Many racers set out to build a racecar in their garage; not many actually achieve it and even fewer turn out something to be proud of. Two such racers are Patrick Budd and Randy Jewell from Rochester, NY. Budd was heavily involved with street legal drag racing with the NMCA and NSCA and was looking to update his program with a new chassis. The new car came in the shape of a 2000 Corvette in kit form that was looking for a new home. The chassis and body had originated in Richard Earle’s Suncoast Race Cars shop in Florida and lay in a garage untouched. Before starting the project, Budd talked a lot to Earle about what he was trying to achieve when the Vette would finally hit the track. These conversations allowed Budd to craft exactly what Earle and he had talked about. Once the project hit the chassis jig the car became famous as the Y2K Corvette on Michael Ray’s well loved Heads Up Review.com internet magazine. Heads Up Review followed the build of the Vette and really allowed Ray’s readers to get an insight into what it took to build a quality car at home.

The chromemoly chassis was assembled in Jewell’s two-car garage and features a twin rail a la Pro Modified. The chassis was actually over built to allow the addition of ballast to run whatever street style class was desired. The ability to run at a lower weight means the team can also run in IHRA Top Sportsman whenever needed. The main requisite for the finished Corvette was a durable chassis with safety being number one priority and that they have definitely achieved. The 2000 year Vette differs from most Pro Outlaw cars in it’s use of a formula car style rear wing. Budd feels the adjustability and the fact it sits in clean air is a big bonus. Budd and Jewell are scheduled to attend this year’s annual PRI show and will be bringing the Vette with them. The plan is to update the paint scheme with some wild graphics before that trip, watch out, it is going to look wild.

Motivating the Y2K Vette is a 615 cubic inch bullet built by Budd / Pro Car Performance. The motor features a Donovan D-500 block with D-700 sleeves installed by Pat Musi. Filling the block is a Bryant crank turning GRP rods and JE nitrous pistons built to Pro Car Performance specs. The camshaft is a custom grind from Crane Cams to Budd’s specification. Topping of the block is a pair of Reher-Morrison Raptor heads that are cast by Ray Franks Pro-Filer Performance foundry. The Jesel roller valvetrain is covered by a pair of Pro-Filer’s cast valve covers. Feeding the fuel into the heads is the very popular Pro-Filer cast tunnel ram intake with a pair of Patrick James’ Pro System’s carbs on top. Nitrous is the chosen power adder for Budd and Jewell; they utilize a single stage NX system with a single 2 Amp solenoid designed by fellow NY state racer, Bill Travato. A Magnaflow 500 fuel pump with a fully re-circulating fuel system feeds the pair of Dominators through a custom Pro Car Performance fuel log. Power output for the motor is in the region of 1250 horsepower with 920 foot lbs. of torque before spray is applied. Jewell recently ran the first six second pass for the pair at the Ontario Street Car Association finale at Toronto Motorsports Park, proving the low budget combination is more than competitive.

Backing up the nitrous big block is a Powerglide and converter from Competition Transmission of Tonawanda, NY. According to Budd “ Carl does an excellent job for us, he provides us with a bulletproof product and even better service. When we were looking for more ET recently, Carl managed to get us some out of his transmission, he is a big part of our success”

Budd and Jewell not only race the Vette for the competition; it is their shop mule. They believe there is a market for tube frame cars with a 632 and a glide and the Y2KCorvette is their rolling test bed to develop components that will find their way onto customer’s cars. Budd commented “We really feel we can run consistent 6.8’s with our single stage and a simple 615, the knowledge we gain from that, will find it’s way into the products that exit the doors of Pro Car Performance and benefit our customers”

From day one Randy and Pat wanted to make the car go in the sixes and run over 200 mph. The big factor that made this harder to achieve was the fact that they wanted to do it on one stage of nitrous. They achieved the six and were on their way to the 200 mark at the NMCA finale when an unknown engine failure nixed that idea. They know the 200 will come, it just will be in 2004. As Budd said “ We just want to prove you do not have to have a big budget to run fast! Cars like this will be ideal for the new class being touted by the NMCA. Top Street will be perfect for Top Sportsmen type cars where the driver wants to race Heads Up”

Pat and Randy would like to thank the following people for all their help and encouragement along the way.

John Phillips @ Nitrous Express, Carl @ Competition Transmission, Mike Janis, Darrin @ Reher-Morrison, the NSCA staff, Patrick James, Richard Earle, Pat Musi, Marc Dantoni, Camp Stanley, Michael Ray, Leo Barnaby, the late Steve Grebeck, Mike ‘Sparky’ Browne, HeadsUpRacer.com, Mike Green @ Pro-Filer, Billy Carrol, Tony Christian, Swain Techniques, GRP Rods, Crane, AutoMeter, MSD and most importantly our wives, families and our great crew.

Originally published in RPM Magazine