“ I LOVE HOW THEY’ RE ALWAYS COMING UP WITH NEW WAYS TO MAKE POWER AND USE THE POWER WE’ RE MAKING.” was number one at qualifying until I qualified number one. So we were one and two. I knew I was going to have to Tony in the finals but the way it came down on the same side of the tree, he had Kevin in the Underground Racing R8, which is a very fast car.
Texas Invitational are not simply this massive collection of crazy highhorsepower cars, but the reliability they demonstrate on the course and in competition. It’ s one thing to have a 2,200-horsepower Lamborghini- very impressive, very cool- but to seemingly make 100 passes down the airstrip in the car at over 200mph- that borders on unbelievable.
BH: What has really gotten me in this is the ability to be so in touch with Kevin [ Howeth ] and K. C. [ Howeth ] at Underground Racing- to work so closely together each time you get involved in something new and adding something to the car. They have allowed me to participate with them, bring some old school stuff to the table. Their handle on the technology and how to apply it is mind-blowing. We’ ve done a lot of really cool things together, and I love how they’ re always coming up with new ways to make power and use the power we’ re making. But every time you advance, every time you add more horsepower, then whatever the weakest link is in that chain, you’ re going to find it. It’ s going to pop up, and each time you deal with it, you take care of all your weak links based upon that horsepower level. These guys at Underground Racing, they are mindblowing at this. They are very, very focused. I like the way they work it when you’ re actually involved in the racing. The racing aspect is very important. If you’ re out there racing and you’ re having to race against the shop owner, to some degree there’ s an issue of how fair is that. Well, it isn’ t because you have other shop owners out there doing the exact same thing. So part of what we do has to do with the shop and the camaraderie amongst working with the shop, working with the team and sort of having a team Underground approach, which is exactly what we do. But what does happen and what you saw [ at the Texas Invitational ] is a perfect example of the owner doing exactly what they should do, and that was we knew as we were coming down in the eliminations, the guy we had to watch was Tony [ Palo ]. So when we came down toward the end, it was obvious it was Underground Racing versus Tony’ s shop T1, and Tony had run some great speeds. He
“ I LOVE HOW THEY’ RE ALWAYS COMING UP WITH NEW WAYS TO MAKE POWER AND USE THE POWER WE’ RE MAKING.” was number one at qualifying until I qualified number one. So we were one and two. I knew I was going to have to Tony in the finals but the way it came down on the same side of the tree, he had Kevin in the Underground Racing R8, which is a very fast car.
The good news for me is Kevin had a chance to run Tony before I was going to have to run him in the final, and Kevin took him out. I mean he had that car running pretty good, so he took Tony out. And Kevin retired the R8. He parked it. He had done what he needed to do. You had one shop owner versus the other shop owner going heads up and Kevin had won. What was left to prove? He had two of his top customers- myself and Gidi Chamdi- standing there. He let the two customers go head to head. That’ s how you do it. That’ s good sportsmanship within the team and that’ s how you do it.
SRM: It was great to see the owners of the car actually drive them and have the opportunity to race and decide a winner. What do you remember about that matchup with Gidi?
BH: Gidi and I are friends. We get along great. It’ s just when it gets right down to it, I walked over to Gidi right before we ran the finals and I said straight up, I said,“ My friend, I want to tell you upfront I’ m not going to give you one inch. I’ m going to get after it out there.’ I said,‘ I’ m going to run my race. I’ m not going to play any head games with you in any way at all. I’ m going to get out quick. I’ m going to be ready to go. But there’ s no quarter, no mercy.’ And we laughed about it. That’ s how it has to be. That’ s how you race.
SRM: It’ s old news now, but you did it- you made a great run in the final- 216-plus- and took the win, earning your first King of the Street crown. At this point, with as far as all this roll racing and airfield racing has come, we’ re curious- what kind of power does it take to make a run like that, to earn that exclusive title?
BH: There’ s lot of different things floating around as far as the numbers go. What are we really making? We’ re around the 2,400 to
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