Brian Anderson Makes Automotive History in Vegas

Championship Shootout
Las Vegas, Nev. 10/31/07

If you’ve taken a look at the picture galleries or the ranking over on the right, we’re sure you’ve learned by now that Brian Anderson pocketed $25,000 and made history last week in Las Vegas at the 2007 Power to the Wheel Dyno Tour Championship Shootout during the SEMA Show.

Brian’s 1,642 horsepower Rambler is pretty hard to miss…flat black and almost entirely hand built, it’s something special. Brian – as well as the rest of the competitors –ran E85 fuel – many of the competitors switched over to E85 since their qualifying rounds.

We’d like to send out a special thank you to Glacial Lakes Energy in Watertown, South Dakota, since they donated all of the fuel for the Test and Tune and the Championship.

Brian came with some family members and was pretty excited to be handed the check for $25 grand. He wasn’t the only one excited either – Jesse Nelson hit 1455 HP in his ’70 Chevelle and was stoked to get $10,000 handed to him after such an awesome pull. Darren Tedder in his ’71 Cuda pulled 1435 HP to score $5,000. You couldn’t miss their excitement.

And they weren’t the only guys who deserve huge congratulations – all of the competitors who made it to Vegas – Bill Olander, Mark Gjavenis, Rod Nance and Jesse Gese – deserve it!

This first-ever group of competitors in the series made history...and made it by just wrenching on their cars like any of you. Very few of them are sponsored…and all of them are in it because they love cars, they love horsepower and, hey, who wouldn’t want a chance to compete for $40,000 worth of prizes.

It was an unbelievable week.

On Tuesday, during the Test and Tune, Mark Gjavenis’ car broke its rear end. The entire team – led by Darren Tedder – scrambled to pull apart the car while Mark went from booth to booth inside SEMA to find a replacement part. Finally, through a contact of a contact, Mark was given the name of man who rented him the part he needed, who even hand delivered it to the SEMA Show. Mark and the rest of the guys had it installed in no time. And he competed Wednesday. Awesome!

And Wednesday wasn’t just about the winning pulls...every, single competitor made history.  How many Mustangs made the final Ten – only Bill Olander’s Cobra! Have you ever seen and heard a ’64 Chevelle like Mark Gjavenis’? How many Impalas look like (and perform!) like Rod Nance’s? How many Corvettes made it into the Top Ten – only Jesse Gese’s Corvette! ...and don’t forget, they were all running E85. This is a special group!

It was awesome to spend so much time with each of the competitors as they prepared for the big Shootout, to hear all of the predictions as to who would walk away with a couple grand and to hear the stories about how they ended up in the competition.

And, as far as all of the other guys who aspire to join the ranks of the Power to the Wheels Top Ten, keep working on that car...and don’t miss out on a DynoMax exhaust or muffler. You just can’t top 1,642 horsepower. At least not until next year!

Stay tuned for more from DynoMax...you never know what’s next!