Anthony Bongiovanni competes with a team of CJs in NHRA, NMCA and NMRA competition.
Ford Racing Cobra Jet Mustangs Are Winners On Track
Fans of the Ford Mustang have had a lot to cheer about lately. While classic Mustangs are always in vogue, Ford and Ford Racing aren’t about to rest on their success. The global 2015 Mustang is slathered with technology, power and performance, and we can expect more from the 2016 Shelby GT350 and the “R” model that we are anticipating. On the drag racing front, Ford Racing Cobra Jet Mustangs Are Winner On Track in NHRA, NMCA and NMRA competition.
Jesse Kershaw of Ford Racing is a driving force in the late-model performance arena.
Jesse Kershaw of Ford Racing, along with the team of engineers and management made the latest run of Cobra Jet Mustangs a reality in late-2008, building 50 race-only CJs for NHRA Stock Eliminator competition. Racers and collectors scooped up all 50 cars—a handful were raced, some were stored, a couple went to auction, and we saw others on the show circuit.
Who could have imagined Ford Racing would continue to build Cobra jets, no less refine the them with each model year? But CJ production continued with 50 cars being built in 2010, 2012, 2013 and 2014. And there is talk of a 2016 Cobra Jet, and we’re hoping for a twin-turbo option.
It was a dream of Fordnatics that Ford Motor Company to build a dedicated drag car, and the dream storyline was sweetened when long-time Ford racer John Calvert drove a four-speed 2008 CJ to victory in Stock Eliminator at the 2009 NHRA Winternationals in Pomona, California, exactly 40 years after Al Joniec won the same race in the 1968 Cobra Jet’s debut. Amazingly, Calvert was driving Brent Hajek’s CJ, that carried Al Joniec tribute Rice Holman lettering.
The Cobra Jet project started as a very basic package, with street/strip equipment, but has morphed into a turn-key racer capable of 8s in the quarter-mile. Along the way, Cobra jet drivers have racked up dozens of wins in a variety of sanctioning bodies—the success has pressed Chrysler and Chevrolet to jump into the factory drag car ring with the Dodge Drag Pak Challenger and the COPO Camaro. NHRA has even given the specialty cars a special place to race within Stock Eliminator with the Factory Stock Showdown, a heads-up series where modern technology is pushed to the limit.
These cars have given fans of drag racing and of the particular models something to sink their teeth into, and we wouldn’t be shocked to see NHRA take advantage of the momentum and make the series a professional or semi-professional class.
Best of all, enthusiasts can use the same technology see on track to create more horsepower in their own late-model performance cars. In fact, Brothers Performance stocks everything from the basic bolt-on power parts like cold-air intakes, throttle bodies, headers and exhaust systems, and flash tuners, to superchargers, cylinder heads, clutches, axles, ring and pinions and much more.
