Twist Of Fate: $10K Drag Shootout Cars Damaged In Freak Fire

The second season of the Horsepower Wars $10K Drag Shootout has, as you’ve already seen through the series’ six build episodes, been filled with drama, surprises, and twists and turns that couldn’t have been scripted any better by Hollywood. And four months after the build phase of the completion was completed and the four cars finalized, fate has fired one more salvo.

While en route to Summit Racing Equipment in McDonough, Georgia, where the four cars of the $10K Drag Shootout were to be displayed for shoppers before the race at No Mercy X in late October, a fire that is believed to have been sparked by a brake failure on the car hauler ravaged three of the machines, doing extensive damage to two of the cars and all but destroying the third.

The fire, captured by news cameras on the side of the interstate in Las Cruces, New Mexico, showed the extent of the ordeal, as the fire ignited the COMP Cams Dream Team’s SN95 Mustang and the Sport Utility Vehicle positioned underneath it. The blaze, as the images show, spread to the front half of Team Bigun’s Ford Granada wagon, damaging the engine compartment and electronics. Team Enemies Everywhere’s Camaro came away relatively unscathed, with the heat from the fire damaging the rear bumper, hatch, and taillights. Only Midwest Mayhem’s Oldsmobile Cutlass was spared from the blaze.

Team Bigun's nitrous big-block (left), the interior of the Dream Team Mustang (center), and the rear portion of Enemies Everywhere's Camaro.

With less than four weeks until No Mercy in South Georgia and both repairs and preparations for those repairs not fitting within that timeline, Horsepower Wars staff, in cooperation with the four teams, have put a plan in place for the three effected squads to return to the Horsepower Wars build center and repair their respective cars. The race will then be conducted at Lights Out 11 next February.

For the Dream Team, the repairs will be extensive, as the SN95 shell was fully involved at the height of the fire, leaving little behind but the factory metal itself. Nevertheless, the team, led by COMP’s Dave Henninger, driver Keith Berry, and returning builder Jesse Adams, is highly motivated to rebuild its machine and vie for victory with the same confidence and enthusiasm it had when the car was finalized and fired the first time. Both Bigun and Enemies Everywhere are likewise upbeat about the situation in the face of adversity, and the way in which all four teams have come together to support one another in these most unfortunate of circumstances stands as an example of the friendship born out of this unique competition.

(Left and center) Team Bigun's Granada, and the Dream Team's charred engine.

Horsepower Wars will air an additional episode in early 2020 highlighting the teams’ efforts to repair their machines for the $10K Drag Shootout, followed of course by the planned series finale featuring the big winner-take-all $10,000 drag race. Yesterday the last build episode aired as scheduled, however, dedicated editorial features on each of the four cars will follow starting next week.

The $10K Drag Shootout: 2 is made possible with the support of a number of industry giants, including Summit Racing EquipmentCOMP Cams, K&N Filters, MAHLE, Moser Engineering, BMR SuspensionVictor-Reinz Gaskets, SpeedWire, Total Seal, US Gear, Spectre Performance, E3 Spark Plugs, E3 Ignition Components, PRW, ARP, Fragola, Aerospace Components, Lucas Oil, DynaBatt, Mickey Thompson Tires, Moroso, and VP Racing Fuels.

About the author

Andrew Wolf

Andrew has been involved in motorsports from a very young age. Over the years, he has photographed several major auto racing events, sports, news journalism, portraiture, and everything in between. After working with the Power Automedia staff for some time on a freelance basis, Andrew joined the team in 2010.
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