Cory Reed is starting to make small-tire racing look easy. It isn’t.
Reed wheeled Manny Buginga’s “Freddy” Mustang to his second consecutive IHRA Small Tire BRATZ Series victory at the second stop on the 2026 IHRA Outlaw Nitro Series tour at Virginia Motorsports Park, following up his season-opening win at Galot Motorsports Park with another sweep through the bracket. He beat Adrian Herrera in the opening round, outran Dustin Mewbourn in the second, took out small-tire heavyweight Bill Lutz in the semifinals, and closed the deal against Tom “Jimmy Dale” Gunner in the final to collect the Ironman trophy.
The BRATZ format is IHRA’s answer to True 10.5 – a single power adder, 28×10.5 slicks, and no-time competition. The clocks don’t matter. The win light does. And right now, nobody’s doing it better than Reed.
“(I’m) just letting that car do the work,” Reed said. “Like I said last time, it’s easy when the hot rod’s fast. You can relax. You can just try to drive and keep it straight in the groove, which is hard in those little things.”
It is, in fact, hard. Small-tire cars big on power are a handful by design, and Reed has been open about the learning curve.
“Everybody in this class will tell you those things get squirrely, especially when the power ramp comes in,” Reed said. “It squats down and wants to make moves.”
That Reed is piloting one of the most recognizable small-tire cars in the country is the story behind the story. “Freddy” belongs to Manny Buginga, the New England small-tire icon and one of the most respected drivers in the category, who stepped out from behind the wheel of his own car to hand the keys to Reed. The partnership took shape at the Drag Illustrated Winter Series in Bradenton, Florida, where Reed wheeled the Mustang at all three events, and it’s carried straight through to the 2026 IHRA campaign.
Tuning the Mustang are Jamie and Johnny Miller of the notable Red Hat Mafia, and under the hood is a ProCharger-equipped, Pro Line Racing Engines-built Hemi. That’s as stacked a combination as there is in small-tire racing right now, and the pedigree under the hood of “Freddy” matches the pedigree behind the wheel.
Reed, for his part, isn’t taking the ride for granted, and he isn’t sugarcoating how the weekend actually went.
“The map sensor blew off a couple times the last two passes, and I kind of got lucky that we were still hauling butt and able to get those wins,” Reed said. “We probably should have changed the heads on that last one, stretching valves and whatnot. We got lucky to make it down that racetrack.”
That pretty much sums up small-tire racing. You keep the round win and figure the rest out between passes.
Reed, the son of Jim and Annie Whiteley of J&A Service, has been on a steep trajectory across disciplines. He raced Pro Stock Motorcycle in the NHRA ranks in 2023 before making the jump to a Pro Stock car in 2024. His small-tire ride with Buginga is the latest chapter, and two wins in two races suggests he’s settling in.
Reed has been quick to credit Buginga publicly more than once in recent months.
“He’s a great teacher, he’s a great mentor, and he’s a great friend of mine,” Reed has said of Buginga. “I’m very much appreciative of him.”
That pairing – a veteran car owner willing to hand over a championship-caliber ride, a young driver eager to learn, and a tuning duo with a résumé that speaks for itself – has put Reed two-for-two to open the 2026 BRATZ season.
Gunner, Reed’s opponent in the final, is a name the small-tire world is going to be hearing a lot more of. The young star better known as “Jimmy Dale” made his IHRA debut at Virginia Motorsports Park behind the wheel of the Miller Family’s notorious “Bumblebee” Camaro, and ran the table on his side of the ladder before lining up with Reed for the championship round. His brand is building in real time, and reaching a BRATZ final in his IHRA debut isn’t a bad way to keep that going.
But Reed and “Freddy” got to the stripe first, and the Ironman went home with the Mustang.
The IHRA Outlaw Nitro Series heads to Montgomery, Alabama, May 7-9 for the third event of the 2026 season, where Reed will look to make it three straight wins.
This story was originally published on April 13, 2026.
The post Cory Reed Goes Back-to-Back in IHRA Small Tire BRATZ in Manny Buginga’s ‘Freddy’ Ford Mustang first appeared on Drag Illustrated.
