Racing the 2020 Roadkill Zip-Tie Drags in a Borrowed Turbo Race Truck

What could be better than heading to the desert in the middle of winter for a whole weekend of racing with your friends!

How about abusing a stranger’s home-brewed turbo truck while you’re at it? Check out this behind-the-scenes video of two total strangers and one seriously mashed up race truck having a blast at this year’s Zip-Tie Drags in Tucson, Arizona.

Learning to race someone else’s manual shifted Datsun is already a pretty tall order, especially considering this one is built from three Ford Thunderbirds.

Better yet, the gas and clutch pedals are installed in reverse order to fit the turbo 2.3 Ford Engine. Owner Matt and the new driver were left with a day and a half dozen passes to get familiar with and re-tune the truck on ethanol before the $3k Hooptie Challenge Finale. Sounds reasonable, right?

In spite of some struggles with the shifter and traction, the truck squeezed out its best ever ET in Tucson early on Saturday. Thanks to a stroke of luck, and probably Mike Finnegan’s love of mini trucks, the boys managed to get into the $3k Challenge and compete for Hooptie glory. Watch how fun and wild things got…