For the past several years, multi-time NMCA VP Racing Fuels Street Outlaw and NMCA West ProCharger Street Outlaw champion Eric Gustafson and his crew chief, Cameron Hensley, have proven with Gustafson’s white 1989 Mustang that they’re part of a powerful team, but they’re set to make sweeping changes and focus on finding even more success.
Gustafson has hired Gary Naughton Race Cars in Maryland to build a Pro Mod chassis that will be topped with a carbon fiber 1969 Camaro body by Cynergy Composites. It will be powered by a 526ci Brad Anderson Enterprises Hemi fronted by a loud and proud ProCharger F-3X-143, and it will roll on a Mark Williams Enterprises rear-end, Strange Engineering suspension components, struts and shocks by Adam Lambert at Precision Racing Suspension and Weld wheels, with tire choice to be decided later.
He hopes to debut the car in NMCA VP Racing Fuels Xtreme Pro Mod at the 12th Annual Nitto NMRA/NMCA Super Bowl of Street Legal Drag Racing, July 27-30 at Route 66 Raceway in Joliet, Illinois.
Meanwhile, Gustafson and Hensley plan to take turns piloting the 1989 Mustang, which is currently for sale, in both NMCA and NMRA VP Racing Fuels Street Outlaw classes as time permits.
The car is currently at Lyons Custom Motorsports in Georgia for chassis upgrades, and while it had famously featured an LS engine and various ProCharger units through the years, it will now boast a Pettis Performance-built small-block Ford fronted by a 98mm Precision turbo, and Lyons Custom Motorsports will fabricate the turbo plumbing and install the engine.
The 1989 Mustang rolls on Racecraft, Inc. suspension and Weld wheels wearing Mickey Thompson 275 radials, and fans could see the car at the 17th Annual WyoTech NMRA Ford Motorsport Nationals, May 4-7 at Maple Grove Raceway in Reading, Pennsylvania.
PTP Racing’s Jason Lee and Patrick Barnhill, who have long tuned for Gustafson, will continue in that capacity, and John Urgo, otherwise known as Trucker John, will continue to drive the team truck to the races and help work on the cars. Additional support comes from staffers of Coast Packing Company, where both Gustafson and Hensley work.
“We’re definitely up for the challenge,” said Hensley, whose skills as Gustafson’s crew chief are widely regarded. “We’re coming to try to set records, win races and earn championships. If we weren’t planning to do that, we might as well just stay at home in California.”
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