CHRIS TERRY

For the most recent Winter Series, Terry tuned Tidwell’ s Harts Charger-boosted“ Silver Bullet”’ 69 Camaro. NHRA Pro Mod standout Justin Bond drove it at the first two races, then Stanfield switched from his screw-blown Elite Motorsports late-model Camaro to the Silver Bullet for the WSOPM. After missing the field at the first two DIWS races, the Pro Mod newcomer qualified No. 8 and made his way to the final round, where he defeated newly crowned DIWS champion Peter Norton in a sideby-side race with $ 150,000 on the line.

“ Even to this day, it’ s still unbelievable,” Terry says a few months later.“ For that to be my first win, it’ s pretty amazing. It’ s awesome getting to work with such top-level drivers. That’ s all Scott, with him working that out and getting the driver talent to work with.”

Immediately after WSOPM, Terry swapped the Silver Bullet over to quarter-mile NHRA Pro Mod trim to compete at the season-opening NHRA Gatornationals. With Derek Menholt driving and Brandon Stroud on the keyboard, the Silver Bullet won again.

“ There’ s just not much you can say about it. It’ s just a really good car,” Terry says.“ Scott bought the car a couple of years ago. That car has been around, and they struggled with it a lot, so we changed up a lot on the chassis. I had Chris Bell go through all the shocks and struts and redo all of those, and we fixed a lot of stuff on the car. It’ s just a really good car.”

As the summer stretch of the season began, the Scott Tidwell Racing operation headed north to U. S. 131 Motorsports Park for the Shakedown at M’ Town featuring both the MWDRS and the Radial Outlaws series. With two days of pre-race testing built into the schedule, it was the perfect

opportunity to allow Gargus to make his Pro Mod debut. For the third time this season and with as many different drivers, the Silver Bullet ended the weekend in the winner’ s circle. Gargus won in his Pro Mod debut.

“ Racing with Paul is always special because we’ ve been doing it so long,” Terry says.“ He took a bit of a break, so I was just happy to get him back in a car. It just all worked out. He took right to it. He said it’ s totally different than driving the radial car. He said there’ s nothing the same about it, but he did a great job.”

Terry says the team’ s main objective for the rest of the season is to win a world championship in JBS Equipment NHRA Pro Mod presented by Elite Motorsports with either Menholt or Collins.

They also plan to run as many outlaw events and IHRA races as possible in between.

The group could very easily stop now and call it a successful season with what they accomplished in just the first few months of the year. Terry attributes the team’ s incredible track record to Tidwell and the talent he’ s assembled.

“ That’ s Scott’ s deal. He’ s put together such good people,” says Terry, who also credits his wife, Ashlei, and his son, Cameron, for their support and efforts back at his shop, Chris Terry Racing.“ Cars are one thing, but the hardest part to find is the people. We’ ve got Steve and Brandon, two of the best out there. We’ ve got good crew guys working on the cars, but just the whole team he’ s put together is what’ s brought his success.” DI

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