This Twin-Turbo Maverick Conquers Drag-and-Drive Events, True Street and Wraps 2023 Season with 4.69 pass at Carolina Dragway
Just a little over a year after he participated in his first drag-and-drive event at the 2022 Southeast Street N Yeet, Kendall Collins wrapped up a solid 2023 season with his 1972 Ford Maverick with a personal best pass at Carolina Dragway in Aiken, South Carolina this past weekend.
For a Maverick he’s owned a little over ten years and has been enjoying the last five, we felt the need to take a deeper look at it.
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“I bought it as a barn find ten years ago,” said Kendall. “Took me a little over five years to make it pretty and to get it to a track.” Fast forward to one year ago, and the Maverick showed up at the inaugural Southeast Street N Yeet in November 2022, Kendall’s first drag-and-drive event. Five days later, he was holding the hardware as the first Limited Yeet champion.
The 2023 season would find Kendall keeping the drag-and-drive fire burning bright, rolling from Georgia to Florida to participate in Sick Week Presented by Gear Vendors Overdrive.
Selecting the Rowdy Radial class, Kendall put the Maverick on the tiny 235 tires for the first time, and as of now, the only time. Kendall struggled a little on the small tires, with his best pass of the week being a 6.62 at 127 mph on the eighth-mile standard, but did complete the week.
Kendall’s next major event would be the Street Car Braggin Rights weekend at Carolina Dragway, where he posted a trio of 4.8-second performance in the eighth-mile, but got his walking papers in the second round of eliminations in the Street Car class.
After bypassing the race track and heat of summer, Kendall returned the Maverick to action at the FL2K event at Bradenton Motorsports Park in early October.
Running the Street Car Shootout class, Kendall qualified in the top 16 to earn a spot in the Elite class, and ran a 7.59 at 178 mph in eliminations, but got out ran before the final round came around.
Just a few short weeks later, Kendall rolled through the gate for the No Mercy event at South Georgia Motorsports Park to participate in the Street Car Braggin Rights Street Car class for a $10,000 winner payout.
He qualified the stock-suspension leaf spring Maverick third at 7.55, behind the top qualifier Jeremy Sparks and the Devin Vanderhoof / Josh Davis Mustang team. Kendall would survive to the semifinal round to match up with Sparks, and a personal-best 7.41 at 183 mph pass fell to the 7.01 from Sparks.
Another couple weeks passed, and Kendall attended his second ModNationals, where the twin-turbo Maverick led the winner list of drivers in the True Street class, picking up the title of overall winner, as well as the quickest 8-second average.
“It was way too hot (90 degrees to be exact) to be doing 3 back-to-back passes today after a 30-minute cruise, but we got it done,” said Kendall. “Really wanted to do a 7 second average, but ended up with an 8.2 average.”
After a busy year of exercise, some would’ve thought Kendall was done for the year, but he had one event left on his radar. He visited Carolina Dragway for a third time this past Saturday, running the Burnouts for Kids event in the test and tune class.
Aiming for a new personal best in the cool Carolina air and a sticky track, Kendall made it happen on the first pass. The Mickey Thompson 275 Pros gripped the surface hard for a 1.11 60 foot time, and the Maverick blasted through the eighth-mile for a 4.69 at 151.85 miles per hour. He backed it up with a second 4.69 pass, marking the first time the car has ever been 4.6-seconds in the eighth-mile.
Providing the power to get the 3,250-pound Maverick to those times is a sleeved Gen-one Coyote with a pair of Forced Inductions Billet true dual ball bearing S300 turbochargers. A turbo 400 automatic and a Ford Explorer-sourced 8.8-inch rear end with 4.10 gears back it up.
What’s on tap for 2024 for Kendall? Honestly, more questions than answers, as a career switch doesn’t give him the amount of time off, he used to enjoy. But with a good number of street car-based events within a day’s drive of his home state of Georgia, we’re expecting to see the Maverick at another big event in 2024.
Written by Derek Putnam. Photos courtesy of Sick the Magazine, KC Photography, Hot Rod Heaven and Kendall Collins.
If you have thoughts / feedback / ideas, please e-mail us at derek@sickthemagazine.com