McVey Set to Kick Off 2016 with Updated Chassis in Indy

BROWNSBURG, Ind. – Canadian-based NHRA Top Alcohol Funny Car driver Scott McVey is set to kick off his 2016 season with an updated chassis during this weekend’s NHRA North Central Region opener at the famed Lucas Oil Raceway just outside Indianapolis. McVey did an in-house front half and other updates to his chassis in hopes of building on career-best numbers at the end of his 2015 campaign.

McVey, from Ile des Chenes, Man., wheeled his Will Hanna tuned Monte Carlo to personal best elapsed time (5.54 seconds) and speed (265.22 mph) at his last outing at the AAA Texas Fall Nationals just outside of Dallas last October. New personal bests were a common theme for him in 2015, as he reset those marks several times over the course of the season and hopes to continue that theme this season.

“We finally got into the 5.50’s at the end of last year,” said McVey. “We had been knocking on the door for a while. The class has become so competitive over the last few years you really have to be able to run in the .50’s anywhere you go to have a chance. The 5.40’s are becoming more commonplace in the right conditions. Our goal this year is to run consistent .50’s and hopefully find the 5.40’s at some point this year.”

McVey hopes some fresh “pipe” and updates to the chassis design will help them achieve their goals.

“I started racing this car in 2000,” cited McVey. “We make five to eight races a year, and it takes a lot of travel to make those races from Canada. The car was originally built in 1990, so we figured it was time for a front half and some updates. I looked around at some options and decided to build a jig and do it myself. We made some good progress last year, so hopefully it doesn’t take us too long to figure out what the car wants after the changes.”

Hanna is looking forward to the chance to work with the updated chassis.

“We really struggled to run good front half numbers last year,” stated Hanna. “It’s always hard to know if the chassis is at fault, but given the age of the car and runs on it, I don’t think it’s going to hurt it at all having fresh pipe. We made some design updates to modernize it to today’s horsepower levels. Thanks to our Noonan Blackhawk cylinder heads, we are making excellent power out the back half, so if we can put some front half numbers with that, we should be able to get where we need to be.”

Despite a limited schedule, McVey intends to compete for the North Central Regional title.

“We traditionally run the Central Region,” McVey explained. “We actually wanted to run the North Central Region last year, but some things came up that forced us to change our plans. The schedule and travel just work out better for us. We normally don’t chase the points, but if we can start off well, we will give it a shot. We have Lucas Oil Products back on board with us as an associate sponsor, so we would really like to make a good showing for them this season.”

Qualifying begins on Friday, followed by two more sessions on Saturday. Final eliminations will conclude the event on Sunday. The event will be live streamed on D3TV. To log on, visit www.nhradiv3.com and click the D3TV link.