The Full Monte – Dan Dinan Debuts New Ride With a Win and a NHRA Wally at East Coast Drag-N-Event!
After the initial taste of racing at almost any level, it’s not uncommon for most competitors to want to go to the next level. Whether that means a slight bump in power, a complete revamp of a car, or even making the commitment to building a new ride.
Since the drag and drive event format debuted with Hot Rod Drag Week in 2005, it only took a few years before we saw cars specifically built to move to the next level in drag and drive, including the ’67 Camaro from the team of Steve Roth and Denny Terzich, the first to post a 7-second average.
For Dan Dinan, a guy we’ve been used to seeing behind the wheel of his ‘Betty White’ Chevrolet Malibu in the 8.50-second based / Sick Street Race classes, he debuted a new ride last month. And he did it the hard way, with no testing or shakedown, and shared the details of his East Coast Drag-N-Drive event experience.
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Dan’s introduction to the automotive world was an early one, thanks to two generations of the Dinan family. “My grandfather was big into circle track racing, and was part owner of a local short track team,” said Dan. “My father was a mechanic and gear head always messing with Harley Davidson bikes and cars.”
“They both had a big influence on my interest in cars and racing. Ever since I was a little kid, I was always interested in figuring out how things work tearing my remote control trucks and pedal bikes apart and seeing if could make them better when I put it all back together.”
This led to Dan attending a vocational high school and taking automotive technology. He went on to Universal Technical Institute after high school. Drag racing followed, but once he saw coverage of Hot Rod Drag Week, he set his sights on drag and drive being his next goal.
“Little did I know that first event we did in 2022 was going to turn into a full blown obsession,” Dan said. That Hot Rod Drag Week outing got him an 11.68 average in the ’79 Malibu, and revised goals to get the car to the next level.
“Although we did finish the week, which was an accomplishment in itself, the broken parts, road side changes, and in my opinion a disappointing final average for the week, left me hungry for more,” Dan admitted. He ditched the pump gas junkyard 6-liter LS for a E85-fueled 388 cubic inch LS based on a Dart block and a single turbo on board.
Since that time, Dan has participated in eleven more drag and drive events, with more than a few top five finishes, including the second spot in the Street Race 275 class at the Gear Vendors Overdrive Sick Week 2026 event, which would be the final event for Dan wheeling the ‘OG’ Betty White car.
“I made the decision I wanted to go faster,” said Dan. “But didn’t want to cut up the car, so I purchased a roller to build.” The Malibu will be passed to Dan’s stepfather, as he attempts to get into drag and drive at the upcoming Pistons In The Pines event for his first outing.
The new ride, ‘Betty White 2.0’, came to Dan as a rolling chassis with family history to a good friend Darrell Lantco. “His mother purchased the car new in 1988, and in 1999 he turned it into a race car,” said Dan.
The car passed to a mutual friend, and when Dan acquired it, the monte Carlo sported a SFI-cert 7.50-second roll cage, and a Mark Williams Enterprises rear end among the contributing factors. Dan decided before started on the build, the roll cage needed to go to the next step, and delivered it to AMR Chassis Works for an update to SFI 25.2 certification, which is good to 6-seconds flat on the quarter-mile standard.
The 388 cube LS engine from the Malibu made the move to the Monte Carlo, but with a few upgrades, including larger CNC cylinder heads, a camshaft change, and a larger 98-millimeter turbocharger. Dan dialed up Redhorse Performance for all the plumbing supplies.
The potent mill is backed by a built Turbo 400 transmission from Accurate Transmission, and the power is passed to the 9-inch Ford style Mark Williams Enterprises rear end with 3.25 ratio gears. Mark Williams brakes handle the stopping chores, and Afco Racing coil-overs sit at all four corners.
Engine management gets its marching orders from a Holley Dominator ecu, and the tuning is handled by Dan’s co-pilot Ryan Rogers and Ben Lahey of Limitless Performance in Lewiston, Maine.
“The original plan was to debut the car at Motion Raceworks Sick Summer,” said Dan. “But, delays on parts, and a few last-minute hurdles, didn’t have the car running until Saturday afternoon.” Faced with a 20-hour drive and chances of making it to tech day in time, Dan decided to hold off until the East Coast Drag-N-Drive event.
“We loaded up Wednesday and headed to Canada with 0 passes on the car and only about 6 road miles,” he said. “We continued working on the car throughout the weekend, with minimal sleep learning this completely new setup as we went.”
Despite the setbacks and coming in with an untested ride, Dan and Ryan put together the quickest average of the event, scoring the win in the Unlimited class. “We even took home a (NHRA – National Hot Rod Association) Wally!”
With the first event in the books, what’s next for ‘Betty White 2.0’? “We have at least three more events this year with the car, and hope to be running low sevens by the end of the year,” said Dan. “I want to be ready for the Modified Class at Gear Vendors Overdrive Sick Week in 2027.”
Written by Derek Putnam. Photos courtesy of Sick the Magazine, Fastlane Media and Dan Dinan.
If you have thoughts / feedback / ideas, please e-mail us at derek@sickthemagazine.com