Mike Jovanis’ 1989 Mustang is a legitimate s7-second street car that’s completed Drag Week, and has several NMRA True Street wins on its resume. The level of success that Jovanis has experienced isn’t an accident — it’s the result of diligent planning, the right attitude, and hard work.

Jovanis and his friends approach racing with the mindset that it needs to be fun when you’re putting a lot of effort into your program. They strive to win each time they go to the track, but at the end of the day when the work is done, there still needs to be time to relax. The fun factor along with the technical and engineering challenge that building a fast street car presents is what keeps Jovanis intrigued with racing.

“I enjoy the diversity of being able to do True Street-style events, select heads-up races such as the Spring Break Shootout, and outlaw-style street car shootouts, as well as drag-and-drive events. They bring us to different places and have a great bunch of racers that participate in them. These events also don’t come with a commitment of racing a full series like the heads up classes do,” Jovanis says.

At the NMRA Spring Break Shootout Jovanis picked up a pair of wins, first in True Street with a 7.890-second average over three runs. Jovanis also won the Spring Break Shootout, a race within a race that features the 16 quickest cars from the True Street class. These wins were made possible by changes in Jovanis’ engine program. During the offseason, Jovanis increased the size of his DiSomma Racing Engines small-block Ford from 349 to 423 cubic inches. Jovanis says that change allows the car to spool faster, makes it easier to manage the power, and doesn’t require him to push the engine as hard to achieve the same performance level.

Another big factor in the wins that Jovanis earned in Florida is how he and his team prepare for big events.

“My friends Scott Triolo, Tom Van Tassel, and Brian Friedentag put a lot of time in with me to make sure the car was 100-percent ready. Stressing the details is what helps you win. There are many points of failure when you try to drive cars at this performance level on the street. We check, double-check, stare at laptops, and check everything again. Even in the preparation, we make sure we are having fun. You will almost always find chicken wings and beers around when we are working on the car,” Jovanis states.

You can have all the horsepower in the world, but if you don’t approach a fast street car build right, you won’t ever be able to finish a True Street or drag-and-drive event. Jovanis has learned over the years what it takes to keep a car alive during one of these grueling events.

“You don’t want to fall in the trap of applying dedicated race car theory to cars that you drive on the street. You have to approach challenges in a way that fits both racing and street driving. The best cars and people to learn from are the ones that participate in endurance drag and drive events. Mike Galimi and I campaigned my car in Drag Week successfully in 2016, and learned a lot about what it really means to have a fast street car,” Jovanis explains.

Fuel delivery is important for any 7-second race car, but when you drive it on the street that makes parts selection even more important. The fuel system that Jovanis has built is based around products from Weldon High Performance. Weldon has worked with Jovanis to ensure his fuel system is able to deal with the extreme environment that street driving a race car can present.

“A fuel system on a high-horsepower car that is driven on the street is an absolutely critical part of the combination to get right. At the Bradenton event, we were running a 2345-A fuel pump from Weldon, but have also successfully run a 2035-A on the car. We use Weldon’s 14000 controller to step the pump down for street driving. This is very important for street-driven, high-volume fuel pumps because they can have heat-related issues when circulating too much fuel too quickly through the hot engine compartment. In the 10 years we have been running Weldon pumps we have never had a single issue with them,” Jovanis explains.

Mike Jovanis has perfected the formula for a 7-second street car. The Mustang that Jovanis pilots at True Street events and elsewhere has proven it will not only survive but is also a threat to win at any time. The program that Jovanis has built shows that you can’t replace proper preparation and parts selection for any build.