Orr Mines for Gold in TS Class
By: Bruce Biegler
Eastern Canada’s Top Sportsman racing scene has been a thriving one during 2010 with a number of new emerging entries. One of the most impressive new class cars is a morphed Mopar that comes courtesy of Quebec’s Tom Orr….
During the last off-season, Orr, who has some 30 years of drag racing experience under his belt, acquired an ex-NHRA Pro Stock Dodge Stratus. That car was built by reputed race car builder Jerry Haas. Since the acquisition, Orr has been running the car with a nitrous-injected 604 CID Koffel-built Mopar engine.
Tom Orr
Orr confirmed that after picking up the car last December he spent most of the winter assembling it before finally unveiling it in May. Since then the car has been one of the most notable entries within the Eastern Canadian TS racing scene. Based from Shawville Quebec, Orr has focused most of his participation this season at select IHRA and Napa Quick 32 series events.
“Before this we raced our Dodge Avenger for 4-5 years but I wanted a car capable of running in the sixes – so I went shopping,” Tom revealed. “Our engine program is similar to what we had before (Keith Black aluminum block B-1) but we really do run a rather mild tune-up. We have two stages of nitrous-oxide that will provide about 300 extra horsepower when we need it, but our target is to run in the 6.8 secs zone at over 200 mph.”
Tom confirmed that his car was raced in its previous life in NHRA Pro Stock by Jerry Haas (St. Louis MO). With a 500 CID Hemi engine, Haas entered three NHRA national events and made a total of 22 runs with the car as a Pro Stocker.
“For us the transition to the Stratus was actually a pretty smooth one,” Tom added. “The Pro Stock car is very adjustable but we managed some great consistency right away and got off to a good start.”
Tom Orr is the owner and operator of a company that specializes in mostly industrial construction, concrete and waste management work.
Tom Orr's TS Stratus is a former NHRA Pro Stock car...
(Bruce Biegler Photos)
