Top Pound for Pound 8.50 Racers – Fast Act Racing Repeats SRSBPA Class Win
Brian Acton and Jay Blanchard make up the team at Fast Act Racing, competing with Brian’s Baker Engineering powered Turbo LS 1970 Chevrolet Nova. These guys have become known for their ability to dial-in 8.50x passes on any track across the country. This was evident as the team submitted three 8.50x passes to lock up their third Street Race Small Block Power Adder podium finish of 2023!!
The Summit Racing Midwest Drags requires racers to submit 2 passes per day, this requires a lot of strategy and patience as we are racing on different surfaces each day. Strategy is a team effort here, but Jay is the leading force for data, with a folder full of more than 300 passes and tune settings. Brian is one of the best drivers I’ve seen in this class and is deadly consistent with the car.
Leading the Class by just 0.0145!
The guys took advantage of the test passes on Moser Monday after getting registered. Those extra few passes helped to set the suspension and tune for Tuesday, the first day of competition. The guys were one of the last cars to leave because they were unhappy with their ETs to start the day. Eventually, the car came around and they submitted timeslips that put them in the lead for Day One. Their times for day one were 8.528 and 8.513, giving them an average of 8.5205. Leading the class by just 0.0145 seconds! One great story from day one came by rescue of the team at Mickey Thompson Tires. Brian picked up a sliver of metal that was unrepairable, luckily the guys at MT had a replacement tire with nearly the same rollout!
After a hot and bumpy 300 miles to Atco Dragway in NJ, the guys were ready for day two of competition. The track team at Atco were great and the surface was sticky all day. The guys struggled though, making eight total passes, and turned in some of their slowest ETs of the event. They ended the day still in first place with their 8.540 and 8.537 passes, leading by a larger margin of 0.0285! Giving the guys an event average of 8.5295. The best pass of Day Two belonged to Mike Maione, in his Foxbody Mustang, with his run of 8.517.
Fastest Submittable Passes of Event!
The guys knew they had to make moves at Cecil County if they were going to repeat their Class Win. Especially once Pat Reed laid down TWO 8.509 passes early in the day!! Cecil County Dragway had the best traction of the event, causing the Nova to struggle with running too fast, and then too slow… In all, the team made six passes at Cecil, 3 of which were too fast. But their persistence paid off with the guys running back to back 8.508 passes! These were also the fastest (submittable) passes of the class! They were one of the last teams to leave for the day, meaning they were destined for stop and go traffic through Philadelphia and intense in-car heat. This drive proved too difficult for many of the teams, with several cars bowing out between day three and four.
With a lead margin of just 0.0192 seconds, and back at Virginia Motorsports Park, the guys could lay it on the line. Jay and Brian were feverishly doing math to see what it would take to win. Watching and listening to all class racer passes kept them up to date on what ETs they needed to run. They finally got their 8.50x pass with an 8.509. As I passed Jay, he stated, to win they only needed a mid 8.60s pass. Their final pass of the event came about an hour later with an 8.585. Their hard work resulted in the class winning average of 8.529!!
Now able to relax, Jay and Brian went to work helping other racers. Lending some weight to Rob Ambrose and Matt Lang to fight for the lead in the SME 10.00 Index class. They also provided weight for Ryan Hargett in an attempt to go even faster, but it wasn’t in the cards for Hargett.
If you aren’t already, I highly recommend you follow the team at Fast Act Racing on Facebook. They are the pound for pound best competitors in 8.50 drag-n-drive racing right now. This is their third podium finish in 8.50 drag-n-drive events for 2023.
Sick Week 2023 – 8.570 Average – Third Place
The Circuit 2023 – 8.539 Average – Champion
Summit Racing Midwest Drags 2023 – 8.529 Average – Champion
This win places them in the top level of Drag-N-Drive World Championship points with 66 points!!
The guys wanted to thank the companies involved with the car’s performance:
We look forward to their participation in Hot Rod Drag Week later this season! Look for a special announcement to be made from the team that will coincide with Drag Week competitors!
Photos taken and edited by Eric White of Drag-N-Drive Addiction
