The Horsepower Wars $10K Shootout is a competition where teams square off to see who can build the fastest drag car in 10 days with only $3,000 in cash and $7,000 in Summit Racing credit. We’ve had applicants from ALL over the country vying to see who would make it into the final list. And that has now happened.

This interesting and innovative competition has been made possible by some of the leading companies in our industry: Royal Purple, Comp Cams, TCI Transmissions, Mickey Thompson Performance Tires & Wheels, E3 Spark Plugs, Fragola, Diablosport, Mahle Motorsports, DynaBatt, ProCharger, Weld Racing, ARP, BMR Suspension, QA1, and of course, Summit Racing.

Today, we present our fifth finalist for the $10K Drag Shootout…

Team leader Brody Quick

Team Name: Redneck Bracket Racers
Driver: Tim Slone
Hometown: Hanceville, Alabama
Crew: Brody Quick, Keith Quick, Austin Slone, Dennis Barnhart

Brody Quick and his team that hail from Alabama and Tennessee bring youth and exuberance to the mix…and plenty of racecar-building experience, too. Brody, a 19-year old, second-generation drag racer, tends to the family tire business with his father, Keith. But when the two aren’t working, they’re plying their craft and chasing their racing passion. The father and son duo have constructed a pair of Chevrolet Camaros they bracket race in the South, and it’s there where they met the gentlemen that are part of their Horsepower Wars crew, including driver Tim Slone and his son, Austin. Tim is an accomplished bracket racer, and has plenty of engine-building pedigree to boot, while Austin has done his share of time behind the wheel, as well. Collectively, this team of five has an impeccable amount of experience building, maintaining, and winning in the sport of drag racing, and that could just parlay itself into success in the $10K Drag Shootout.

Will they make it to the final three and on to the show? You’re going to get to help decide!

If you want to learn more about Brody and his team, here’s some of the goods they shared with us during the application process:

HW: Tell us about your racing background

I’m 19 years old and have been involved and around racing since I was born. I’m currently the store manager at our family business, Quick Tire Sales Inc. in Cullman, Alabama. My passion for drag racing and building cars is uncomparable to just about anything else. My first trip to the dragstrip was when I was three months old — 19 years later my desire to be in and around cars and the racetrack only seems to be getting stronger. I made my first pass down a dragstrip when I was seven years old in a junior dragster, and that was about all it took to get me hooked. I bought my first full-size dragster when I was 16 and since then I’ve bought, sold, and traded my way through about seven cars. Every car I’ve had needed work and so I just fix them up, build them and sell them. I’m at a racetrack between 25-35 weekends a year and I have traveled far and wide to get there. I’ve been from Dallas, Texas to Stanton, Michigan to Holt, Florida and everywhere in between to go race or be around the performance industry. I hope that California is next on my list.

HW: Who is part of your team?

Our crew will consist of myself, Keith Quick, Austin Slone, and Dennis Barnhart. Tim is from Columbia, Tennessee and has been around racecars for aboout 35 years. He is a retired engineer and currently works at Huntsville Engine, one of the nations premier engine shops. His driving career accomplishments include multiple big buck bracket race wins, IHRA divisonal wins, and IHRA national event wins. Tim also is an expert welder and chassis fabricator who has built several race cars from scratch. Austin, like his dad Tim, also lives in Columbia and brings his talents of electronic wiring and engine building to the table. Keith resides in the small town of Hanceville, Alabama and has also been around the racing scene for nearly 35 years with history in go carts and drag cars. He is a jack-of-all-trades, bringing extensive knowledge in fuel and tuning as well as being a transmission specialist. Dennis lives in Cullman, Alabama and is essentially our “go-fast” expert. He has been dabbling with nitrous and making cars fast for cheap since before he even had a drivers license. I also live in Hanceville. I made my first trip to a racetrack when I was three months old and since then I have been hooked on cars and racing. As a group we spend somewhere between 25-35 weekends a year at a racetrack or doing something that involves cars. Our passion for cars, extreme determination, and competitiveness will set us apart from the other teams.

