Willie Lujan Earns BBK Spring Break Shootout Honors
Written By Team NMRA
When it comes to Mustang performance, few names are as well-known or as well respected as Willie Lujan. The owner of Lujan Motorsports in Miami, Willie has a long history of success in NMRA events and that resumé now includes a win in the BBK Spring Break Shootout.
In Gainesville, Lujan drove to a final round win over fellow Floridian and defending event champion Adam Kuffel. Lujan, in his ’90 Mustang, gave up a slight lead at the start, but had enough power to run down Kuffel in a thrilling 8.58 to 8.77 side-by-side race.
The BBK Spring Break Shootout is a specialty category that showcases the 16 quickest and fastest cars in Circle D Specialties True Street in a heads-up streetcar battle. It has long been one of the highlights of the Holley NMRA Drag Racing Series season opener, which was held for the first time at Gainesville Raceway just a few weeks ago.
This Spring Break Shootout is a tough test of driver and machine that begins with the challenging 30-mile street cruise, followed by three back-to-back-to-back runs. The format puts a premium on reliability and the winner must then out-perform and out-last the field in an all-out, four-round, heads-up drag race.
Lujan finished second in the True Street category behind Chris Welch. After three runs, Lujan turned in an average elapsed time of 8.88-seconds, just a fraction behind Welch’s 8.85 average. There were more than 70 cars in the True Street class and nearly a third of them could deliver performances in the 9-second zone or quicker.
Lujan got a single run in the opening round and then followed with an impressive 8.53 to 8.92 victory against Donnie Addair in his ’87 Mustang. A foul start by Chris Welch in the semifinals allowed Lujano to coast to the final round.
Kuffel, seeking his second-straight Spring Break Shootout title, defeated Robert Thompson and Kimberly Walter to reach the final round in his nitrous equipped ’85 Mustang GT.
For his efforts, Lujan was rewarded with $800 in cash, plus a $750 gift certificate from Brothers Performance as well as a $500 gift certificate from Aeromotive in addition to the coveted BBK Spring Break Shootout trophy.
Even sponsor BBK is a company with a long history of making fuel-injected performance vehicles faster and more powerful; the Spring Break Shootout provides the perfect arena for which to showcase its vast product line.
“With 35 years in the performance bolt-on parts industry, BBK is excited to sponsor and support the Spring Break Shootout with the desire to continue pushing the boundaries of performance upgrades on today’s modern muscle car and truck,” Brian Murphy, CEO of BBK Performance, said.
“BBK carries a wide selection of performance parts such as throttle bodies, cold-air intakes, headers, and more. Our products are designed to be bolt-on upgrades, many of which can be installed in your vehicle in under an hour and greatly improve the horsepower and torque output of your car or truck,” Murphy added. “Our helpful install guides make installation easy, and we offer technical assistance to our customers. Best of all, all our products are made right here in the USA and carry a full one-year warranty.”
“Back in 1995, current Promedia Sales Director Jim Campisano, and his staff at Muscle Mustangs & Fast Fords magazine, created the Spring Break Shootout and it remains a prestigious and popular category for elite street machines across North America,” added Steve Wolcott, President and CEO of NMRA. “BBK Performance continuing its sponsorship is a testament to the enduring popularity of the longest-running heads-up street car class in drag racing.”
