The Two-For-One – After Two Years Of Planning, Brian Acton Makes the Change from Proven Turbocharged LS Combo to a Naturally-Aspirated Big Block Chevrolet For Hot Rod Drag Week!
The Street Race / Limited Street / 8.50-second based classes are among the most popular at drag and drive events, and there have been some familiar rides, and drivers, since the concept got its rule set at Hot Rod Drag Week in 2012.
When it comes to people that have mastered the category, Brian Acton and Jay Blanchard are in the top of the class. With multiple wins to their credit, including two Sick The Mag orange helmets from Gear Vendors Overdrive Sick Week, another from the Motion Raceworks Sick Summer, three straight wins at The Circuit, and a two-time champion from Midwest Drags, Acton and Blanchard continue to be top contenders.
But recently, news broke that no one was expecting: the ’70 Chevrolet Nova was changing engines for Hot Rod Drag Week 2026, and going from turbocharged LS to naturally aspirated big block! We needed the details, and between Acton and Blanchard, details emerged, as well as some testing results to prepare for Drag Week.
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“This car went from turbo LS to big block Chevrolet Naturally Aspirated in six days,” said Acton. “Wild for sure.” But the possibility to convert one of the winningest Street Race cars from power-adder to naturally aspirated started a bit longer than a week’s time.
“I started exploring different options two years ago trying to find a class that I could showcase the awesome team I have around me that also has made my LS combo so competitive,” said Acton. “I also wanted to land in a class that wouldn’t cap my performance, so naturally aspirated was really the best option short of building/buying a different car.”
After searching a bit for naturally aspirated big blocks for sale, Acton realized he needed a different approach. “I quickly realized I did not have the budget to make it happen,” Acton said. “That’s when I approached John Maher with the crazy idea of borrowing his 598 cubic inch engine.”
Expecting Maher to deny the idea, Acton was instead greeted with a full commitment. “He was all in from day one,” said Acton. The engine went to Baker Engineering in October 2025 to get some baseline dyno tuning, and then dismantled for a rebuild and fresh parts.
Normally used in a no-prep Fox Mustang for eighth-mile action and a couple stages of nitrous, Acton and Baker Engineering now needed to focus on streetability survival, as well as making good power on fuel and air alone for full quarter-mile blasts.
The details on the tall-deck big block engine spec out at 13.5 to 1 compression, wearing Profiler CNC’d 375 cc cylinder heads. The nitrous camshaft, originally spec’d by Reher-Morrison out of Texas, remains. In the full rebuild / refresh, the engine got new aluminum connecting rods.
Although the engine was acquired and first dyno’d with a single 1450 cfm Holley Dominator carburetor, Acton made the switch to a Edelbrock Victor tunnel ram, and a pair of throttle bodies for induction. The Powerglide transmission from the turbo LS combination was retained, but a call to Todd Redman at Coan Engineering secured a converter spec’d for the combination.
When the engine was completed on the rebuild, it went back to the dyno, and a new set of Lemon’s Headers was also tried out over the dyno heads. That change, combined with the switch to a Edelbrock Victor tunnel ram, gained 87 horsepower over the base power numbers!
From the time the swap started, to the Nova seeing the burnout box, was a mere six days! And if that wasn’t enough to do, Acton would be tasked with another important task. “The rear end was rebuilt during the six days as well, with me personally driving to Moser to get parts directly,” said Acton.
With everything in place, the Nova was readied for testing last week. The first session would be at US-131 Motorsports Park in Martin, and with a soft tune up, the time slip returned an 8.88 at 153 mph with a 1.35 60 foot time.
“Then, we decided at the last minute to test again (Saturday, August 29th) Mid Michigan Motorplex in Stanton,” Acton said. “After just one pass, testing was rained out. Both passes have same tune up, and the plan was to add some timing each pass, but Mother Nature had other plans.” The plan to test again this week, as well as some street time, is what Acton wants to be ready for Hot Rod Drag Week.
“My goal is first and foremost to finish in the NA class,” said Acton. “The ultimate goal would be to win the Street Race Big Block N/A class at Hot Rod Drag Week 2026, as this is the only drag and drive I am planning to race with this combo.”
Yes, you read that correctly. Acton will run this big block naturally aspirated setup for ONE EVENT, before it comes out and get returned to Maher. “Some will say that makes this change even crazier,” said Acton. “The LS turbo combo will go back in the car over the winter, and be ready for Sick Week 2027.”
Even though this combination will only see a single drag and drive for the foreseeable future, Acton isn’t putting any future possibilities out of mine. “As you can imagine there has been hours and hours of fab work to get this big block Chevrolet fit and running,” said Acton. “My plan is to keep all the parts readily available, in case I get the itch to try a big block class again in the future.”
To make this happen in the six day timeframe, as well as the lead up to it, Acton expressed his thanks to the following people and companies:
- The entire Baker Engineering Team: TJ, Luke, Nate, and Chad.
- John Maher - Maher Racing for loaning me the engine for 1 year.
- Jimmer Kline at Go Fast Productions for all his big block Chevrolet knowledge; This really shortened my learning curve and helped fast track this project.
- JayWire Solutions and team for re-wiring the engine side to make the big block work.
- Jon Capizzi at Capizzi Automotive for the last minute rear end rebuild during the thrash last week.
- Todd Redman at Coan Engineering for help with the NA converter set up.
Can Acton and Blanchard not only complete Hot Rod Drag Week with this new combination, but also challenge for the win, and maybe even the standing 8.75 class record?
Written by Derek Putnam. Photos courtesy of Sick the Magazine and Fast Act Racing.
If you have thoughts / feedback / ideas, please e-mail us at derek@sickthemagazine.com