Not long after graduating high school, Cody Medeisis picked up his 1994 Chevrolet S10 for a measly $400. Now, the 28-year-old Illinois native is tackling both the No Time and Drag and Drive worlds not only with the truck but with his wife and fellow driver, Emilee, too.
“The truck should have been in a junkyard,” laughed Cody of the condition the shell was in when he first obtained it. He spent the next few years building it up and – other than the chassis work – handled the majority of the mechanical and fabrication himself.
Cody finished the first iteration of his project S10 in 2016 and competed in Hot Rod Drag Week where he finished fourth overall in the Small Block – Power Adder category with an average elapsed time of 8.851 seconds. He was also awarded the honor of being selected as one of Drag Illustrated’s “30 Under 30” that same year.
Since then, Cody has upgraded the S10’s LS engine and its massive single turbocharger several times. In 2018, he brought the truck out to Route 66 Raceway in Joliet, Illinois, for the 13th Annual Nitto Tire NMRA/NMCA Super Bowl of Street Legal Drag Racing where he competed in the Xtreme Street class.
In 2020, though, Cody finished up his then-girlfriend-now-wife’s 1968 Chevrolet Camaro project. “We were getting it ready to go to SEMA, but then that got canceled due to the pandemic,” Cody shared. Despite the shutdowns, his impressive work still earned him the win in the 2020 SEMA Battle of the Builders competition. “I said, ‘well, there’s one race left for the season so I might as well take my car out and run it before the year is over,’ and that’s when I put it into the wall.”
Fortunately, the damage was fixable and Cody began the arduous repair process. Instead of simply putting it back together as it once was, though, he chose to completely overhaul the Chevrolet.
What was once a full factory frame rail and all-steel entry was transformed into a Limited Drag Radial-style vehicle by Greg Risk Racecraft with factory frame rails and factory suspension up front, and a four-link suspension in the rear. Since Cody does a bit of No Time racing locally in central Illinois, he was careful to keep his truck in all steel, all glass form but still removed a substantial amount of weight.
Cody built the 388 cubic inch LS engine himself, hung a massive Garrett turbocharger on the front to provide plenty of additional boost on demand, and installed a set of Billet Atomizer fuel injectors. Next, he completed the combination with a three-speed Turbo 400 from RaceTrans, ProTorque torque converter, Delta Pag cooling system, Full Spectrum Power battery, and a PST carbon fiber driveshaft feeding into an Indy Gear center section.
“Joe Oplawski at Hyperaktive Performance Solutions recommended the new Haltech Nexus R5 standalone system and supplied the wiring components, and I put that in there to run absolutely everything from the engine to all the lights and turn signals,” added Cody. He also chose to add Penske shocks set up by Adam Drzayich at all four corners, TBM brakes, TRZ spindles, Billet Specialties wheels, and dual parachutes from White Safety Equipment.
Cody worked with Redhorse Performance to be one of the first to utilize the company’s new in-house plumbing service and was pleased with the outcome. “Instead of ordering all the parts and pieces yourself, now you can just bring your car there and drop it off,” he explained.
Working at Modern Carriage Werks by day, Cody was able to do all the paint and bodywork on his S10 (and Emilee’s Camaro) after-hours. He partnered with Cerakote, too, on what became the biggest project the company had participated in, coating tons of components including the chassis, engine, turbo, exhaust, interior, and more. “Without doing it myself, I’d have no way to afford this,” he noted. “And, doing it myself, it takes a lot longer to come back after a wreck as opposed to just writing a check.”
While he was building his truck, Cody continued to assist Emilee as crew chief of her Camaro and he proposed to her on the starting line during a staged photoshoot on the final day of the 2021 Hot Rod Drag Week at US 131 Motorsports Park in Martin, Michigan. She said yes, of course, and the couple was married on October 14, 2023. Also in 2023, Cody won the competitive Joe Zolper's Builders Brawl Race with Emilee’s Camaro, and Emilee was inducted into DI’s “30 Under 30” as well.
At the 2023 PRI Show in December, Cody’s freshly completed S10 was proudly on display in Redhorse’s booth. After having invested so much time into the truck, Cody is looking forward to enjoying a full season of racing in 2024.
“Emilee and I plan to run as many Drag and Drive events as we can. I want to run either Sick Summer or Hot Rod Drag week, a lot of the local street car heads-up type races, and the Sick the Magazine Drag & Drive Invitational if I can get an invite,” said the hard-working racer who has run a personal best of 7.70 seconds in the quarter-mile at 3,500 pounds in Drag and Drive trim. “And, I really want to get it into the 6-second zone.”
