Manny Alvarez is by no means new to driving, tuning, or even to the “Street Outlaws No Prep Kings” circuit, but this season, he was a rookie of sorts all over again, joining the series’ “Futures” (or Future Street Outlaws) category with a very striking and fan-favorite Shelby GT500 Mustang.
Alvarez, along with his brother Ozzie, owns and operates HPP Racing, a tuning and fabrication facility in Garland, Texas. The business was founded in 1999, out of the brothers’ shared love of high-performance cars and racing, particularly the blue-oval brand of automobiles. Manny has a long history in the sport, having competed in the early days of the BFGoodrich drag radial movement, up to X275 in the early and mid-2010s. In recent seasons, he’s been out of the driver’s seat, focusing on his business and the tuning and support side of racing. HPP has been involved with and done work ‘for the likes of Robin Roberts, Jerry “Monza” Johnston, Shawn Wilhoit, and James “Doc” Love in the “Street Outlaws” universe.
A deal with Tony Foulkes to trade an X275 small-tire car for Foulkes’ split-bumper Camaro big-tire car a handful of years back set Alvarez’s own no-prep racing venture in motion. After campaigning the car with Eric Bain at the wheel for a couple of seasons, Manny and friend Cody Sanders, along with Sanders’ wife, Janna, partnered to construct the 2020 year-model Shelby for “No Prep Kings” competition.
“Cody told me he wanted me to build it, tune it, decide who I want to drive it, and we’re gonna’ go race it in No Prep Kings. At that point, I thought about it and I really wasn’t tuning on a bunch of people’s cars and I had time, and thought, ‘what if I want to drive it?’ I hadn’t known Cody long enough for him to have even seen me drive, because it had been a few years. He asked me if I even knew how to drive,” Manny shares with a laugh.
Sanders, a cattle rancher by trade, has taken to the sport with great interest, and the bond between not only he and Alvarez, but the entire HPP Racing group, is immediately evident.
“Cody raises cattle and loves racing, and cars, and helping people, so he decided to go on this venture and see what we could do together. A long time ago, one of his buddies’ sons, that now races professional motocross, Cody sponsored him and took him all over the country and bought him new bikes and gear. He took him to the pro level, and he’s kind of taken me on like his…
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