Keith Jackson Ditches Neon for Stratus

[Mike The Photo Guy]

Keith Jackson is raising his game for 2008. He's debuting his Dodge Stratus at Milan Dragway's Aeroquip Head's Up Series Friday June 6th. Keith won Milan's 2007 championship in their top class "Run What You Brung" driving his Best Machine Racing Engines built 645" Predator headed Neon. The Stratus is also a ex Nick Fratt driven Pro Stock car built by Jerry Haas.



The latest trend at Milan's Aeroquip Head's Up series is to buy and ex Pro Stock car and stuff the biggest engine you can afford in it. I love it!



The Neon got the job done in 2007, but there were some tire shake issues that couldn't be resolved on the biggest nitrous tune ups.



When they backed down the tune up, it hooked beautifully. Unfortunately the competition is insane in this class and Keith needed a chassis that could handle a bigger tire. The addition of 100 hp and 50 ft/lbs of torque from Keith's Best Machine Racing Engines 645 predator engine for 2008 wasn't going to help the situation with the Neon's tire shake either.



Keith's engine looks great in the new chassis.



You can't go Wrong with a Jerry Haas chassis. Keith has taken a car with a proven history and is extrapolating the information to come up with setups that work at higher horsepower figures.



Keith was in the process of getting the bugs out of the car when I took these photos. Here are some detail shots of the car.















If you get a chance to see this car at the track, give it a good look over. The engineering is over the top. The first two runs didn't go as well as they would have liked. Although the burnout scored major style points.







So far Keith hasn't been able to get the car down the track on the spray (he's only been out once at this point). He has 2 passes on the hose. The Stratus hit the bars so hard and shook the tires so violently it left like a superstock car, not a tube chassis car (it broke the drivers door latch). Keith will be out testing before the Milan Dragway's Aeroquip Friday Night Head's Up Race on June 6th. He's got to make a 4 link bar change to correct that shake. Then he will get back in the hunt for the 2008 Run What You Brung Championship. The Stratus should be into the 6.40's this year with the new found BMRE (Best Machine Racing Engines) power and Jerry Haas chassis. I'll be at Milan this Friday shooting and sharing anything good with you.