Street Outlaws have beaten Fast N’ Loud in their 2018 ‘Mega Race 2’ rematch for a $75,000 pot — winning two out of three races with no need for a third.
The contest took place at Wild Horse Pass Motorsports Park in Chandler, AZ, with Ryan Martin representing the 405 crew in his 2010 ‘Fireball’ Camaro SS and Alex Laughlin representing Gas Monkey Garage in the same 2017 Challenger his team used last year.
The races took place at night on a prepped surface, with the first race coming down to the wire but with Ryan Martin leading from the off and crossing the line just a split-second before Laughlin.
Ryan praised his rivals after their initial pass, saying: “I let go of the button and I never see him…we make the whole run, then at the end I pull the shoots and then I do see him. So it turns out I’ve been taking these guys too lightly.
“They’ve been having issues, they’ve been struggling, but, you know what? They got that car fixed. The very last minute they were right there, right behind me.”
Laughlin’s rapid pass had both teams surprised, as it seems neither was expecting Richard Rawlings and his crew to be so fast especially after suffering chassis issues. Alex Laughlin said of the OKC crew: “They were like ‘uh oh’, we better turn the screw up this time guys!”
Rawlings added of Martin: “He thought he was going to come out here and mop us up on the track, and we were right on it.”
But things then came crashing down — almost literally — for the Gas Monkey crew when Laughlin lost control of his car on the second pass, drifting into Martin’s lane. He had been way ahead from the get-go, but the result meant it was game over for Fast N’ Loud.
As the Street Outlaws team celebrated, Rawlings looked downtrodden. Laughlin, recounting the race, said: “So we line up, I bump in, leave on him when it turns green. The car went good for 60ft then goes into a violent tire shake. Didn’t even get down the race track, I just handed this one over.”
But despite his victory, Ryan gave kudos to Rawlings and his team for managing to come up with such fast car, telling them: “You guys got that s*** f***ing rolling, for real!”
Rawlings said: “A lot of people out there are probably thinking ‘why aren’t they pissed off, why aren’t they kicking boxes and yelling cuss words?’. But…we’re getting closer.
“I got a great team, I got a great driver and we drove the wheels off that thing. It could have been anyone’s race the second one and, well, it was…it was theirs.”
In the more light-hearted race, Farmtruck and AZN from Street Outlaws beat the Fired Up Garage team from Misfit Garage in a best-of-three road race course challenge.
Mega Race 2 comes after the initial Mega Race last year in which Street Outlaws also won. Last night also saw the premiere of former Gas Monkey mechanic Aaron Kaufman’s new show Shifting Gears.
Great job from MSgt USAF RET and a 100 % disabled veteran