Last fall, Ty Tutterow finished the 2025 Red Line Oil PDRA Drag Racing Series season with an ultra-consistent car that carried him to three wins in five straight final rounds and the world championship in WS Construction Pro Boost presented by P2 Contracting and Ty-Drive. Rather than ride that momentum into 2026, Tutterow and Smith recently debuted a brand-new car at the season-opening PDRA Carolina Nationals, and it’s already showing promise in just a few passes.
Built by Larry Jeffers Race Cars, the new Quik Fuel ’68 Camaro is powered by a screw-blown Wyo Motorsports-built Noonan 4.9 Hemi paired with a 3-speed Lenco and a Ty-Drive unit. It was wired at Modern Racing and finished in-house at Wyo Motorsports.
Tutterow and his father, Todd “King Tut” Tutterow, started the project last season, but with the previous car, a ’69 Camaro, running so well, the team decided to focus on it. Plans changed to bring out the new car during the Drag Illustrated Winter Series presented by J&A Service, but the Wyo crew was kept plenty busy with customers competing over the winter.
With Tutterow’s PDRA championship defense season rapidly approaching, he went to work preparing the car for its debut at the Carolina Nationals. The car fired up for the first time on Wednesday at Darlington Dragway and immediately showed potential out of the box.
“The very first time off the jackstands we went .916. The next run, it went .913, trying to get to the middle of the track,” Tutterow said. “It rattled the tires in the middle both times. Got it calmed down and got it through there and it went a .61 the first time it went to the stripe.
“We haven’t had the back wheels off the car since we got here,” Tutterow continued. “It’s just a testament to Larry Jeffers, his crew, and our group at the shop setting these cars up. We’ve done so many of them now. We run a lot of Larry’s cars. We run a lot of Bickel cars. We know what each chassis combo likes. Just setting the car up and getting it right off the bat, it’s just a blessing, really, to run good that early with it. Dad just has a lot of knowledge with all that stuff – setting cars up and getting them to the track and making the best we can out of short runs. It shows right there in qualifying. We were the second-quickest screw car and the top speed of the screw cars.”
After three qualifying sessions at Darlington, Tutterow ended up No. 7 in the Pro Boost field with a 3.580 E.T. at 209.89. Californian Ed Marx was the only screw car to outqualify Tutterow in sixth, while the top five drivers all utilized centrifugal superchargers from ProCharger and Harts Charger. Those combos seemed to have an upper hand in qualifying, something Tutterow will keep tabs on as he fights for a second straight title.
“I’m 100% motivated to defend the championship,” said Tutterow, who thanked Smith, as well as Brad and KB at the shop, and partners like Red Line Oil. “I’m excited. Justin’s excited. The crew’s excited. I think we’re going to have a good year. Right now, it seems like we’re quite outperformed. There was a screw car up in the mix with the top five of the other cars, but right now we have a fighting chance from seventh.”
Talking with Tutterow on Saturday morning, Tutterow was optimistic about the race day to come. A substantial weather swing overnight brought temperatures down to the low 50s, providing conditions that benefit the screw-blown combo.
“I think it’ll help us catch up to those guys a little bit more,” Tutterow said. “We’ll have better air to make more power. The centrifugal stuff, it really isn’t as critical on atmosphere because they can burn the water grains through the hot air charge, and our stuff, the better the air gets, the more boost we’ll make.”
In the opening round, Tutterow cut a perfect .000 reaction time against former Pro Nitrous standout Jay Cox and pedaled his way to a 3.693 at 209.50 to finish ahead of Cox and his 3.694 at 207.18. He then threw down a 3.575 at 213.47 in the second round to get past his 2025 championship challenger, two-time Pro Boost world champion Jason Harris, who had to lift to a 4.236.
Tutterow’s semifinal battle with Lyle Barnett will need to wait, as PDRA officials postponed the rest of eliminations due to cold track temperatures late Saturday night. The Carolina Nationals will wrap up on Thursday, April 16, at the PDRA East Coast Nationals at Darana Motorsports Park in Dunn, North Carolina.
This story was originally published on March 30, 2026. 
