Tommy Youmans of Georgia is a racer’s racer to the core. He’s a family man and foremost, home and hearth come first; but when it comes to his recreational activities, his love of drag racing good old American hot-rods certainly holds this 56-year-old man’s attention. If he’s not busy with his industrial steelwork, or with his beloved wife Wanda, he’s thinking of ways to go faster and quicker with his bad-ass, Pro 275 car “The Judge.”
That’s right a Pontiac GTO Judge, circa 1970. Tommy’s a Pontiac fan in the truest sense of the word, through and through, so he chose to build his latest creation based on his youthful remembrance of his first ride in a GTO and that fond memory still tugs his heartstrings to this very day. One of Tommy’s earliest jobs as a young man was at a gas station, a full-service station as you’d see one now, back when checking the oil and cleaning the windshield as he pumped gas, was a standard service every customer received. Back at the time, LBJ was in the White House, and Richard Nixon was just a Senator looking to stay in public service. If you remember S&H Green stamps and free Coke Glasses with a fill-up and oil change – those were the days.
Back then, when Tommy began at a local filling station, he was taken for a ride one afternoon by the gas station’s primary mechanic. He took Tommy for a spin in his then-new 1965 Pontiac GTO, and when Tommy nostalgically remembers the moment, he still smiles, and he’s back in 65:
“I remember it well, how different that car was from the Corvettes, T-Birds and the Mustangs of the day,” Youmans recalled. “It seemed like everyone had one of those they were everywhere. But the Pontiac GTO, that was different; it had pizzazz! It sounded different, it looked different, you could pick one out on the street quickly – it just wasn’t like all the rest, I liked that a lot.”
And Tommy became a fan for life.
Later in life, when Tommy, who has been an avid drag racer for decades, decided to build a serious drag car, he was discussing it with his wife Wanda, and she said to him “Why don’t you just build what you really want?”
Soon Tommy started making phone calls to have a stock wheelbase GTO, vintage 1970 “Judge” edition drag car created. With a big grin, his project was off and running. It took Youmans the better part of an entire year to gather all the parts and components to create this magnificent machine, but the time and effort were well worth it. Now he has a modern drag car suitable for Pro 275 or Outlaw 10.5 competition.
For power, Tommy chose the 505 cubic inch Pontiac motor as a starting point. In the meantime, he had Todd Dobson, over at Mod-Rods Race Cars, start laying down the chrome-moly tubing for his chassis. Dobson made the Pontiac into a race car all the while maintaining it as unique work of functional art. With a 1.07 sixty-foot and the car posting a 2.67 at the 330’ in competition: there is no question, this chassis works as good as it looks.
As the project progressed, in sticking with Pontiac Power, he partnered with Kauffman Racing Equipment to produce the big motor with all the right go-fast parts including the “Warp-6 War Chief” heads by Kauffman. Kauffman Racing Equipment, located in Glenmont, Ohio, also created the induction system. This beast is supercharged by a pair of Garrett, 98mm turbochargers, which are fed and fired by a Fuel-Tech 600, coil-over system. On the wheel-hub-dynamometer at Fuel Tech USA, in Ball Ground GA, this combination generated 3,355 HP at the rear wheels, while pumping out a heart-pounding 2,933 ft/lbs of torque.
All this power is sent to an M&M Turbo 400 transmission and then on to a Mark Williams 11” full floating rear end. The car weighs in at 3,034 pounds race-ready.
With the car in Pro 275 trim for radial car racing, it recently yielded a 4.12 elapsed time at 185.26 MPH performance at Donald Long’s “Magic 8” event, held July 23-25, at Orlando Speed World, unfortunately, the team suffered a parts failure during Q1 and was unable to continue. Earlier in the 2020 season, during Donald’s Light’s out 11 the team recorded their best in competition ET to date, a 3.994 elapsed time at 190.14 MPH.
These are winning numbers under the right circumstances at any event. Without any doubt, this car and this team is a win, looking to happen, and it’s only a matter of time before they park this dream car in a winner’s circle.
While Tommy loves the car and beats it like he means it, if you get to talk to the man and understand him, you’ll soon see it’s hard to tell which he loves more, the car or drag racing. He commented recently in an interview, “I do this because we have fun at it and yes I do love the car, but I love the camaraderie too; this extended family we are a part of. I swear, if I needed a rear end for the car, a cylinder head, whatever, any component if the guy in the pits next to me had the part, we’d be bolting it on the car and be back out there racing quickly as possible. Drag racing is great, but it’s the people who make it great.”
Tommy is grateful for all he’s achieved in building this car and racing it when the time is right. Whenever he goes racing, Wanda is always at his side and often his grandsons Jesse Blount (27) and Nathan Blount (14) are there in his pit area too. With a well-built race car, the family at his side and his friends in the pits, he may not win every race, as he sees it, he’ll never lose when he goes drag racing.
Youmans would like to thank: His wife Wanda, grandsons/crew Jesse and Nathan Blount, crew member Mark Byrd, Jamie Miller and Tim Davis, Mark Menscer of Menscer motorsports, Mark Micke of M&M Transmissions, TBM brakes, Michael Bunton of MJB performance, as well as, Todd Dobson, Mod-Rods Race Cars, 2923 Joycliff Road, Macon, GA 31220, and Kauffman Racing Equipment, 22280 Temple Rd., Glenmont, Ohio, 44628.
@TheJustinAshley – has a few words to say about https://t.co/Reh86n8GFm. pic.twitter.com/2YlWZqU58w
— Competition Plus (@competitionplus) August 18, 2020
