Growing up, Randy Adler Jr. heard tales, saw photos, and watched videos of the legendary ’66 Pontiac GTO that his father raced in NMCA’s Outlaw Street in the late ‘90s. Owned by Lynwood Wood, the car was supercharged on methanol and terrorized NMCA events, Fastest Street Car shootouts, and standalone street car events like the World Street Nationals in Orlando. The GTO was sold off before Adler Jr. was even born and its new owner only brought it out a few times before it started collecting cobwebs.
The Adlers lost contact with the car for the better part of two decades until a fellow racer, Corey Smith, reached out and said he knew where the car was and that the owner would consider selling it, but only to Adler. Naturally, Adler jumped at the opportunity, and now the family is planning to get the car back on track, this time with the younger Adler behind the wheel.
Wood originally drove the GTO himself, but Adler got behind the wheel to help sort out some issues during a test session and recorded the car’s best numbers by a bunch, so Wood tapped him to drive it and brother Robbie Adler to tune it. That was in 1992 or 1993 and Adler continued to drive it through the 1997 season. Along the way, Adler won a bunch of races and had some wild times.
“Back when they used to run the Outlaw Street deal at Orlando, you had to do a 25-mile cruise before the race, but it was just laps around the racetrack,” Adler Jr. said. “They would have Paul Cattoni and Robbie sitting at the trailer, and every two laps, he had to stop, leave the car running, take the front end off, and fill it with fuel. They used the whole 55-gallon drum of methanol just to do the cruise.
“This is a car that started the Pro Street revolution along with Tony Christian, Pat Musi, and guys like that,” Adler Jr. continued. “At the 1995 World Street Nationals, they had the field covered by two tenths and my dad red-lit first or second round. My uncle Robbie didn’t talk to him the whole 18-hour drive back home. I heard all kinds of stories like this growing up and I just fell in love with the car.
Over the last several years, the Adler father-son duo have had numerous car projects going on at any one time, from Adler’s screw-blown ’57 Chevy Pro Mod to Adler Jr.’s bracket cars. The opportunity to purchase the GTO and bring it back into the family for the two to campaign together was too enticing. They went to look at the car last year and purchased it from Tony Butts in September.
“He raced it like three times – it still had my dad’s seatbelts in it. It had just been sitting in a trailer. It still had the 1996 Gateway stickers on it. It was like a time capsule,” Adler Jr. said. “He didn’t have the time for it, but the car meant a lot to him. Props to Tony because he was able to let it go to us. He did us a huge favor there. He didn’t have to sell it. It was just as sentimental to him as it was to us.”
On the way home from picking up the car outside Detroit, the Adlers took a detour to swing by Wood’s house to surprise him.
“We didn’t exactly tell him what we did, we just said, ‘Hey, we’re gonna be riding by you in about 10 minutes. You should probably look out your front window,’” Adler Jr. said. “We rode by and parked that sucker right in the median, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen Lynwood smile that much. He’s a very reserved guy, but he was smiling from ear to ear. It was like he found his long-lost brother or something. He was so happy to see that car.”
The Adlers took the GTO to Pat Powers to complete some chassis work to bring it up to 2025 safety specs. They also had to swap it back to fit a blown alcohol power plant, as it had been converted to run a nitrous engine. The car will also get its trademark flames back in the coming weeks to prepare for its on-track return with a schedule that includes the second annual Havlik’s FSC Shootout Tribute Race presented by Red Line Oil, August 14-17, at Cordova Dragway.
“We’re actually going to make it to Havlik’s race where we have a locked-in race with Annette Summer – eighth-mile, clocks off, run what ya brung,” Adler Jr. said. “We’re hoping to do some match racing at World Street Nationals, but we’re definitely going to go run Super Pro Street there with me driving. I feel like that’s something we’ve gotta do. Al Tucci will probably fall off his chair in the tower.
“We’ll probably also run some Chicago Wiseguys races,” Adler Jr. continued. “We want to get the car out and learn. This is going to be my first time really tuning a mechanically fuel-injected blower car. I have a lot to learn in a really short amount of time. I’m really thankful to Robbie for working with me on that.”
Adler Jr. hasn’t set any firm performance goals for the GTO just yet. It’s a situation where the journey means just as much, if not more, than the destination.
“If it goes 4.30s with us leaning on it, I would be jumping for joy,” said Adler Jr., who’s been as quick as 5.01 at 140 mph in the eighth mile. “We’re going to throw Dad in the car first. I would much rather have him shake it down, then I’ll work my way there.
“This is just something for me and him,” he continued. “We both never thought we’d even see the car again, let alone be able to drive it and tune it again. This is just fun. We’re doing this because it’s just cool. It doesn’t really fit into anything, but it’s just so cool to revive something that has so much sentimental value to the family and that paved the way for a lot of the racing we see today.”
This story was originally published on April 7, 2025. 
