Radial X275 at Denton, Texas

Words by Chris Graves
Photos by Max Cackle Photography

North Star Dragway, located on I-35 about 40 miles north of Dallas in Denton, Texas, made a big splash in the drag radial world with the announcement of the Evolution Custom Auto X275 class, which guarantees $10,000 to the winner and $5,000 to runner up in a 32-car field. After months of anticipation and countless hours of hard work from the track staff, the series debuted on April 12-13 in a special two-day event.

After a full day of testing on Thursday, several teams had dipped into the 4.70 and 4.80 range and, with 37 cars in the house shooting for a spot in the 32-car field, the pressure was on and the bragging rights were on the line as the first two sessions of qualifying were concluded on Friday night.

Daniel Pachar took the top spot on Friday with a 4.68 at 150 mph in his turbo powered Ford Mustang, followed closely by Kyle Huettel's 4.69 at 150 mph in his third gen nitrous-assisted Camaro. Terry Elam, Taylor Lastor and Jason Michalak rounded out the top five with the bump spot set at a 5.81 as the teams returned to the pits to put their machines to bed with two more qualifying sessions to go on Saturday.

With beautiful mid-seventy-degree weather and nothing but sunshine in the forecast, the expectations for Saturday were high and the fans packed North Star Dragway to see the baddest 275 cars North Texas has ever seen duke it out for the big money. By the end of the final qualifying session, Lastor had climbed to the top of the charts with a 4.680 at 154 mph in his nitrous-assisted first generation Camaro. 

Oklahoma-based Fred Silbernagel and his black turbocharged Mustang made the biggest improvement, jumping from the 31st qualifying position into the number eight spot. Brad Medlock, Wayne Long, Paul Broydon and Chip Raderchak also claimed positions in the top ten of the qualifying list. Mr. Evolution Custom Auto himself Marty Robertson put his 1968 Dodge Dart into the show in the final qualifying spot with a 5.25 at 144 mph as qualifying ended and it was time to put up or shut up as eliminations were to follow.