Cleetus McFarland Aims for the 5-Second Range – ‘69 Camaro Build Underway at Cameron Johnson Race Cars
It’s no secret that Cleetus McFarland has a passion for fun with cars. Part of that passion has been continuing to run quicker and faster times, starting with the C5 Chevrolet Corvette known as ‘Leroy’ that became the first stick-shift GM vehicle to clock a 7-second quarter-mile pass.
Since then, Cleetus has clocked mid 6-second times over 230 mph, and will take aim on breaking another performance barrier soon.
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That 2001 Corvette produced a 7.82 at 176.57 mph back in August of 2018, and has won on multiple fronts, including the Stick Shift class at Rocky Mountain Race Week. Just over five years later at Bradenton Motorsports Park, Cleetus became world’s first stick shift Corvette in the 6-second zone with a 6.92 at 203.86 mph blast.
This made Leroy the second car in the arsenal to enter the 6-second zone, as the El Camino build known as ‘Mullet’ had also dipped into the 6-second time, and by the end of 2023, the fleet had added a third 6-second car with the ‘McFlurry’ the coyote-powered Fox Mustang.
But for anyone that has seen Mullet’s outings since the beginning of 2023, it’s become well known that the El Camino has found a wall in its performance.
“I’ve been a little frustrated with Mullet lately,” said Cleetus. “We’ve been trying to make it go faster, and it just doesn’t seem to want to go faster.” Mullet was originally going to be a jet car, but then Cleetus changed his mind and the build was changed. “It’s been everything; we’ve been 6.30s and 235 mph in this car, and it’s been a bunch of different ideas combined into one. It’s not really good at one thing in particular; it’s decent at a lot of things.”
With the car being pushed into drag-and-drive classes with quicker cars, as well as classes with 5-second capable cars in heads-up racing, Cleetus took a step back and look at his options. “We want to go 5-seconds in the quarter-mile,” he said. And with that goal in mind, the choice for a new build was an easy one, and brings Cleetus’ story full circle.
The new build, a purpose-built race chassis known as ‘Eagle,’ is taking shape at Cameron Johnson Race Cars (CJRC) in Lakeland, Florida. Ironically, Cameron Johnson worked at Pro Fab Performance and built Leroy’s first exo roll cage several years ago.
The build with be a 1969 Chevrolet Camaro, also ironic considering the ‘Cleetus McFarland’ name came from a video with Tom Bailey’s ’69 Camaro on Rocky Mountain Race Week. “It’s kind of full circle in a way,” Cleetus said.
Unlike a lot of builds at this level, the Camaro will get a steel roof, quarter panels and tail panel, and despite initial appearances, will be close to a stock ’69 Camaro wheelbase of inches.
The car is expected to weigh around 2400 pounds without driver, which is about 900-1000 pounds lighter than Mullet’s current state.
The video introducing the build on Cleetus’ channel is below:
CJRC is documenting the complete build on their YouTube channel as well. Their recently-released third video on it is below:
Written by Derek Putnam. Photos courtesy of CJRC, Cleetus McFarland and 1320 Video.
If you have thoughts / feedback / ideas, please e-mail us at derek@sickthemagazine.com