Each year, TX2K brings the quickest street cars from around the country to Texas for a week’s worth of some of the best drag racing and roll racing you will find anywhere in the world. TX2K has a wide variety of racing classes, but the Heavyweight drag racing class is where you will find the modern Dodge muscle cars. Over the years, Challenger and Charger drivers have experienced a fair amount of success in the class, but at TX2K24, SRT® Hellcats dominated – sweeping the class podium for the first time ever.
There were a total of 21 entries for the Heavyweight drag racing class, nine of which were Dodge products, and they were joined by a Jeep® Grand Cherokee Trackhawk and a Ram 1500 TRX for a total of 11 vehicles in the class powered by the supercharged HEMI® engine. The group of nine Dodge products was composed of three Challenger SRT Hellcats, three Charger SRT Hellcats, two Challenger SRT Demons and one SRT Demon 170. Of those nine Dodge cars, seven made the elimination field of 16 and three claimed the top spots on the ladder, with the Charger SRT Hellcat of Zdung Ho qualifying first, the world record-holding SRT Demon of Chris Baily qualifying second and the Charger SRT Hellcat of Casey Hoong qualifying third. We have included the full results of qualifying below.
In addition to Dodge racers qualifying in the top three spots of the Heavyweight class at TX2K24, Dodge racers finished in the top three spots of the class, but they weren’t the same three racers from qualifying. In the end, Casey Hoong would beat Zdung Ho in a battle of Charger SRT Hellcats while Jeremy Curry would race his way from the tenth qualifying spot to take the third place podium finish – losing to Hoong in the semifinals on a red light start.
After learning of the Dodge SRT Hellcat dominance at TX2K24, I reached out to each of the podium finishers for more details on their cars and their success in Texas.
Third Place – Jay Curry, 2015 Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat
Jay Curry’s 2015 Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat is powered by the original 6.2-liter HEMI engine, but it has been upgraded by Baily’s Hyperformance for big power with a drop-in forged piston-and-rod set from MMX, a Max Effort Blower camshaft from MMX, a Fore triple-pump fuel system, Fuel Injector Connection 2250cc injectors, a 4.5-liter Whipple supercharger with nitrous oxide rails and a Nitrous Outlet NO2 progressive shot system set to a 250-shot.
Baily’s Hyperformance also outfitted this Challenger SRT Hellcat with a 2018 SRT Demon convertor from Southern Hotrod for the stock 8HP90 transmission, while stock Mopar® 3.09 gears put the power to the pavement. Curry’s Challenger also has a Carlin Fab 7.5 NHRA-certified cage, leading to a track weight (with the driver) of 4,515 pounds. Curry’s car is tuned by Zdung Ho.
After qualifying in the 10th spot with a 8.747 at 158.84 miles per hour, Jay Curry got quicker as he worked his way through eliminations running an 8.57 at 158.41 while beating the LS-powered BMW 335 of Drayson Mead in round one and running an 8.536 at 160.21 miles per hour to beat the Camaro ZL1 of Travis Lamb in round two. Unfortunately for Curry, when taking on Casey Hoong in round three, he red lit and ended his weekend, but he put in a strong showing and ran his personal best with that 8.536 in round two.
(Images courtesy of Jay Curry)
Second Place – Zdung Ho, 2016 Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat
Zdung Ho’s 2016 Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat has held the world record for the quickest SRT Hellcat sedan in the quarter-mile in the past, and he reclaimed that record during TX2K24. Ho’s Charger is powered by a 441-cubic-inch Gen III HEMI engine built by Demon Performance and TKM, featuring ThiTek cylinder heads, a Winberg billet crankshaft, Wiseco Boostline connecting rods, custom Diamond pistons, a custom Demon Performance camshaft, a Manton Roller Rocker System, Stainless Works longtube headers, Nitrous Outlet intake spacer plates and a 3.8-liter Whipple supercharger.
Power is sent to the rear wheels of Ho’s Charger SRT Hellcat by means of an M&M TH400 transmission with a Neil Chance torque converter, a Driveshaft Shop carbon fiber driveshaft, a 9-inch rear differential with a 3.40 gear from Innovative Machine Solutions and a set of axles from Driveshaft Shop. Ho tunes his car himself and it had a track weight of 4,220 pounds at TX2K this year.
As mentioned above, Zdung Ho qualified in the top spot with a 7.561 at 181.82 miles per hour, which beat his previous best elapsed time of 7.622, putting him within striking distance of the Charger SRT Hellcat record time of 7.536 set by Colby Davis. In the first round, Zdung Ho spun on the launch, but was able to drive around the SRT Demon 170 of Kevin Van Voris to get the win with a 9.18 at 146.56. In the second round, Ho beat the Challenger SRT Hellcat of Bo Gentile, opening the parachute a little early and still running a 7.97 at 145.97, but in the third round of eliminations, the Go Mango Charger made its first clean pass of TX2K24 eliminations and set a new world record – running a 7.488 at 184.15 and beating the Camaro of Jill Hicks. Unfortunately, in the finals against Casey Hoong, Zdung Ho did not give his transbrake time to set, causing him to push through the beams before the lights came down, handing the easy win to Casey Hoong.
First Place – Casey Hoong, 2017 Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat
Casey Hoong’s 2017 Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat is powered by a 426-cubic-inch Gen III HEMI engine, built by Baily’s Hyperformance and topped by a 3.8-liter Whipple supercharger. Hoong explained that he doesn’t run nitrous oxide, but Baily’s Hyperformance has built him a “boost-only” Charger that will beat the bottled racers.
“Since I didn’t want to run nitrous, we had to make up the short fall by doing more custom engine work than normal. Baily’s Hyperformance has gone above and beyond to put together an engine to match his nitrous built cars.”
The power from his blown HEMI engine is sent to the wheels by means of an 8HP90 transmission from Southern Hot Rods with an OEM 2018 SRT Demon torque convertor. This heavyweight champ tipped the scale at 4,325 pounds and Zdung Ho also tuned this Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat.
“During TX2K qualifying rounds, Q1 was just to shake the car down to see what a cold, good air and good track prep tune up would do. This pass, the car went an 8.32 at 169MPH. ZHTunes (Zdung Ho) had sent over a tune revision for next round of qualifying. Q2, the car went 8.13 at 170MPH which was a new PB for me and at that point Chris Baily, Zdung and I all agreed to leave the car as it was and not run any more qualifying runs as it was performing phenomenally and just prepare to have fun during the finals.”
In the first round of TX2K24 Heavyweight eliminations, Hoong ran an 8.4 at 140, letting off between the 8th mile and 1,000-foot mark to beat the Cadillac CTS-V of Eric Moreno. In rounds two, three and four, Casey Hoong laid down similar runs of 8.12 at 170 miles per hour, running his new personal best of 8.120 at 170.4 in the process. Hoong would beat the Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat of Mac Smith in round two, the Challenger SRT Hellcat of Jay Curry in round three and the Charger SRT Hellcat of Zdung Ho in the finals on his way to the Heavyweight class win at TX2K24.
Congratulations to Hoong, Ho and Curry for sweeping the Heavyweight class podium in Texas and doing such a great job of representing the Brotherhood of Muscle at one of the world’s premier racing events.
(Images courtesy of Casey Hoong)