Jimmy Dolan, Nicky Notch, and YeTTi's 6.72 Pass. One of the top moments of 2018!

It’s not too often that a racer takes his/her car and build something absolutely amazing, yet completely relatable to the masses. Something that makes them stick out from the sea of Mustangs and Camaros at the drag strip, but that is exactly what Jimmy Dolan and the YetTi have accomplished.

Jimmy Dolan has been around drag racing for years, and you may have taken notice of his beautiful gen two Lightning that he runs. What you may not realize though, is that this street appearing Lighting is the second quickest and second fastest Ford Lightning on the planet. The truck is also the quickest and fastest radial tired truck on the planet. No, you didn’t read that wrong, Jimmy’s truck is an absolute beast and he proved it to the world in November when he attended the Miller Brothers World Cup event at MIR. Jimmy showed the world that a bigass truck on radial none the less can get it done and get it done with authority.

So how does one get a brick on wheels that goes over the scales at almost 3500 pounds to run a 6.72 in the quarter mile? You might find it a little surprising to say the least. There isn’t some huge cubic inch monster placed in the front end of this hot rod, in fact it’s a tiny 400 cubic inch Ford engine. Yep, no bullshit Chevy swap here, Jimmy is a Ford guy when it comes to draggin’ ass and draggin’ the rear bumper in his Lightning. Bolted up to the front of that Bennett Racing 400 CID Ford is a pair of Bullseye 88mm turbos. The power is transferred through a M&M Transmissions 400 trans as well. M&M is known to be the transmission of choice for a lot of the quickest radial and big tire cars in the country. All of that power is put down to the ground and a 315 drag radial tire is used to make it stick.

Nicky Notch always in shock

Let’s face it, we all know it doesn’t matter how much damn power you make if you can’t put it to the ground and make it go in a forward motion. Otherwise all we would be doing is talking about giant burnout contests all day long. So how do you manage to get the power to stay to the ground? You have a killer suspension and a tuner that knows what the hell he/she is doing. Jimmy happens to have both of those in spades. Utilizing Menscer Motorsports for the ground obliterating suspension and his tuner, who happens to be a fellow racer, none other than your local New York UPS man, Mr. Nicky Notch. Nicky gets behind the keyboard and makes the necessary changes from round to round, and based on the calls he made at World Cup, along with other events, one would assume he certainly has a handle on getting the YetTi from A to B.

What makes Jimmy’s truck so much different than a lot of the other extremely quick and fast Lightnings out there is that it’s as subtle and unassuming to most. The truck looks like one you would see at your local cruise-in on a Friday night. The clean white exterior hides all the beastly power well but make no mistake that when Jimmy pulls into the waterbox he is ready to take your lunch and dinner money. The quickest Lightning happens to be a gen one on the west coast, and while I have never seen it in person, the photos I have seen it appears to be the typical gutted race truck. You can see here, Jimmy’s truck is anything but that, which in my mind makes it even more impressive.

Sure, there are other extraordinary passes that were made this season at the drag strip, but I have no problem standing by my opinion that Jimmy’s 6.72 pass at World Cup is without question one of the top five passes in all of drag racing during the 2018 season. The importance of what he accomplished and continues to accomplish with Nicky’s help cannot be overstated. We live in a giant ocean of Mustangs, Camaros, and Corvettes, so to see a truck pull off what he did on a drag radial is astonishing. I haven’t talked to Jimmy since Christmas, so I am not sure what his 2019 schedule looks like, but you can bet your ass that we will find a time to sit with Jimmy and talk about his awesome truck even more.

If you get a chance while you are at the drag strip and you see the YetTi there, make sure to go and say hello to Jimmy D. He is one of the nicest people you will ever have the opportunity to chat with at a race track. You can usually find him pitted out in the far fourty with a small enclosed trailer. No big toter or stacker for Jimmy. No front row parking. That’s just not the way that he rolls. Jimmy speaks softly, and his Lightning is his “big stick” as the saying goes. So, with all that said, we congratulate Jimmy and Nicky on a memorable 2018, and having one of the most impressive passes in all of drag racing. Here’s to a successful 2019.