LS Swapping Snot Rocket 2.0?!!
In what may be the wildest 10 days of drag and drive history, the current Quickest Car of Drag and Drive 2024 went from being prepared for 6 weeks of intense drag racing to sold and getting a new powerplant design!
Brett LaSala, and his Snot Rocket 2.0, are household names within the drag racing community, it’s even a running joke that his name is mentioned on each of Cooper Bogetti’s podcast! Brett has been around for a while and has always had a fast car, but SR 2.0 was on a different level than anything he had previously owned. Having finished 1st Overall against some of the Fastest Big Tire drag and drive cars in the world at this year’s Sick Week was a huge feat, especially on a Radial Tire in a car that began life as a regular GT Mustang…. His 6.3402 1/4 Mile Average from 5 days of racing put the world on notice that Brett, Jim Braun and SR 2.0 would be a serious competitor in this community! It actually is the Quickest Average ET EVER at Sick Week, or any Sick event to date! It’s actually the Third Quickest Drag and Drive Average ET in History, following Tom Bailey’s 6.299 at Drag Week 2019 and Jeff Lutz’s 6.1918 from Drag Week 2016. That’s some serious credibility.
What took social media by storm was the flip of emotions that Brett took us on! Beginning with an August 9th social media post, “Racing season is approaching and I can’t freaking wait to hear this car rip again! The next month will be crunch time to finish the summer update’s on SR, @dougieeefresh1, @thejfab, and @the_night_stalker68 hot rods! We will be rolling out with a group of killers! FL2K Presented by Brian Crower, Street Car Braggin'Rights, World Cup Finals - Import vs. Domestic, then ModNationals all within 6 weeks!!”. I thought all was well and we were going to see the green Mustang roll over the cars in their class as we had seen all year….. Well, that’s not the case….
A few posts about Motion Raceworks parts and hats later, he drops a bombshell on the world of drag racing offering the car for sale as a roller for $65,000 on August 18, just 9 days later! NINE DAYS!! It takes me longer to buy new shoes….. NINE DAYS and this dude decides to sell the Snot Rocket 2.0! The car could not have been listed for more than 3 hours and he had accepted an offer on it. No one was surprised it had moved that quickly but the new owner was a mystery for a while.
The drag and drive community made prediction after prediction of the new owner. It was finally revealed to be Shayne Johnson and that the new engine would be an LS! It’s a long way from a standard LS though. In the Motion Raceworks post, the engine builder was shown to be ACE Racing Engines, owned and operated by a bad dude named Stefan Rossi! Ace Racing Engines also notably powered Michael Westberg’s S10 truck that went 6.40 at Sick Week in 2023. That S10 powerplant would later be shipped to Sweden and transplanted into Michael’s new drag and drive First Gen Camaro that would go 4.0xx at Street Week Sweden! Also, don’t forget about the super quick, Roadkill Small Tire Class Winning Vovlo wagon of Mikael Borggren! Stefan can build some serious engines to say the least.
ACE Racing Engines example engine to be built for Snot Rocket 2.0. Image from ACE Racing Engines Facebook page
Of course we had to reach out and get the scoop on the new powerplant destined for Snot Rocket 2.0! Stefan was kind enough to give us a few details without spilling the beans on the top secret pieces that make all the difference - “It will be a billet Noonan block, Cast CID head, Winberg billet crankshaft, aluminum rods, Ross pistons, Manton shaft rockers and pushrods, dry sump (oiling system). I’m not going to divulge cubic inch unless the customer wants me to. The engine was ordered about 6 weeks ago and should be ready in November. The engine was ordered for another car until the customer saw Brett’s car come up.
It will be built for max effort class racing in LDR and also Drag and Drive. A multi purpose engine. I’m not going to divulge what will change between drag and drive and class race set up though, unless the customer wants to. I kinda also don’t wanna give that information out either haha. But the aim is 3.80’s and this combination will go .70’s in a lighter chassis, I have no worries about it doing it.”
This is exciting news as it means the car won’t go anywhere, which is really cool as the Snot Rocket 1.0 raced at Sick Week 2024 alongside Brett, Jim and Snot Rocket 2.0.
We will continue to nudge Brett for details on the new car, but we do know from his conversation with us on Drag Drive Repeat Episode 49, that he wants to go 5s in drag and drive trim!! We’ll have to wait a few weeks to see what Snot Rocket 3.0 will be, but we do know it will be powered by a Coyote engine and driven by one of the Fastest Drag and Drive Racers in History!!
Article written by Mike Narx. Photos from Brett LaSala
