Little more than a week ago, we saw Chris Holbrook’s brand-new Watson Racing-backed SS/AA Mustang at the NMRA‘s season-opening event, where he made a shakedown run in preparation for the just-completed NHRA Gatornationals in Gainesville, Florida. The Coyote powerplant is boosted by a Whipple supercharger, and Holbrook had the machine set up for Super Stock Eliminator when we saw it, and on Friday he made the quickest runs in Super Stock Eliminator history at the Gators with a pair of stellar runs – a 7.902 and 7.900 in the process of winning the SS/AA class. 

Chris Holbrook, at right, with his FS/A Cobra Jet Mustang that he drove to the Factory Stock Showdown title on the same day he set the all-time NHRA Super Stock elapsed time record.

The car was built completely at Watson Racing, save for the engine, which was completed at Holbrook Racing Engines. Not only is Holbrook competing with the 5.0L Coyote engine in the car, it also features a Liberty five-speed clutchless manual transmission. This is the first time to our knowledge that the Coyote engine has been entered into Super Stock competition, and the fact that Holbrook was able to row the gears to these incredible elapsed times just puts the rest of the class on notice – the Ford boys aren’t going anywhere.

Prior to winning SS/AA, Chris drove his grey 2014 Cobra Jet to a win in Stock Eliminator with the quickest and fastest performances in history in Factory Stock/A with a stout 8.519 at 161.13 MPH. After winning SS/AA with the red-and-black machine, he jumped right back into the Cobra Jet and went into competition in the NHRA’s Factory Stock Showdown. He took out Gary Richard in the semifinals, then won over David Barton’s Dodge Challenger in the final round of competition – earning himself three Wallys in one day – an incredible performance from an incredible racer.

It’s been a dream week for the Michigan-based engine builder, who also captured the Ford Racing Parts Cobra Jet Showdown title last weekend at the NMRA event. Stay tuned for a feature on Holbrook’s incredible Cobra Jet, right here on Dragzine in the weeks to come – and if our cameras can catch up with him, the new Mustang as well.