEUWHOF
ALONG WITH Pro Mod, the Snowbird Outlaw Nationals featured several other supporting categories representing small-tire, no-time, and bracket racing. Each class added its own unique flair to the event thanks to a group of racers that converged on Bradenton Motorsports Park from points across the country and beyond.
Agostino’ s 4.077 at 176.42 in the semis. In the final round, Cox left the starting line first in his nitrous-assisted“ Training Day”’ 69 Camaro, but Lutz powered to a 3.886 at 193.88 to get around Cox’ s 3.951 at 182.11.
“ To race somebody of his caliber, obviously an elite athlete, and I don’ t care what anybody says, that all transfers over into this type of deal,” Lutz
TRUE 10.5 N / T ➤ Chassis builder Larry Larson has made his mark in multiple corners of the sport, from dragand-drive to No Prep Kings. His latest venture into 28x10.5 slick-tire no-time racing, which included a $ 75,000 win at the King of the South race at Shadyside Dragway in May, continued Saturday night with the $ 40,000 True 10.5 N / T win at the Snowbirds. He raced past Ryan Martin, Ryan Hendrickson, and Memphis Raines before getting a semifinal bye run when Cole Pesz couldn’ t make the call. Larson then defeated Russell Stone in the final round.
“ It was just a good day,” Larson said.“ There’ s some fast, fast cars out here. People would be astonished how fast you can go on that little bitty tire, but it’ s a cool class. I think it’ s going to be the up-and-coming thing. It’ s cool. I think we proved that the King of the South wasn’ t a fluke.”
LIL GANGSTAS ➤ A pair of young guns with strong backgrounds in their own respective niches within the sport met up in the $ 20,000 Lil Gangstas final round. In Lil Gangstas, no times are shown, but drivers can’ t run quicker than 5.30 seconds in the eighth mile. The drivers who handled that challenge the best on Saturday night were Ohio’ s Tommy Hoskinson and Florida’ s Gage Burch. Hoskinson
PRO 10.5 ➤ After competing at the World Series of Pro Mod for the past two seasons, Pro 10.5 joined the full three-race Winter Series lineup. Ohiobased doorslammer veteran Bill Lutz entered the series with something to prove, and he did just that with a decisive win over Super Bowl champion Fletcher Cox in the $ 10,000 final round.
“ We’ ve had a car to win here multiple years and either the driver messes up or something happened to the car,” said Lutz, who thanked his team led by son Kenny and tuner Patrick Miller.“ The car was just phenomenal from the day we unloaded it, and I told them after the first run, I was like,‘ This is our weekend. We’ re going to win this damn thing,’ and here we are.”
After qualifying No. 3 in his screw-blown“ Big Boost”’ 67 Camaro, Lutz set low E. T. of the opening round with a 3.935 at 192.66 to defeat Jerry Morgano and his 3.966 at 195.79. He coasted to the finish line on a quarterfinal bye run, then posted a 3.969 at 183.24 over Nick
➤ BILL LUTZ
80 | Drag Illustrated | DragIllustrated. com Issue 198