Before The Murder Nova, Shawn Drove The Wheels Off This 10.5 Chevy!

Before he became known simply as “Murder Nova” to the masses, Street Outlaws star Shawn Ellington was just a small time local racer in Oklahoma City. While he had some fast cars, like the clean 1955 Chevy seen in this video from all the way back in 2011, if you weren’t part of the Midwest 10.5 racing scene, you likely wouldn’t have known his name.

In this video, shot at Thunder Valley Raceway Park in Noble, OK, you can see that Shawn has always had a knack for finding the ragged edge, be it on the track or, as we would learn later, on the streets. The 55 was a regular sight in the 10.5 world and, thanks to passes like this one, the car was a fan favorite.

Powered by what I believe was a nitrous-injected big block, the car was built for small tire racing and worked amazingly well. Planting the rear tire and sending the nose skyward, it looked as if the rear bumper was just about to drag the ground, but Shawn blips the throttle – quite masterfully, if I may say so – and brings the nose back down nice and easy.

Had he kept his foot planted, dragging the bumper might have put on a show, but can also cause the car to lean to one side and lose control. If he pulls his foot completely out of the throttle, the nose would almost certainly drop back to the track hard, slamming to the ground and damaging the oil pan, crossmember, and/or the front suspension. Instead, he tapped the throttle and brought the nose down with very little drama.

However, it does look like the car in the other lane capitalized on the blip and was just able to drive around Shawn on top end to turn on the win light, but it was still a great race and the ’55 put on one hell of a show! There is a lot of video of this car out there in the vast expanse of the interwebs, so if you see it again, you know how who’s behind the wheel!