The Winners of 25th Annual TX2K - Engine Builder Magazine

The Winners of 25th Annual TX2K

After a week of racing, the 25th TX2K is in the books, and champions have been crowned in the 13 drag racing classes, as well as four roll racing classes. The event, which started in 2000, has become an annual proving ground to see where the mark stands in a multitude of classes, as well as engine platforms.

The drag racing segment of the event features several class ideas, broken up by engine platforms, transmissions or body style. Broken up into four fields of 16 cars each based on qualifying times, the top 16 landed in the Elite class.

Brett LaSala and his Snot Rocket Mustang found himself in the final against Jon Lund and his Mustang. LaSala qualified first, while Lund had qualified third. The title bout had Lund getting a slight holeshot over LaSala, but Snot Rocket would ring up a 6.38 at 222 mph to get the win over the 6.68 at 209 mph from Lund.

The second-quickest class in Street Car is Street Car Pro, which had Marlin Istre and his ’88 Mustang versus Charles Sidote’s 2017 Mustang in the final round. Sidote had problems right off the starting line, while Istre made his best pass of the event, a 7.42 at 179 mph to collect the class win.

The third class under the Street Car umbrella is the Street Car Champ class, which saw James Schauer and his ’98 Camaro go head-to-head with Kyle Williams and his ’95 Mustang. In the end, Schauer’s 7.73 just nosed out the 7.77 from Williams to get the win.

The final Street Car class is the Sport class. The final would feature an all-Mustang battle, the third of four classes, between number three qualifier Charles Wilson’s ’89 Fox Mustang and number five qualifier Logan Day’s 2019 Mustang. This final was decided by a close margin as well, with Wilson’s 8.21 edging out the 8.38 from Day.

The Stick Shift class was set to be a battle from the word go, with the top three quickest stick shift vehicles in the world: Nick Cole-Mann, Joel Grannas and Jonathan Atkins. Cole-Mann and Atkins lined up in qualifying to produce side-by-side 6.8-second passes, and would find themselves against one another in the final. Unfortunately, Cole-Mann lit the red light by a mere thousandth of-a-second, handing Atkins the win.

In the 2JZ class, similar to the Stick Shift class, the top two qualifiers made their way to the final. Eric LaFerriere would leave no doubt he ruled the 2JZ roost, leaving the starting line first and rocketing to a 6.41 at 225 mph to earn victory, while Avninder Khangura’s Supra slowed with problems.

The largest class at the event, DCT (Dual Clutch Transmission), is broken up into multiple sections based on performance. The top class is DCT Elite. The final was a showdown between Marcelo Duran’s GT-R and Alexander Rodriguez’s Audi R8. At the start, it was only separated by a couple hundredths of-a-second, but by halftrack Duran was ahead by a bunch when Rodriguez had problems, and a 7.67 pass locked up the win for Duran.

The second-quickest DCT class is the Pro class. In the final, Tommy Kim staged his 2017 Audi R8 against Patrick Chui’s GT-R. At the green, Chui jumped out to a lead he’d never relinquish, getting the win with an 8.31 over the 10-second pass of Kim.

The third and final DCT class is the Champ class. Becca Marso would face Mark Cyrus Jr. in the final. The start found the two leaving the line together, but Becca would stretch out a lead Cyrus couldn’t erase, giving Becca an 8.92 to 9.32 victory.

The Heavyweight class brought out the hefty rides, but also some impressive performances. In the end, Zdung Ho’s 2016 Dodge Charger squared off against fellow Mopar runner Casey Hoong. Ho unfortunately red lighted, giving Hoong the victory.

The iconic GT-R gets a pair of classes to participate in at TX2K, the quicker being the GT-R Unlimited class. Half the field qualified in the 6-second range, with George Dodworth getting the top spot with a 6.74 at 223 mph from his 2009 GT-R. He earned a final round appearance opposite number three qualifier Clay Kehrer, who was fresh from a 6.78 at 216 mph semifinal pass. In the final, Kehrer jumped out to a sizable holeshot lead, but problems slowed him and allowed Dodworth to coast to an 8.09 and the victory.

The second GT-R-based class, the GT-R 68, requires a 3,550-lb. minimum weight, and no larger than a 68-millimeter turbocharger. David Rohrschneider rode 6-second passes all the way to the final against Marcelo Duran, the number three qualifier.

Rohrschneider left the starting line first in the final round, but the car made a move to the center line, and while Rohrschneider corrected, Duran was straight and true to the finish line, crossing first with his best run of the event, a 7.02 at 210 mph to deny Rohrschneider’s 7.43 at 198 mph effort.

The A90 class, based around the shared components between the Mark five Supra and the BMW, featured Justin Lazarus and Knole Mitchell battling in the final. Lazarus got the holeshot in the title bout, but stumbled just past the starting line, giving Mitchell a lead he would not give up, scoring an 8.13 to 8.64 victory.

Roll Racing

TX2K also hosts roll racing, and gets a healthy turnout for it. For 2024, qualifying saw 27 cars make a legal lap above 200 mph (the previous record for a single event was seven). This meant both the Elite 8 class and the 16-car Unlimited class would require a run above 200 mph to get in – a first for TX2K.

In total, 56 cars would get the chance to play in eliminations, but you needed a lap of 188.08 mph or better to do so. The final for the Elite 8 class featured Rolando Resto and number two qualifier Marcelo Duran. Duran’s GT-R had problems just after the start, giving Resto’s 219 mph run from his 2015 Lamborghini the win.

The next 16-car class would be the Unlimited class, and a record-field full of 200 mph cars. Nick Booth’s 2018 Lamborghini would earn a final round berth opposite number two qualifier Ricky Crossley and his Audi R8. In the final, Booth had problems early and Crossley show he was ready with a 212.48 mph run to capture the class trophy.

The Super Sport class had 16 cars within 4.5 mph in qualifying. Ken Puzniak’s 2020 Audi R8 survived to the final round to face Joseph Santos, the first Porsche to make a final round in TX2K history. At the finish line, Santos and his Porsche arrived first, but his 207.97 mph run would be disqualified for being faster than the 205.37 break out speed (top qualifier speed of 200.37 mph plus 5 mph), swinging the win to Puzniak.

The final class in roll racing is the Sport class, with Manny Costales’ 2020 Lamborghini meeting Aaron Kramer and his 2017 GT-R in the final. Based on their semifinal round results, the cars were separated by just 1 mph, so the final round was anyone’s guess as to who would win. At the green Costales jumped in front, and stayed there for the duration to get the win light at 195.93 mph over Kramer’s 191.49 mph effort.

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