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Greg Acosta April 23, 2018Stock Eliminator is a complicated—and sometimes hard-to-understand—class for anyone but those deeply entrenched in the NHRA class-racing world, with engines that are best described as technological marvels. Unfortunately, those cars generally remain out of the spotlight of the general public. To try to remedy that, NHRA teamed up with the Big Three to get the Factory Stock Showdown class rolling, which showcases the lineup of late-model factory hot rods, and makes Stock Class racing more palatable to those who might otherwise overlook the awesome class.
One of the features of the Factory Stock Showdown, from our perspective here at EngineLabs, is that these late-model cars are using late-model powerplants. With the popularity and backing the class and its participants are enjoying, 2017 was a race to the sevens, and out of the middle of the pack, emerged Geoff Turk and his “Blackbird” supercharged Drag Pak Challenger, powered by a Gen III Hemi engine.
After setting the quickest run recorded in NHRA Stock Eliminator at the end of last season with an 8.02, it was only a matter of time before he broke into the seven-second zone ahead of all of the other competitors in the class. It actually wasn’t that long, as Turk smashed the barrier at the first NMCA race of the season (NMCA has a class which mirrors the NHRA class rules), carding a 7.996 in qualifying, and posting a 7.994 in the final round at the following race in Atlanta, Georgia.
Geoff Turk with his crew chief and number one supporter, his wife, Sandy.
While a deep dive into the engine and the Gen III Hemi platform is important, it’s also important to understand how a self-described “small-time” Stock racer put himself—and the Gen III Hemi engine—into the history books, after seemingly coming out of nowhere.
“I grew up drag racing, and started when I was 13 years old,” says Turk. “When the Stock Eliminator guys came to the track, we thought they were the snobby rich people that had stuff that was way nicer than our stuff. While we made fun of them, we respected them.”
The new aluminum engine’s shortblock consists of some serious hardware, and specs out to an actual displacement of 363 cubic-inches, thanks to the 4.125-inch bore and the 3.400-inch stroke.
After almost two decades of bracket racing, Turk entered the world of class racing in a 1973 Plymouth Roadrunner. A string of Stock-class Mopars culminated in a 1968 Hemi Barracuda Super Stock car.
“That was one of the most ornery, expensive, difficult, tear-stuff-up cars in the world,” Turk says “After wearing out myself and my bank account running that car, I decided to step back and run a 1968 Barracuda with a 5.7L Gen III Hemi in it. That was fun but boring.”
Looking to get the thrill back, and being interested in the late-model cars, Turk almost strayed from his beloved
Mopar for a Mustang Cobra Jet before coming to his senses. The Supercharged Drag Pak Challenger was announced and Turk was first in line.
“I saw the Factory Shootout stuff happening, but I knew that was going to draw in a lot of resources and a lot of talent, and a lot of money,” says Turk. “I didn’t want to get back into that and spend money like that again. I was just going to camp out in Super Stock and have fun.”
However, at the 2016 U.S. Nationals, a chance meeting with Mopar’s Dale Aldo revealed that Turk was running quicker than the Mopar factory effort in the Factory Stock Shootout, while being almost 100 pounds heavier. That started the ball rolling for Turk’s path into the history books, in the middle of 2016.
“[Aldo] asked me if I’d think about running the Factory Shootout with the car. I told him, if he was serious, I’d call Tony Bischoff right then and start an engine.”
Dubbed “Blackbird” after the SR-71 reconnaissance aircraft that is the fastest operational aircraft ever, Turk’s MR2 Performance-built Challenger Drag Pak is the quickest Stock Eliminator car in the world.
When Turk came out of the gate at the beginning of 2017, he was running an iron block Gen III Hemi combination built by
BES Racing that was considered “old technology” by Stock-class standards, as the new aluminum block had just been approved for competition.
“I qualified number-six in a 30-car field, with an 8.20. Everyone thought it was a fluke, and that I got lucky. At the next race, which was Charlotte, I qualified fifth or sixth there,” says Turk.
That performance impressed the Mopar factory folks, a large “M” appeared on the car, and the latest and greatest parts and factory support boosted Turk’s effort. After running an impressive 8.20 in the heat of the summer with the iron-block engine combination, everyone involved decided it was time to apply everything they’d learned so far to the latest and greatest aluminum engine combination.
The Combination
Turk has relied on Tony Bischoff and his team at BES for his Gen III Hemi builds from the get-go, and the new aluminum- combination was no different. There is a lot of advanced engine building that goes into a state of the art class engine like this, with a lot of closely guarded secrets to make the engine perform as well as it does, within the strict confines of the rulebook.