Keith Quick, my father, who has been around racing for 35 years and has practically taught me everything I know about cars and how to work on them. Keith has done anything from building rear ends, to tuning carburetors, to stripping cars down to nothing and compeletly re-doing them. Austin Slone, a good friend of mine that has been into racing since he was old enough to get a junior (six years old) and whom I met at the racetrack years ago. Austin is a versatile team member with a wide variety of capabilities that include a vast knowledge about engine building and fabrication. Austin currently has his dragster stripped down to the bare chassis to be re-powdercoated, and then he’ll assemble it back together piece by piece with all new equipment, pretty much re-building the car from scratch.

Out of our team, Dennis is probably the best at makig cars very fast for cheap. Our group is made up of primarily bracket racers but like most car junkies, we like to go fast too. We’ve all tinkered with, worked on, and built race cars and street cars and want to come prove that we can out-work the rest of them. Most everything that we do to our cars we do ourselves.

HW: Why should you and you team make the top three finalists?

My teams’ drive, passion, and extensive knowledge about cars and racing would compare to anyone that you put us up against. We bring a hunger to succeed and motivation to win. If we are chosen to compete in the shootout, you and the viewers won’t be dissapointed. We come with one goal and that is to end the competition with our hot rod coming home with us and $10,000 in our pockets.

HW: What Makes You Qualified For The $10K Drag Shootout?

Our group is full of very competitive, intelligent people that know what they are doing in and around cars and the racetrack. Together our extensive knowledge about making cars fast compares to the best in the business. When making a car fast on a limited budget and timeframe, you need to have willpower, be smart, and most of all, be a competitor. We have all three of these things invested in ourselves and are very confident in our work and what we are able to bring to the table.

HW: Can you share some more details about some of the cars your team has built in the past?

Austin and Tim built a Saturn drag car; this car started as a bare spaceframe and a truck-load of tubing. We built an all chrome-moly, 7.50 certified chassis with intentions of competing in Super Stock GT. We built the Saturn with a 4-link rear suspension, Fab9 rear end, and Santhuff strut front suspension. Near the end of the build we were informed that we could not run Super Stock GT if we wanted to keep the “Quad Coupe” design with the two rear suicide doors; so we decided to build a turbo LS engine for it and make it the ultimate street car. We built a 418-inch, LS3-based engine with an 80mm billet turbo from Forced Inductions, and backed it with a Powerglide transmission, all of which was built in our shop.

This street/strip car was driven all over Tennessee, Kentucky, and northern Alabama. It ran 5.50s in the eighth-mile, and went 206.32 mph in the standing mile to set the B/BFSS Land Speed record at the ECTA Ohio Mile in September of 2013. It was also in Hot Rod Magazine both times we took it to the Ohio Mile. Ultimately, we pulled the turbo motor out, built a naturally-aspirated engine, and began bracket racing the car. This car was built entirely in our own shop from the chassis, tin work, carpeting, wiring, and powertrain.

My father and I have built two 1967 Camaro’s. The first of these we call Butterbean, because of its color; this car has been in the family for about 14 years and it has come a long way since we aquired it. We started by narrowing the rear end to put a bigger slick under it. We’ve sinced moved on to completely stripping the entire inside of the car to moderize it. It has new carpet and we put the factory seats back in it, re-wired the car from one end to the other, new gauges, new electronics, and even managed to get the factory dome light to work in it. Then we moved to the motor, which needed freshening. Nearly every piece was replaced in it; the only things we kept were the block, heads, crank, and intake. It’s currently on our post lift at the shop getting a new ring gear and pinion because it broke a few ears off during the last race of the year.

Our other Camaro was aquired just last fall as a rolling chassis and it needed some work to make it what we want it to be. It ended up needing a new spool, ring gear, pinion, axles, new rear disc brakes. We also installed front tubular control arms, a new front grille, and all light assemblies. After that we took apart a 415 small-block Chevrolet that we had to make sure all the parts were good in it and installed new planetary gears, a pump, and band in a Powerglide and put them both in the car. We’re currently waiting on the new rear wheels to come in so we can start making laps in it.

Keep an eye out as we release the sixth finalist and work our way through the entire lineup of teams that will vie for a shot at this rough-and-tumble build-off!