Willowbank Raceway today announced that the headline act for their upcoming Outlaw Armageddon event, US Drag Week Veteran Larry Larson, will now be racing both of his iconic Chevy street cars, with Willowbank organising to ship Larson’s amazing Chevy S-10 pickup alongside his iconic two-door Nova to launch a formidable two-car arsenal at the track’s much-anticipated Grudge-style showdowns throughout December and January.
“Outlaw Armageddon is about Willowbank embracing and supporting the idea of the new, modern version of Drag Racing as popularised by US television shows, and delivering racers and spectators at the track a format of Drag Racing that they’re familiar with, and fond of,” explains Willowbank board member and a key player in bringing Larry to Australian shores, Greg Leahy.
“Larry is the best of the best when it comes to grudge, street-style racing… he’s doing it week in, week out and by all accounts he’s had a very successful year this year. Due to the overwhelming response to people wanting to compete against his Nova we’ve made the decision to pack a second vehicle and double Larry’s track time, and in turn provide twice as many racers with this unique opportunity to race American Drag Racing Royalty” adds Leahy.
Whereas Larson’s Nova will be ruffling feathers in the Outlaw Unleashed category, the slightly-more-serious S-10 will be the standard by which all others are measured in the Armageddon Shootout category.
Armageddon Shootout only requires competitors to have swinging doors and will be racing the whole length of the quarter mile. For racers, this lifts the street-oriented embargoes of the Outlaw Unleashed category and opens up the playing field, while for the spectators Armageddon Shootout spells nothing but the most thrilling, edge-of-the-seat racing.
The category will still require racers to pre-qualify at events on either November 19th or December 10th, 2016. The fastest 11 vehicles from these two qualifying events will form part of ‘The List’, all of whom will have at least one shot at upsetting Larson at the Outlaw Armageddon events on December 30th, January 1st, January 4th and January 7th.
“This format is entirely unique to Outlaw Armageddon, we’re offering Australian racers a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to race a Drag Week legend and I know that we’ve got some very serious cars here in Australia that’ll really impress Larry on his trip,” explains Leahy.
Larson unveiled the S-10 at Drag Week 2014, where the truck made a 6.16-second pass on debut and has since buried itself deep in to the 5-second zone – no mean feat considering in street trim the truck runs swinging steel doors, burns pump fuel and packs a full cooling system. Anyone wishing to contest the fact that this makes it the quickest street-legal truck (caveat: America’s road registration laws are vastly different to ours here in Australia) in the world is welcome to plead their case!
Larson has been racing professionally since 1992 and in 1996 extended to opening Larson Race Cars – the shop responsible for the build and maintenance of his own fleet of Drag Week contenders, as well as some of the fastest street cars in America that he’s hand-crafted for customers. His achievements have elevated him beyond the status of a mere racer and nowadays Larson finds himself adopting a Crew Chief role for many teams.
The engineering in the S-10 truck is something to behold with a Pro Line-built twin turbo big-block rumoured to be making in the vicinity of 3,000hp lurking underneath the front clip. Racers and spectators alike are in for a spectacle when Larson’s troublesome two arrive on Australian shores ahead of Outlaw Armageddon, hitting Willowbank Raceway from December 30th, 2016.
Outlaw Armageddon will be Larson’s first trip to Australia and the first time his Drag Week-crushing cars have ventured this far from his home base in Oak Grove, Missouri – truly a unique Drag Racing spectacle for Australian racing fans.
Pre-registration for the qualifying events will open through the Willowbank website, www.willowbankraceway.com.au, on Friday 14th October.
More information about Larson’s tour of Australia including fan meet and greets in the lead up Outlaw Armageddon, as well as the complete calendar of events for 2017 can be found online at www.willowbankraceway.com.au
