Alex Corella is a Fire Fighter from Miami Florida who has been involved with cars since his early teenage years. His first car was a 77 Trans Am, but a ride in a buddy’s nitrous fed Fox body had him hooked. Fast forward a few years and Alex has the beautiful red Fox that he brought to Drag Week, presented by Gear Vendors, for the first time.
The 1993 Ford Mustang has a gorgeous shade of red with black Weld. Under the hood however this fox is a little different. A turbo charger feeds air into the 306ci Windsor. Yep – no LS engines here – a Ford in a Fox! William Lujan of Lujan Motorsports built the car with Alex helping where he could.
That little 306 powered the Mustang to a very respectable 8.63@161 average and earned him 3rd place in the extremely competitive Street Race Small Block Power Adder category in 2016. His best pass of the week was a 8.54@161, which is pretty respectable for a small cube street car.
When we asked Alex what made him want to do Drag Week, he said he had followed on the live feeds and social media and thought that it looked like a bad ass event to enter. It took him a few years to get the car to the point he thought it needed to be to get him through, but with a third-place finish, we’dsay those upgrades paid off.
Alex made the trip look easy this year after only having minor issues with the radiator cap and a overheated fuel pump. Switching to E85 for the drives solved that issue, however the two weeks leading up to Drag Week (Hell Week, as many people call it) were a nightmare. “I went through a block, crank, and two sets of thrust bearings before loading up the car and making the trek to Ohio. The week before Drag Week, which was a holiday weekend,” Alex said. “I found the thrust bearing was damaged again, and three days left before leaving we had to drop the K-member, get a bearing, install it, and fix the problem. The converter pilot was too long, and we had to make a small water tank to install in the engine compartment to meet the SRSBPA rules. Not to mention the night before I decided on a gear swap and when we took the axles out, the splines were twisted slightly. Out of time, we talked to some fellow racers and rolled the dice. Mind you, we were still not certain if the thrust problem was fixed since there was no time to test at the track now”.
As far as the adventure, he says camaraderie between everyone, the determination to get things fixed just to make it to the next track, and the willingness to help were incredible. The drives each day were a definite highlight; driving through small towns in rural USA was something you don’t often do. The farewell ceremony for Jake Brantner really stood out in Alex’s mind as a great moment in 2016. Even though he had never met Jake, the ceremony showed the family that is the Drag Weekers.
Hoping to return in 2017, Alex would like to thank those that have been there throughout this Journey: His better half, Christina; his friend, co-pilot and builder William Lujan; his tuner Errol, Bill from Bullseye Power, and Cal Hayward for letting him crash mid–week.
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