Billy Glidden’s Mickey Thompson-sponsored race car has no idea its sporting a true all-Ford combination for the first since Glidden started frequenting the ADRL series almost a year ago.

Neither does the car know the pressure its under to help its driver regain a championship lost opposite higher funded and equally championship-minded teams.

This is why Glidden has been burning the midnight oil to provide the car with the weapons necessary to return an Extreme 10.5 championship to Whiteland, Ind.

Billy Glidden’s Mickey Thompson-sponsored race car has no idea its sporting a true all-Ford combination for the first since Glidden started frequenting the ADRL series almost a year ago.

Neither does the car know the pressure its under to help its driver regain a championship lost opposite higher funded and equally championship-minded teams.

This is why Glidden has been burning the midnight oil to provide the car with the weapons necessary to return an Extreme 10.5 championship to Whiteland, Ind.

“I just got all my small blocks together and actually a couple more,” said Glidden, who fell short of last year’s Battle for the Belts final round. “We spent some time with the Hemi and picked up a little bit of power. I’m kind of gathering together some parts to build another one very similar to the one in the car this weekend, and then we’ve been working with a fellow yet to be named. Looks like we might have a little different engine by about Valdosta.”  

Glidden understands just to be in the ballpark he’s going to need an engine capable of producing a run quicker than he’s ever run in Extreme 10.5 trim.

“Right now looks like you better be able to go 3.92 and I don’t think it’s going to slow down,” explained Glidden. “It’s just going to take a really fast race car, you can’t make any mistakes. You just can’t make mistakes.”

Going to a turbocharger or a blower as a power adder has been a consideration but not a realistic one, he contends.

“It’s beyond our means right now just to try to pay our bills and come to these races,” said Glidden. “To make those kinds of changes would cost lots of money and a lot of time. And require probably a few extra people and since we don’t have any of it we don’t even consider it.”

At this point in the game, the dangling carrot would have to be substantial to lure him away from his nitrous and carbureted comfort zone.

“It would have to be pretty significant, it would have to be something actually worth making that change not just for ourselves to try to compete better but actually for ourselves to pay our bills better.”

Making a move of this magnitude would negate almost a decade’s worth of data and send him back to the ground floor of a new combination.

“It wouldn’t be one change, we’re talking the whole car. Gear ratios transition, rear ends, balance, settings. Just everything is different. It would require a lot of fabricating in coming up with all the tubing, the bending and the pipes, induction and exhaust. That would not be a simple change.”