10 CHEVY HIGH PERFORMANCE II OCTOBER 2019
STRAIGHT LINE
SPOTLIGHT
TEXT & PHOTOS: Bruce Biegler
but they also use their Camaro to help
advertise their family owned Collette’s
Uniform company. This well-maintained
Camaro features DuPont FirecrackerRed paint. Buddy reports that he is
grooming his young grandson Ethan as
both a potential crew chief and team
driver for the future.Clean Slate
Camaro
★Arizona’s Buddy Jensen is typical
of many Sportsman drag racers out
there; despite limited returns, he
stays the course. While not collecting
any major event prizes (yet) during
his 12-plus-year career stint racing
his F/SA 1967 Camaro, Jensen and
his wife, Linda, still enjoy the chase.
Using a self-assembled 350ci engine
(rated by NHRA at 286 hp), Buddy
has so far coaxed a best time of
10.86 from his machine while racing
pretty much exclusively within NHRA’s
West Coast divisional and national
event scenes. The Jensens fund their
racing weekends as 100-percent
independents. Buddy’s trade is selling
machine shop equipment (J&J Sales),
Into the FX Fold!
★NHRA’s SAMTech.edu Factory Stock Showdown class has a new, significant player this season. Ryan Priddy
(Chino, California), who spent the last decade working and overseeing Nick Mitsos’ California-based Mountain
View Tires’ NHRA Pro Stock team, has transferred into the drivers seat of the new Mountain View Tires FS/XX 2019
COPO Camaro. Delivered in September 2018, this race car made its initial runs last October as an FS/A car, where
it ran very deep under that index and also reset the national record. This Camaro was originally a 2018 model but
has been converted to 2019 specs with front and rear trim face, which was done to take advantage of using the
new Magnuson supercharger, which was introduced by Chevrolet for this season. With the new supercharged 350ci
engine, Ryan confirmed the Camaro will be 100-percent devoted to the NHRA’s Factory Stock Showdown events
going forward. Ryan’s COPO, which features associate sponsorship from both NAPA Auto Parts and Havoline, was
credited with a super-quick 7.934 run during that record-setting first SAMTech.edu Factory Stock Showdown event
of the season at Gainesville.