Joe had been friends with Jay Giannelli (who operates NRC with his father, Bob) online for a number of years, and that friendship struck up talks of building him a car. In particular, Joe wanted to have the car built back East since he planned to race there.
Pelayo sent the parts and pieces to build his car to NRC last February with plans to race it on the West coast in the Extreme Drag Radial class (similar to Limited Drag Radial). The car was essentially to be a copy of a car that the Giannelli’s were already constructing as a shop car — one thing led to another and that car, still in progress, became Joe’s (he noted that NRC’s recently completed car gained the name “Downgrade” because it’s a near copy of Joe’s, but with less liberal use of carbon-fiber and titanium).
The four-eye 1986 model Fox bodies, which have long had a small cult following, has led to considerable interest among those on social media have seen the photos of Joe’s machine.
“I’ve always liked the ’86 look. Racecraft did done a couple years back for someone in Kuwait and I saw that and thought it was sexy, so I decided that’s what I wanted to build. All of the AV Boys have the later-model Foxes, the 1990 to ’93, so I was the first from the group to say ‘screw it, let’s do a four-eye.’ ”