“The truck should have been in a junkyard,” laughed Cody of the condition the shell was in when he first obtained it. He spent the next few years building it up and – other than the chassis work – handled the majority of the mechanical and fabrication himself.
Cody finished the first iteration of his project S10 in 2016 and competed in Hot Rod Drag Week where he finished fourth overall in the Small Block – Power Adder category with an average elapsed time of 8.851 seconds. He was also awarded the honor of being selected as one of Drag Illustrated’s “30 Under 30” that same year.
Since then, Cody has upgraded the S10’s LS engine and its massive single turbocharger several times. In 2018, he brought the truck out to Route 66 Raceway in Joliet, Illinois, for the 13th Annual Nitto Tire NMRA/NMCA Super Bowl of Street Legal Drag Racing where he competed in the Xtreme Street class.
In 2020, though, Cody finished up his then-girlfriend-now-wife’s 1968 Chevrolet Camaro project. “We were getting it ready to go to SEMA, but then that got canceled due to the pandemic,” Cody shared. Despite the shutdowns, his impressive work still earned him the win in the 2020 SEMA Battle of the Builders competition. “I said, ‘well, there’s one race left for the season so I might as well take my car out and run it before the year is over,’ and that’s when I put it into the wall.”
Fortunately, the damage was fixable and Cody began the arduous repair process. Instead of simply putting it back together as it once was, though, he chose to completely overhaul the Chevrolet.
What was once a full factory frame rail and all-steel entry was transformed into a Limited Drag Radial-style vehicle by Greg Risk Racecraft with factory frame rails and factory suspension up front, and a four-link suspension in the rear. Since Cody does a bit of No Time racing locally in central Illinois, he was careful to keep his truck in all steel, all glass form but still removed a substantial amount of weight.
Cody built the 388 cubic inch LS engine himself, hung a massive Garrett turbocharger on the front to provide plenty of additional boost on demand, and installed a set of Billet Atomizer fuel injectors. Next, he completed the combination with a three-speed Turbo 400 from RaceTrans, ProTorque torque converter, Delta Pag cooling system, Full Spectrum Power battery, and a PST carbon fiber driveshaft feeding into an Indy Gear center section.
“Joe Oplawski at Hyperaktive Performance Solutions recommended the new Haltech Nexus R5 standalone system and supplied the wiring components, and I put that in there to run absolutely everything from the engine to all the lights and turn signals,” added Cody. He also chose to add Penske shocks set up by Adam Drzayich at all four corners, TBM brakes, TRZ spindles, Billet Specialties wheels, and dual parachutes from White Safety Equipment.
Cody worked with Redhorse Performance to be one of the first to utilize the company’s new in-house plumbing service and was pleased with the outcome. “Instead of ordering all the parts and pieces yourself, now you can just bring your car there and drop it off,” he explained.
Working at Modern Carriage Werks by day, Cody was able to do all the paint and bodywork on his S10 (and Emilee’s Camaro) after-hours. He partnered with Cerakote, too, on what became the biggest project the company had participated in, coating tons of components including the chassis, engine, turbo, exhaust, interior, and more. “Without doing it myself, I’d have no way to afford this,” he noted. “And, doing it myself, it takes a lot longer to come back after a wreck as opposed to just writing a check.”
While he was building his truck, Cody continued to assist Emilee as crew chief of her Camaro and he proposed to her on the starting line during a staged photoshoot on the final day of the 2021 Hot Rod Drag Week at US 131 Motorsports Park in Martin, Michigan. She said yes, of course, and the couple was married on October 14, 2023. Also in 2023, Cody won the competitive Joe Zolper's Builders Brawl Race with Emilee’s Camaro, and Emilee was inducted into DI’s “30 Under 30” as well.
At the 2023 PRI Show in December, Cody’s freshly completed S10 was proudly on display in Redhorse’s booth. After having invested so much time into the truck, Cody is looking forward to enjoying a full season of racing in 2024.
“Emilee and I plan to run as many Drag and Drive events as we can. I want to run either Sick Summer or Hot Rod Drag week, a lot of the local street car heads-up type races, and the Sick the Magazine Drag & Drive Invitational if I can get an invite,” said the hard-working racer who has run a personal best of 7.70 seconds in the quarter-mile at 3,500 pounds in Drag and Drive trim. “And, I really want to get it into the 6-second zone.”