Last weekend at the inaugural NMCA WEST Muscle Car Nationals event at the Auto Club Famoso Raceway in Bakersfield, Calif., True 10.5 competitor Ryan “Toaster” Jones reeled off the quickest documented quarter-mile pass ever on a set of 275 drag radials when he recorded a 7.25 at a booming 197 mph in his 1965 Chevrolet Nova.

On his second qualifying shot on Saturday at the fabled Famoso strip, Jones was 1.27 to sixty-feet, 4.779 at 158.56 mph to half track, 6.11 to 1000-feet, and 7.255 at 197.08 out the back gate. That run was strong enough to qualify him second behind the slick-tired Camaro of Al Jimenez.

Jones’ beautiful red Nova out of Canoga Park, Calif. sports power from an inline/conventional-headed 406 cubic inch small block with a pair of turbochargers.

Jones’ accomplishment hasn’t been the only headline for 275-equipped racers of late, as just the weekend prior, NMRA Super Street Outlaw-turned-X275 racer Andrew DeMarco wheeled his turbocharged Mustang to the first 200 mph run in history on the little radials at the New England Dragway on the completely opposite end of the country from Jones.

Thus far, 275 radial racing has remained almost exclusively on the eighth-mile, with new full quarter-mile records few and far between. But with the six-second zone in sight and some East coast pride taking effect after a left-coaster stole away the record, a little battle for supremacy could be on the horizon.