Texas Winter Blast Brings Heat to Dallas

The calendar might read January, and most of the country might be in a deep freeze regardless of what time zone you live in, but the track surface at the Texas Motorplex near Dallas was hot and sticky. It was at this drag strip, just outside Dallas, that a gathering of Dodge Challenger SRT^® Demon owners took advantage of the great weather and a well-prepped racing surface. These hardcore and passionate owners of SRT Demons gathered to make noise and run some fast times. Through word-of-mouth and social media posts, the tribe descended on the Texas Motorplex to shred some tires, make some noise and conquer the quarter-mile.

A Texas Winter Blast event is the brainchild of SRT Demon 170 owner Nephtali Garibay. He took it upon himself to keep the tradition going of having SRT Demon owners, along with others with high-powered late-model Challengers, Chargers, Ram trucks and anything else that’s a fast Mopar_® vehicle, including the Jeep_® Grand Cherokee SRT and the vintage 1967 Plymouth Valiant. 36 Mopar enthusiasts came to the Texas Motorplex in January to lay down some impressive times. Based on what we’ve heard, this event was a huge success for all the attendees. Now that there’s been a week or so to let it all sink in, it appears Nephtali and his crew did an awesome job in their first annual Texas Winter Blast.

“We had an awesome turnout. There were 19 SRT Demon 170s, with a dozen of them running in the eights for the first time,” said Nephtali. “With a great DA (Density Altitude) of negative 1,300 feet all day, many participants reached personal best times with their Mopars. We limited the number of entries so our racers could get as many as 120 passes down the track during our three-day event. With our laid-back agenda, it was a wonderful event.” Being an SRT Demon 170 owner himself, Nephtali knows how critical track prep is in getting these 1,000-plus-horsepower machines to hook-up and the great folks at the Texas Motorplex spared no expense. He ran an 8.80 ET @ 151.5 MPH in his basically stock SRT Demon 170. “The track officials at the Motorplex catered to drivers’ needs by ensuring consistent traction and used PJ1 TrackBite, which is a synthetic resin traction compound, and our cars react very well to it.” When not racing his eight-second Triple Nickel Challenger SRT Demon 170, Nephtali is running a pair of successful collision/body shops in Laredo, Texas. He’s only 52 years old but has spent a good chunk of those years immersed in the Mopar car hobby and culture. He also knows the importance of the community of SRT Demon owners looking to get the best performance, and the importance of everything from tuning tips, suspension set up and even driving techniques are openly discussed.

That’s one of the many reasons Nephtali had retired SRT engineer Jim Wilder come to the Texas Winter Blast as a guest. “Jim (Wilder) has great firsthand knowledge on SRT history, along with insights on Demon 170’s powertrain, suspension systems, vehicle dynamics and more. His willingness to share his knowledge proved very helpful for everyone at the event,” noted Nephtali. If you recall, DodgeGarage did a great feature on Jim Wilder and his involvement in the creation of the Challenger SRT Demon and the Demon 170. Known as the ‘Demon Whisperer,’ Jim was treated like a rockstar at the Texas Winter Blast. He was peppered with numerous questions about the SRT Demon 170 while giving some advice to the event participants.

“When I arrived at the Texas Motorplex, many of the attendees were already waiting to chat with me. Many of the questions were about the proper set-up and tuning of the Demon 170. I did numerous tech talks and discussed my history at SRT,” said Jim. Jim also spoke about the development and testing of the SRT Demon 170 and the challenges the SRT team had to face when creating this street-legal 1,025-horsepower monster. “Along with the background of the Demon 170, I also spoke about proper vehicle prep, weight factors and the potential parts failures for running these cars very hard on a sticky track surface with larger drag radials. The numerous tech talks were held in a conference room at the track, and there were always at least 20-25 folks in attendance.” Jim did notice many of the SRT Demon 170s were running the larger 55 series rear tires versus the factory spec’d Mickey/Thompson 315/50R17 Drag Radials.

True to his hero status among the Challenger SRT Demon community, Jim autographed a few cars while still being asked numerous inquiries related to this iconic and record-setting Dodge muscle car. “I also fielded many questions from the proper Ethanol Fuel percentage to reach peak horsepower levels, to when a racer needs to use the car’s Torque Reserve, Trans Brake and Drag Mode settings. Seeing how well the track was prepped and the awesome and aggressive wheelies many of these cars were pulling, it made me feel good to be a part of SRT’s Demon 170 program. It was awesome to meet so many of these passionate owners, and I look forward to the next gathering of Demon enthusiasts.”

While a date has not been set for the next SRT Demon 170 race, Nephtali is already looking at ways to make the event even better. In the meantime, check out these awesome pics from this year’s Texas Winter Blast that brought heat to the Lone Star State!