Written by Mary Lendzion
Photos courtesy of Nicole Liberty
In April of 2023, we reported that Nicole Liberty was moving from her 1999 Firebird to a 2003 Cavalier built by Jerry Bickel Race Cars to continue her championship chase in NMCA ARP Nitrous Pro Street and Milan Dragway’s Outlaw 632.
She was looking forward to learning about the car with a 632 cubic-inch Chevrolet engine built around a Dart block by her uncle and fellow racer, Vince Khoury of Khoury Racing, and topped with MBE heads before being paired with a five-speed transmission from Liberty’s Gears, which is owned by her father, Craig Liberty, and where she works as a design engineer.
The Michigan-based racer hired successful Pro Mod racer Steve Summers to help her move from a carburetor to a HalTech engine management system and to get her new car tuned up and ready for takeoff, and the partnership is paying off.
In her new Cavalier, Liberty defeated fellow ARP Nitrous Pro Street racer David Fallon Jr. in the final round of eliminations in Outlaw 632 at Milan Dragway, which is in Michigan, on June 2, 2023.
Then, she backed that up with another win in Outlaw 632, this time against Gregg Dudash, on July 7, 2023.
“The most recent win felt surreal,” said Liberty. “Not only was it a win, which is always exciting, but on that final round pass, we went a 4.28 with a 0.994 60-foot. Those are huge milestones for us, and with the air conditions we had, we knew we could get close but didn’t know if we could pull it off. I was probably more excited to see that number come up on the scoreboard than the win itself. To be honest, my voice was a little raspy the next day after all the celebrating, and thankfully I don’t have a Go Pro video of that. Steve Summers has been a huge asset in getting the car tuned. We are definitely carb people but felt fuel injection was mandatory with nitrous. He has helped to make our Khoury Racing power show better than we would ourselves. It’s safe to say it has been an uphill battle for him showing my dad the ropes but I couldn’t ask for a better person to be working with us. His son, Colin, has also been a huge asset in helping work on the car while we get used to the new routine compared to the old Firebird.”
While Liberty’s Firebird was set up quite differently than her Cavalier is, she is already comfortable and confident in the car.
“The new car has really grown on me now that I’m comfortable in it,” said Liberty. “The only unexpected challenge we really have had was spark plug related. We were struggling with bad plugs and switched to NGK, and they have really worked great for us. The group of people we have behind us has made other challenges we have run into very easy to handle. We did anticipate running into some road blocks along the way, so we have tried to be prepared for most of it.”
Liberty, who is known for her commitment and courage, is currently in third-place in NMCA ARP Nitrous Pro Street points, and she is currently leading Outlaw 632 points at Milan Dragway. She is resolute heading into the next ARP Nitrous Pro Street race, at the TorqStorm Superchargers NMCA/NMRA Power Festival presented by Paul’s High Performance, July 20-23 at U.S. 131 Motorsports Park in Michigan, and the next Outlaw 632 race, during the Friday Night Heads-Up Race on Aug. 4 at Milan Dragway.
“Already having a couple wins in this car definitely does fuel my fire for the second half of our season,” said Liberty. “It gives us extra motivation to finish the season off strong. With this build being delayed, it now gives us the rest of this season to test things out toward a 2024 championship.”
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Photos courtesy of Nicole Liberty
In April of 2023, we reported that Nicole Liberty was moving from her 1999 Firebird to a 2003 Cavalier built by Jerry Bickel Race Cars to continue her championship chase in NMCA ARP Nitrous Pro Street and Milan Dragway’s Outlaw 632.
She was looking forward to learning about the car with a 632 cubic-inch Chevrolet engine built around a Dart block by her uncle and fellow racer, Vince Khoury of Khoury Racing, and topped with MBE heads before being paired with a five-speed transmission from Liberty’s Gears, which is owned by her father, Craig Liberty, and where she works as a design engineer.
The Michigan-based racer hired successful Pro Mod racer Steve Summers to help her move from a carburetor to a HalTech engine management system and to get her new car tuned up and ready for takeoff, and the partnership is paying off.
In her new Cavalier, Liberty defeated fellow ARP Nitrous Pro Street racer David Fallon Jr. in the final round of eliminations in Outlaw 632 at Milan Dragway, which is in Michigan, on June 2, 2023.
Then, she backed that up with another win in Outlaw 632, this time against Gregg Dudash, on July 7, 2023.
“The most recent win felt surreal,” said Liberty. “Not only was it a win, which is always exciting, but on that final round pass, we went a 4.28 with a 0.994 60-foot. Those are huge milestones for us, and with the air conditions we had, we knew we could get close but didn’t know if we could pull it off. I was probably more excited to see that number come up on the scoreboard than the win itself. To be honest, my voice was a little raspy the next day after all the celebrating, and thankfully I don’t have a Go Pro video of that. Steve Summers has been a huge asset in getting the car tuned. We are definitely carb people but felt fuel injection was mandatory with nitrous. He has helped to make our Khoury Racing power show better than we would ourselves. It’s safe to say it has been an uphill battle for him showing my dad the ropes but I couldn’t ask for a better person to be working with us. His son, Colin, has also been a huge asset in helping work on the car while we get used to the new routine compared to the old Firebird.”
While Liberty’s Firebird was set up quite differently than her Cavalier is, she is already comfortable and confident in the car.
“The new car has really grown on me now that I’m comfortable in it,” said Liberty. “The only unexpected challenge we really have had was spark plug related. We were struggling with bad plugs and switched to NGK, and they have really worked great for us. The group of people we have behind us has made other challenges we have run into very easy to handle. We did anticipate running into some road blocks along the way, so we have tried to be prepared for most of it.”
Liberty, who is known for her commitment and courage, is currently in third-place in NMCA ARP Nitrous Pro Street points, and she is currently leading Outlaw 632 points at Milan Dragway. She is resolute heading into the next ARP Nitrous Pro Street race, at the TorqStorm Superchargers NMCA/NMRA Power Festival presented by Paul’s High Performance, July 20-23 at U.S. 131 Motorsports Park in Michigan, and the next Outlaw 632 race, during the Friday Night Heads-Up Race on Aug. 4 at Milan Dragway.
“Already having a couple wins in this car definitely does fuel my fire for the second half of our season,” said Liberty. “It gives us extra motivation to finish the season off strong. With this build being delayed, it now gives us the rest of this season to test things out toward a 2024 championship.”