New Outlaw 10.5 Record SET!

Just a few short years ago, the battle for the baddest small tire class in the world was all the rage. The long-time kings of the small tire world, the 10.5” wide slick cars known as Outlaw 10.5, were being challenged by the upstart Radial vs the World cars. Built on similar platforms with similar rules, it made sense that their quickest competitors would be reasonably close in performance.

The radial cars caught up with OL10.5 and have long since surpassed them in performance thanks in large part to the evolution of the drag radial itself and in track prep techniques that allow the tire to maintain incredible traction, but the OL10.5 guys are still doing their thing, mostly on the east coast, and their biggest event each year is the always fun and entertaining Yellowbullet Nationals.

Held each year on Labor Day weekend, the Yellowbullet’s bring racers and fans alike to Cecil County Dragway in Maryland together for a weekend of racing and fellowship with each other with the showcase being the Outlaw 10.5 class. This year, Steve Decker brought out his wicked blown C7 Corvette, only he had a little surprise for the 10.5 contingent. Decker bolted on radials instead of slicks for this year’s event, opting to give the world of dead hook a try, and as you can see in this awesome footage from Hans at Free Life Films, the change paid off in a big way.

After laying down some fresh rubber, Decker bumped into the staging beams and as soon as the tree dropped, he blasted his way to a new Outlaw 10.5 record (the car still runs under the OL10.5 rules set, which allows the teams to choose radial tires if they want) of 3.89 seconds. The interesting part is the MPH, which is a full 20 or so lower than what it should have been. If you look closely around the 2/3 mark on the track, you’ll see a brief haze around the car, indicating that he actually banged the blower and was literally coasting for the last couple of hundred feet. Needless to say, there’s still  some performance left if he’s able to make a full hit under power.

Thanks as always to Hans for the excellent video. We’ll be bringing you more from FLF and the Yellowbullet Nat throughout the week.