Beater Bomb Goes 4.38 On 26×8.5 Slicks

Joey Hiykel and his 1990 Mustang LX known as the “Beater Bomb” have an established reputation in the street and no prep racing world. Hiykel has picked up countless big wins behind the wheel of the Beater Bomb, but he decided to change things up at Flying H Dragstrip during the Hooktober event. The Beater Bomb threw on a set of small 26×8.5 Hoosier slicks, and laid down some big numbers, running deep into the four-second zone.

Hiykel will be the first one to tell you that he’s always preferred slicks over radials. In fact, that’s why he choose to use a slick versus a radial, to show just how fast you can go on a slick. According to Hiykel, the small tire racing scene in his area has been pretty bland recently. The car counts have been low, he’s been racing the same cars, so he decided it was time to try something different and make racing exciting again for his team.

When Hiykel made the decision to make the trip to Flying H, he didn’t have any test runs on the Beater Bomb with this small tire. It turns out that the car was more than ready to take on this challenge and things got sporty in a hurry.

“Friday I set the record with a 4.46 and proceeded to struggle the rest of the night, not making it down again. Saturday rolls around, we regrouped and added some weight to the car. We ended up running a 4.47 at 177 mph off the trailer with a lot of wheelies after the weight was added. After that pass, we made a few more hits trying to get rid of the wheelies. I  was extremely cautious when it came to removing the weight that I added after we struggled on Friday. Once we got things figured out, the car ran a 4.38 at 180 mph with the wheels in the air most of the run,” Hiykel says.

Now, considering the previous record on a 26×8.5 tire was 4.63, that 4.38 pass is impressive.

“I never expected the car to go that quick or fast on the small tire. I knew we could beat the 4.63, but not by almost .25 of a second. I ran that without even changing any hard parts on the car to take advantage of the short and small tire. I don’t plan on going 26-inch tire class racing anywhere. I still love the outlaw small tire 28/29 tire classes, even if I’m always competing against tube chassis cars with my back half car. I actually plan on chasing a few more records in the future. Everyone is going to have to stay tuned to see what they are,” Hiykel says.

The way that Hiykel was able to go so quick and fast on a 26×8.5 tire is…