VIDEO: JEFF LUTZ TAKES ON AUSTRALIA’S BEST AT LIGHTS OUT IN QLD

WILLOWBANK Raceway saw its biggest crowd since the Winternationals when American Jeff Lutz and Doc from Street Outlaws came out to play last Friday night.

Jeff Lutz is best known for Hot Rod Drag Week, which he won in 2014, and along with Doc he has appeared on the popular Discovery Channel reality show Street Outlaws. He also holds the honour of laying down the quickest pass of Drag Week during the 2015 event with his Pro Mod-style Camaro: 6.05@251mph. Unfortunately Lutz didn’t finish that year.

Both Jeff and Doc were guests of Michael ‘Gup’ Gilbert from Powercruise, and while Doc hasn’t got his wild Monte Carlo here with him, Jeff brought out his Evil Twin ’57 to compete at the Lights Out meeting at Willowbank last Friday, which he raced against Scott Porter’s Sport Compact Nissan and Ben Bray’s Doorslammer Corvette.

The Evil Twin ’57 is so-named because it’s a lighter and quicker replica of his previous flat black Beast ’57 Chev. Both cars run the same set-up: twin 88mm turbos on a 632ci big-block with a Rossler 210 transmission with a Gear Vendors overdrive to help with the road miles. The difference is all in the weight – 3800lb versus 3000lb. The Evil Twin Chev runs mid-sixes at over 220mph on the quarter.

In the end Lutz lost both rounds, although the match-up with Ben Bray was very close after Bray smoked the startline. To be fair though, we don’t expect to see Bray or Porter doing 1200 miles between five tracks any time soon.

The crowd was massive, with reports of traffic jams for kilometres leading to Willowbank to see Lutz and Doc in person. Both also attended Powercruise Powerplay last weekend at Queensland Raceway.

If you want to catch up with the guys, they’ll be at Lights Out Sydney and Powercruise Sydney in two weeks. The Lights Out meeting will be the same format as Willowbank: eighth-mile, heads-up, win light with no times. Lights Out will be on 26 February at Sydney Dragway, while Powercruise Sydney will be running 25-28 February across the road at Sydney Motorsport Park. If that isn’t enough, there’s a $70,000 burnout competition on Saturday night, 27 February at Sydney Dragway.

That’s going to be a huge weekend for Sydney race and burnout fans. Check out www.powercruise.com for all the details.