Relive the day Michael Cordova became the fastest diesel drag racer in the world and Justin Zeigler shattered the Pro Street record.
Headed into the final ODSS event of the year, the anticipation at Wagler Motorsports Park was about as thick as it’d ever been for a diesel drag race. The points chase in the 5.90 and 6.70 Index categories was extremely close, the Second Place contender in 7.70 Index was still within striking distance of pulling off an upset and the stars were all aligning for a record-setting weekend. Ideal weather conditions courtesy of Mother Nature and top-of-the-line track prep from Total Venue Concepts‘ added to the prospect of seeing eighth-mile ET’s and trap speeds no one had ever seen before.
And then it happened. Michael Cordova’s Spitzer chassis dragster rocketed through the ‘660 in 3.95 seconds during qualifying, only to push even deeper into the 3’s during his first round bye run. In Pro Street, Justin Zeigler continued his dominance with a win, but shattered the class ET and trap speed records in the process. Then, as predicted, the elimination rounds for ET Bracket and every Index class all came down to the wire. By the end of the weekend, veterans and rookies alike earned wins, and a host of familiar faces sewed up their respective championships.
For more than 10 years he dreamt it. On the weekend of September 30th he lived it. Michael Cordova owns the quickest diesel in the world. After putting up a 3.99-second eighth-mile during testing on Thursday, Michael and crew fought through a series of mishaps on Friday before breaking through on Saturday. That morning, the dragster made a 3.95-second pass at 187 mph in Q3—a pass that was anything but smooth but that earned them the number 1 qualifier. Knowing they were on to something, Michael and team decided to use their E1 bye run to put up a number. That number would become the new eighth-mile diesel elapsed time record: a 3.87 at 191 mph. A 4.15-second pass in the finals earned Michael the event win.The time slip says it all. But, in addition to the 3.87-second and 191 mph world records, have a look at that 60-foot! Until recently, breaking into the sub-1-second 60-foot zone had always eluded diesels. This statistic is a game-changer for diesel motorsports. What’s even crazier is that none of this would’ve even been possible if Michael and his crew weren’t as driven as they are (that crew includes Wrench Workz, 1X Precision Welding, S&S, Stainless Diesel, Freedom Racing Engines and Firepunk). A few weeks before the Wagler Fall Nationals, the rail’s front-end was all but totaled following a collision with a truck in the staging lanes. If it weren’t for HammerTech Racecars, we would not have seen a 3-second pass on the last weekend of September.No one has ever dominated the Pro Street field the way Justin Zeigler did this season. Not only did Justin win every event, but he earned the number 1 qualifier at every race on the schedule. His winning ways continued at Wagler Motorsports Park, but this time he threw a tune-up in the truck that he’d been saving since the Rocky Top Diesel Shootout back in July. Crossing the stripe, his Cummins-powered ’06 Dodge—the same U.C.C.-winning, 7-second quarter-miling ride once owned by Firepunk—beat the Pro Street ET record by nearly an entire tenth of a second. And in addition to Justin’s 4.74-second pass at 159 mph setting new ET and trap speed records, he was able to drive around a hard-charging (and ever-improving) Travis Trent in the finals.With Mattie Graves’ Hollyrock Customs dragster laying claim to the ODSS Pro Dragster record coming into the final race of the year, no one was surprised by her 4.06-second pass in Q3 (and it’s worth noting that, outside of ODSS, this twin-turbo Duramax-powered machine has gone 3.94 at 190 mph!). Unfortunately, a broken valve spring would take Mattie and team out of contention at Wagler’s, although she’d already secured the 2023 Pro Dragster championship. In the other lane, Jared Jones and the Scheid Diesel dragster would have their own season-ending mechanical gremlins to deal with—but not before running 4.01 and 4.05-second passes. Without a doubt, campaigning 2,000 to 3,000 hp engines for the duration of an entire race season can take a toll.Looking over the track prior to the final round of Pro Mod, the boys at Stainless Diesel affirmed they were planning to run a 4.0x for the first time in the wild, Wagler