If you’ve been around drag racing for a minute, you know the name Ray “Hollywood” Johnson. He had a wicked Fox coupe that ran in the 10.5W ranks, but he sold that car to focus on his family and his company, RRJ Associates, a commercial and residential dumpster leasing business. Johnson knew he wouldn’t be out of the game for long, and when he jumped back in, he jumped back in with both feet.
Going right into the deep end, he bought the highly-successful Kenny Seeger-owned 10.5W car, driven by Conrad Scarry. Seeger and Scarry were dominant with the car, but Johnson improved on the car even more when he became the car’s owner. When Scarry drove the car it had a 550-inch Ford engine in it with twin 88mm turbochargers, but Johnson had it punched out even further to a 632-inch big-block Ford with twin 94s.
Proline did the engine work, but many other aspects of the car were changed, as well. The chassis was upgraded, a Rossler two-speed supplanted the car’s former Bruno/Lenco set-up, and the intercooler system was reconfigured. All told it would be two years before Johnson would have the car on the track.
But shortly after its debut, tragedy struck at a test session with the reconfigured car at Atco Raceway in Jersey when a fuel rail buckled, and pushed out an injector O-ring, causing a fire of epic proportions. The fire took out the front end, the wiring, plumbing, distributor, coil, valve covers, and the like. It was a giant leap backwards for Johnson.
However, that was then, and this is now…for the most part. The car is rebuilt, and making its return this weekend at the Yellow Bullet Nationals at Cecil County Dragway. The car once again looks stunning, but already, problems have arisen. During Thursday’s test session, the car’s intake couldn’t handle 50 pounds of boost, and basically split in half. Johnson is hunting for an aluminum welder to make repairs as we type this.
Hopefully, Johnson’s weekend gets better and he’s able to get the car back into winning form.