2026 Race Season Preview: Are We Ever Truly Ready?

The 2026 race season kicks off at Woodburn Dragstrip in just over a week.

Are we ready? Honestly, are racers ever really ready?

If I’m taking full responsibility, we didn’t get nearly as much done over the winter as we planned. Life had other ideas. To put it bluntly, my brain and nervous system had a bit of a short circuit, and I wound up spending some unexpected time in the hospital, including a stint in the ICU and brain surgery. I’m still not at 100 percent—hell, I’m not even completely roadworthy yet. But if you know me, you know I’ve driven plenty of sketchy things on the road over the years. Now, apparently, I'm the sketchy thing my wife has to deal with.

So, naturally, we’re going racing anyway.

The Winter Progress Report

Even with the off-season derailed, we didn't start from scratch. We’ve got a massive pile of performance parts staged and a few critical upgrades already locked down.

Heavy-Duty C4 Transmission: Installed and ready to rock. The temporary AOD is officially gone.

Trailer Upgrades: Toolboxes, a small workbench, and the pit seating area are finished.

Top-End Engine Build: Brand new AFR aluminum cylinder heads, guides, studs, pushrods, and roller tip rockers are sitting in the trailer.

Camshaft Swap: Currently sitting at my brother-in-law's place, waiting for the install window.

Rear Tires: New Mickey Thompson ET Street SS currently sitting at my brother-in-law's place, waiting for the install window.

The Bedrest Project: Racing by the Numbers

While I was stuck in bed recovering, I needed something to keep my mind on the track. I spent that time on the computer building a custom race log spreadsheet for the season.

Think of it as a digital logbook with formulas designed to break down each run, calculate what the car should have run based on weather and track conditions, and predict our next dial-in pass. In bracket racing, consistency is everything, and if this tool works the way I want it to, it’ll be a game-changer.

That said, for the first few events, I'll be doing things the old-fashioned way. The spreadsheet will run as a backup until I trust it completely. Racing and spreadsheets—that pretty much sums up the modern bracket racer's mind.

Chasing the 11-Second Mark

Last year, the Mustang was running high 14s with a "thrown-together" parts combination. With the C4 transmission swap alone, we should see low 14s right out of the gate for race one.

Then the real work begins. We have a two-week gap between the season opener and the first double-header weekend. In that narrow window, the plan is to thrash and install the new AFR heads, the cam, the fresh Mickeys, and potentially a new carburetor.

If everything goes according to plan—which, let’s face it, it never does—our goal for races two and three is to drop straight into the 12.0s. But what I really want is to see this car dip into the 11s this season.

We were almost there once before. On the last hard push before our previous engine let go, the Mustang ran a blistering 12.03-second pass—and that was after it popped a head gasket at the 1,000-foot mark and finished the track on six cylinders. If it had held together for just a few more feet, that was an 11.98 slip all day long. Not long after that, the motor completely self-destructed, ending our season.

Keeping the History Alive

The engine sitting between the fenders right now was never supposed to be a permanent fix. It was a temporary combination built out of spare parts lying around the shop just to get us back on the asphalt. That "temporary" motor has lasted 16 years, so I can't complain too much. But it's time to get serious again.

If we stabilize the car this year, the end of the 2026 season might bring a full stroker motor build. Or do we pivot to suspension? Interior?

One thing we won't touch is the body. The vintage patina stays exactly as it is. People still recognize this car from 20 years ago, and I love that racing history.

We’ll see what happens when the tree drops. That’s racing. Come along for the ride this season at Woodburn and beyond—it’s going to be wild.