It was simply a case of having a classic clutch installed that made all the difference for Outlaw Pro Mod winner Jimmy Keen Jan. 25-27, at the 9th annual U.S. Street Nationals at Bradenton Motorsports Park in Florida.

“We tested here earlier in the week and found a problem we had with the clutch in the car, so we actually took it out and put an old clutch from 1999 in the car and the old clutch worked a whole lot better than the new one,” said Keen, after beating number-one qualifier Jose Gonzalez Jan. 26, in the Outlaw Pro Mod final. “In fact, Tony Christian let us borrow the clutch that used to be in his old ’57 Chevy, so I had a little bit of history riding with me there.”

Keen qualified his nitrous-boosted ’63 Corvette third with a 3.932-seconds pass at 191.00 mph, behind a 3.846 at 205.33 by Gonzalez in his twin-turbocharged ’69 Camaro and a 3.924 at 191.44 by Sweden’s Adam Flamholc in his roots-blown ’67 Camaro.

It was simply a case of having a classic clutch installed that made all the difference for Outlaw Pro Mod winner Jimmy Keen Jan. 25-27, at the 9th annual U.S. Street Nationals at Bradenton Motorsports Park in Florida.

“We tested here earlier in the week and found a problem we had with the clutch in the car, so we actually took it out and put an old clutch from 1999 in the car and the old clutch worked a whole lot better than the new one,” said Keen, after beating number-one qualifier Jose Gonzalez Jan. 26, in the Outlaw Pro Mod final. “In fact, Tony Christian let us borrow the clutch that used to be in his old ’57 Chevy, so I had a little bit of history riding with me there.”

Keen qualified his nitrous-boosted ’63 Corvette third with a 3.932-seconds pass at 191.00 mph, behind a 3.846 at 205.33 by Gonzalez in his twin-turbocharged ’69 Camaro and a 3.924 at 191.44 by Sweden’s Adam Flamholc in his roots-blown ’67 Camaro.

In eliminations, Keen overcame a holeshot by Rob Wells with a 3.943 at 189.63 in the opening round, then made a solo run of 3.979 at 188.91 after Chuck Mohn couldn’t make it to the lanes for round two. In the semis against fellow Floridian Frank Cersosimo, Keen almost identically matched his previous run with a 3.979 at 188.75 that sent him to the final round.

Meanwhile, Gonzalez, a supermarket chain owner from Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic, had his “El General” Camaro dialed in, going 3.824 at 206.89 to set low E.T. and top speed for the meet in a first-round win over Mike Tokarz. Gonzalez then took down Jason Carlton with a 3.846 at 206.23 and outdueled Brad Brand in the semis with a 3.947 run at 197.84 mph.

Unfortunately, the final round was settled at the starting line, as Gonzalez left -.004 too soon while Keen powered his Parrish, FL-based machine to the win in 3.991 seconds at 187.42 mph. Gonzalez also ran into trouble on the track, though, as he took out the finish-line cones after getting loose before reaching half-track and wrestling to keep his car in the left lane.

“The track was actually a little bald about a hundred feet out,” Gonzalez later explained. “The car left pretty good, but then there was nothing there and it started shaking the tires. I tried to pedal it quick, but it didn’t recover so I had to get out of it.”

Meanwhile, Keen remained unaware of what was going on beside him and said he just felt happy to see the win light on as he passed beneath his scoreboard.  

“I had planned to stage first because I knew the turbo car needs a little more time to get ready, but then we both rolled in together and I wasn’t really ready for that. Then the lights came down and I left with a .077 light and he went red, but I didn’t know that at the time. So I saw him get out on me, but then all of a sudden he wasn’t there so I knew he must’ve had some kind of trouble, but I had no idea he got all crossed up like that,” he said.

“It was a good win for us. We definitely weren’t the fastest car out here, but we stayed consistent and that’s what did it for us. We knew we couldn’t run low .80s like Jose, so we just tried to run low- to mid-.90s,”Keen added. “We stepped it up a little bit in the final, but the track just wasn’t there for either one of us. It spun on me, too, but we still got the win so that’s okay now.”

All articles and photography published in CompetitionPlus.com are protected by United States of America and International copyright laws unless mentioned otherwise. The content on this website is intended for the private use of the reader and may not be published or reposted in any form without the prior written consent of CompetitionPlus.com.