Car of the Week: Wheel Stand Tournament Winner, Derek Lewis' 1970 Nova

Welcome to our Car of the Week series, where we feature BTE customers and fans, and the cars (and trucks) they love to drive and race. We’ve taken a small break from the series, but we’re back today with the winner of our recent [epic!] Wheel Stand Tournament. It was a hard-fought battle, and Derek Lewis was grand prize winner with a massive amount of support. Here’s his story, and his car.

How did you get into drag racing?

Hanging around friends in high school.

When and where was your first race?

Texas Raceway

What model/year do you race now?

1970 Nova

Does your car have a nickname?

"Ole Red," but most people know me or my car by 582nova.

What's under the hood?

Morgan & Son racing engine 572 BBC

Car of the Week: Nat Farrar's '72 Chevy Rally Nova

Welcome to our Car of the Week series, where we feature BTE customers and fans, and the cars (and trucks) they love to drive and race. This week, we return to our feature with the runner up in our recent [epic!] Wheel Stand Tournament which took place over several weeks. It was a hard-fought battle, and Nat Farrar of Tullahoma, TN was the second place winner with a massive amount of support. Here’s his story, and his car.

How did you get into drag racing?

Got into bracket racing though a friend back in 1996.

When and where was your first race?

My first race was in Huntsville, AL when George Howard ran the track.

What model/year do you race now?

I have a 1972 Chevy Rally Nova.

BTE's Facebook Wheel Stand Tournament Details

If you follow us on Facebook, you might have noticed we're doing something a little different. Something fun. Something a little bit like racing. We're having a tournament to see which of our fans' wheel stand photos have what it takes to win them a BTE torque converter or BTE-manufactured product of equal or lesser value. 

Here's the tournament structure:
1st round: Start with 64 wheel stand entries, which will be put into groups of 4 in 16 first rounds. Those 16 winners will move on. Round 2: 16 Wheel Stands will compete again in groups of 4 to get to our Final 4! Round 3: Those Final 4 will compete in groups of 2 to find our finalists. Final Round: Two finalists battle it out for the grand prize (a BTE torque converter or BTE product of equal or lesser value). 

We’ll post 2 first rounds a day (for a total of 8 days, skipping weekends and Labor Day). The we’ll post one bracket a day for the remainder of the tournament until we have our winner. See the line up below.

How will we do it? We'll post a status message with the name of the round's contestants and post their photos in the comment section. The photo with the most LIKES in 24 hours will move on!

Here are the current entries and what days they'll be in the first round. We'll update the details as rounds finish and we know who'll be moving on.