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Larry Larson vs. Rod Tschiggfrie to match race at Midwest Nationals this weekend!

Larry Larson and Rod Tschiggfrie are headed to World Wide Technology Raceway to match race at the 2020 Mopar Express Lane NHRA Midwest Nationals presented by Pennzoil
30 Sep 2020
David Kennedy
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Larry Larson vs. Rod Tschiggfrie to match race at Midwest Nationals

Larry Larson's Cadillac ATS-V and Rod Tschiggfrie's Oldsmobile 442 will go head-to-head at the at the 2020 Mopar Express Lane NHRA Midwest Nationals presented by Pennzoil.  Larson will take his  2016 Cadillac built for the Street Outlaws: No Prep Kings ATS-V up against Tschiggfrie’s "Sorceress" 1984 Hurst Olds Cutlass, driven by Ed Thorton. 

NHRA fans got their first chance to see Larson run his Cadillac ATS-V at the 2019 Menards NHRA Heartland Nationals presented by Minties at Heartland Motorsports Park. Built as an entry for No Prep events, Larson’s latest creation features a 572-cid engine from ProLine and is fitted with a single 144mm turbocharger.

Tschiggfrie, of Dubuque, Iowa, built his innovative Hurst Olds as a dual-purpose street/strip car and so far, it has lived up to that billing including a 260-mph run at the 2019 Street Car Supernationals in Las Vegas. The Oldsmobile is the first car that Tschiggfrie owned, and it retains its original VIN number and taillights, however, nearly everything else has been replaced including a carbon fiber body and chrome-moly steel chassis. The car is powered by a 640-cid engine fitted with a pair of 98mm turbochargers.


“I always wanted a really cool car, so I took this Olds and made it fit that dream,” Tschiggfrie said. “I grew up with a Hot Rod magazine in my hand so to have a car like this is a lifelong dream of mine. I bought this car off the showroom floor and couldn’t wait to start modifying it. It’s my own engine design, own body design, and my own chassis design, and my goal was to make it as bad ass as possible. Two years ago, we went to the Street Machine Nationals and drove it around in 96-degree temperatures. As for our 260-mph run last year, it had the potential to be a lot better. We’ve worked hard to develop reliability as much as horsepower but we could ultimately run 270-mph.”

Tschiggfrie enlisted a number of drag racing’s sharpest minds to help make his dream car a reality including former NHRA Top Alcohol Funny Car world champion Fred Mandoline, who assisted in engine development, Mike Spitzer, who built the all-carbon fiber body, driver Don Speer, tuner Shane Techlenburg, and crewmembers Rick Schmitt, Rick Schmitt Jr., Brian Furne, and Mike Heeren.  

The schedule calls for both competitors to make one time trial run  on Friday,  Saturday, and  Sunday. 

To catch all the action of the Mopar Express Lane NHRA Midwest Nationals presented by Pennzoil,
Oct. 2-5 you can buy your tickets HERE, livestream the race on NHRA.tv, and be sure to watch the full NHRA on FOX broadcast on FS1.