Cleetus McFarland’s New ‘69 Camaro Build Clocks a 4-Second Eighth-Mile Shakedown Pass to Prepare for World Cup Finals

We first reported about the newest build for the Cleetus McFarland camp back in May, as news broke that Cameron Johnson Race Cars (CJRC) in Lakeland, Florida would be constructing a ’69 Camaro.

Cameron was responsible for adding the exo roll cage in ‘Leroy’, the Corvette that helped push Cleetus to a household name. Yesterday, news came that the latest build out of CJRC hit the track at Bradenton Motorsports Park to get Cleetus ready for World Cup Finals at Maryland International Raceway (MDIR) this week.


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The ’69 Camaro nicknamed ‘Eagle’ (read our first article on the build HERE), took on a slightly different direction than a normal Cleetus ride, as this one is a 100-percent pure race-only vehicle. The Camaro carries a Pro Mod tagged chassis for 5-second quarter-mile blasts, but unlike many cars at this level, the Camaro got a steel roof, quarter panels and tail panel.

The latest video of the car on Cleetus’ YouTube channel came out just six days ago, with the first fire up of the twin-turbo 5,000 horsepower Pro Line HEMI engine. Today, the latest video details the final steps and first track runs.

If it was like most other Cleetus videos, the car would go in the trailer and head north to Maryland untested, but for World Cup Finals, their approach would be just a little bit different.

The event at MDIR has gotten so popular, that a couple years back, classes started instituting that competitors must have run a minimum elapsed time to ‘qualify’ to enter the class, before the event even started.

It provides that a spot doesn’t go to an unproven ride over one that has met class standards, and for the class the new Camaro build fits in, Outlaw vs. Extreme, cars must run a minimum of 5.99-seconds in the quarter-mile (or 3.89 in the eighth-mile) at the first stage of entry.

If all 20 spots for the class are not sold by August 30th, stage two requires a 6.29-second or quicker lap in the quarter-mile (or 4.09 in the eighth-mile). Eighteen spots had been sold when Eagle was rolled to the water box earlier this week at Bradenton Motorsports Park.

Based on the track’s mobile app, Eagle first shakedown hit had a 1.153 60 foot time, and a early-shut off 4.75 at just 116 mph at the eighth-mile mark.

On pass two, the wick was turned up, and Eagle delivered a soft 1.091 60 foot, a 2.751-second 330 foot clocking, and stopped the eighth-mile timers at 4.002 at 196.36 mph. This met the minimum standards for stage two on the Outlaw vs. Extreme class, and Cleetus will be the nineteenth car in the class.

On the third pass, the Camaro saw a 1.077 60 foot time, but shook the tires just past that mark. Upon returning to the pits, they discovered transmission fluid around the breather tank, so the team will need to thrash a bit to get ‘Eagle’ ready for that first pass at World Cup Finals.

The team will head to Maryland with three cars in the trailer, as Eagle is joined by last year’s Stick Shift winning ride, Leroy the Corvette, and Cleetus will pilot both rides.

‘Mullet’ the Chevrolet El Camino that won the Warriors vs. Tres Cuarto class in 2022 will also make the trip, and rumors are ‘Jackstand’ Jimmy Taal will wheel that ride, and Taal made some shakedown laps in the El Camino in the channel’s latest video.

The latest video on Cleetus’ channel is below:

CJRC’s latest video documents some of the final steps of the build as they prepared for testing this week:


Written by Derek Putnam. Photos courtesy of CJRC and Cleetus McFarland.

If you have thoughts / feedback / ideas, please e-mail us at derek@sickthemagazine.com

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