Cummins-powered ’63 Corvette they debuted last year. For the first 330 feet that looked to be the case, but shortly after half-track an exploding intercooler pipe meant that 130-psi of boost was no longer on the table. During the melee, the pig blanket cut loose and driver Johnny Gilbert switched over to shutdown mode. The scoreboard read 4.24 at 149 mph. Johnny was up against Austin Doidge, whose four-wheel drive Dodge put up a valiant effort in the Pro Mod category this season.When you’re pushing the limits of the 6.0L Power Stroke every time you fire it up, you might be Austin Denny. His team has hurt more parts than any other in Pro Street, but Austin knows better than anyone that it comes with the territory. During the third round of qualifying, the nitrous-fed, compound turbo’d 6.0L cracked the block. In the pits, the crew pulled the heads with the hope that the issue was up top, but quickly discovered a split between two cylinders. Despite the weekend-ending carnage, Austin still finished out the year third in points in diesel’s third-fastest racing category.It was an incredible rookie season in 5.90 Index for Mark Rojee. The Massachusetts native was a natural behind the wheel of the Hardway-built, full-interior ‘07 Ram 2500 formerly driven by Rod MacMaster (also a 5.90 champ). Here, he edges out Mitchell Wicklund (after being beaten on the tree) in what was one of the most exciting side-by-side, high-horsepower races of the weekend. In E2, Wicklund had run a perfect 5.9000, so needless to say everyone gathered around to watch their battle—the result of which would be a 5.91 to Wicklund’s 5.96. The victory made it three wins in a row for Mark, whose strong finish to the 2023 season earned him the 5.90 Index championship.As sure as the sun will rise tomorrow, you can always count on Landon Miller being around in the waning rounds of 6.70 Index. Over the years, we’re pretty sure he’s run every 6.70x imaginable, and after ousting Brad Helton in the semifinals it looked like he was on his way to back-to-back event wins. Uncharacteristically, Landon broke out in the final, handing the win to Ethan Hodge. However, the runner-up finish wouldn’t be enough to keep Landon from collecting the 6.70 points championship. Over in ET Bracket, where Landon is also known to be deadly, he wound up 14th in points on the season. Just for a little perspective, there were 136 drivers signed up to compete in ET Bracket this year.Longtime drag racer, Dustin Mintern, was pouring it on strong at the end of the season. Despite missing a race, he was closing in on 7.70 Index front-runner, Ryan Riddle (thee “Mr. 7.70”), and looking for his third win in a row at the Wagler Fall Nationals. But that wasn’t all. Dustin was also terrorizing the ranks of ET Bracket throughout the weekend, thanks in large part to his rock-solid consistency. Unfortunately, a break out in the 7.70 final kept him out of the winner’s circle, along with a red light in ET Bracket doing the same. If Dustin runs the entire circuit next season, watch out. He’s about as automatic as it gets in diesel drag racing, and his 300,000-mile Duramax is just getting broken in!Another rookie with a big win at the ODSS finale was Carter Glab. Like many other ET Bracket and 7.70 Index racers, he’s been mentored by lights-out driver, Nick Morris of the Full Spool team. Under Morris’s tutelage, Carter became a progressively stronger contender as the season wore on. After hanging tough all weekend at the Wagler Fall Nationals, Carter pulled out the win in ET Bracket. The W landed him a Sixth Place points finish in the class for 2023—not bad for a rookie competing in a category that (as we stated earlier) had 136 entries this year.In case you were wondering, Larson Miller and the former kings of Pro Mod were in the staging lanes at Wagler’s. Team Firepunk has been slowly working the bugs out of their new ’70 Duster build and, despite carnage taking them out of competition at the final race of the year, the 4.23-second qualifying blast it made at 168 mph looked very promising. But following the burnout before Q2, the car stalled and had to be pushed back to the pits. There, it was discovered that the car’s Ty-Drive had been wrecked by the head of a bolt being sucked through the filter and into the pump. It’s a minor setback when you consider this rolling work of art will likely be running consistent bottom 4’s and even high 3’s next season.
