{"id":103335,"date":"2026-04-07T15:44:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-07T15:44:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/drag-racing\/uncategorized\/jimmy-dale-gets-the-keys-tom-gunner-steps-into-bill-lutzs-bumblebee-camaro-for-king-of-the-south\/"},"modified":"2026-04-07T15:44:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T15:44:09","slug":"jimmy-dale-gets-the-keys-tom-gunner-steps-into-bill-lutzs-bumblebee-camaro-for-king-of-the-south","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/drag-racing\/uncategorized\/jimmy-dale-gets-the-keys-tom-gunner-steps-into-bill-lutzs-bumblebee-camaro-for-king-of-the-south\/","title":{"rendered":"JIMMY DALE GETS THE KEYS: TOM GUNNER STEPS INTO BILL LUTZ\u2019S BUMBLEBEE CAMARO FOR KING OF THE SOUTH"},"content":{"rendered":"

When the call came in from Bill Lutz, Tom Gunner already knew exactly what kind of opportunity he was being handed.<\/p>\n

Lutz \u2013 the small-tire veteran whose flat-black, screw-blown \u201868 Camaro tore through True 10.5 competition during the DI Winter Series this past winter \u2013 was looking for a driver. Not just for any race, either, but for the 2026 King of the South Invitational, May 21\u201324 at Shadyside Dragway in Shelby, North Carolina. Sixty-four cars. Invitation only. Twenty-eight by ten-and-a-half-inch non-W slicks. $75,000 to win over Memorial Day weekend in front of the kind of crowd that forced the fire marshal to close the gates last year.<\/p>\n

The car: the yellow-and-black Bumblebee Camaro co-owned by Lutz and Jeff Miller, tuned by the same Patrick Miller \/ Bill Lutz duo, built with the same notoriously aggressive philosophy. Swing for the fences. Don\u2019t apologize.<\/p>\n

For Gunner, known to most of the drag racing world as \u201cJimmy Dale,\u201d the math was simple.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is one of the most dangerous cars in the class, in the biggest small tire race in the country, with one of the most aggressive tuning operations in the sport,\u201d Gunner says. \u201cI\u2019m grateful for the opportunity. I\u2019m humbled by it. But I\u2019m also a racer, and I\u2019ll tell you straight up \u2013 I think we\u2019ve got a real shot to win this thing. That car is a weapon. Bill Lutz and Patrick Miller don\u2019t show up just to cover the spread.\u201d<\/p>\n

Before any of it could happen, the conversation had to start at home inside the Rob Koehler Racing camp.<\/p>\n

Rob Kohler\u2019s operation is one of the more interesting emerging programs in the sport right now. A strong Winter Series showing in Pro Mod with driver Kyle Dvorak put the team on a lot of people\u2019s radar, and Jimmy Dale\u2019s runs in the Stick Weld car \u2013 Kohler\u2019s red Limited Drag Radial Camaro \u2013 carried that same momentum straight into the Radial Outlaws Racing Series. Two cars, two classes, one program building real heat.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n

For Jimmy Dale, the chance to step into Lutz\u2019s Bumblebee for a weekend isn\u2019t a departure from any of that. It\u2019s an extension of it. Iron sharpens iron. More laps in fast cars against the best drivers in the country only makes him a better wheelman when he\u2019s back in Stick Weld.<\/p>\n

Koehler saw it the same way and gave the green light without flinching.<\/p>\n

\u201cRob was the first call I made, and he didn\u2019t even let me finish the sentence,\u201d says Gunner. \u201cHe told me, \u2018Go do it. Go represent. Bring something back you can use.\u2019 That\u2019s Rob. He\u2019s building something real with Rob Koehler Racing. What Kyle Dvorak did in Pro Mod at the Winter Series, what we\u2019re building in Stick Weld in Limited Drag Radial, and the fact that he was willing to cut me loose for a weekend to chase this opportunity tells you everything about how he approaches this. He gets it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The original plan had\u00a0Street Outlaws<\/em>\u00a0fan-favorite Joe \u201cDominator\u201d Woods in the Bumblebee for KOTS. Everything was in place. But when the window cracked for Jimmy Dale to take the seat, Dominator was all-in on stepping aside to make it happen.<\/p>\n

Lutz, for his part, frames the whole thing in terms of where he thinks the sport ought to be putting its energy.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe young, hungry guys who\u2019ve actually earned the respect of the people who know, they need real shots in real equipment at real races. That\u2019s how you build the next wave,\u201d Lutz says. \u201cJimmy Dale\u2019s been putting in the work. He\u2019s been competitive in everything Rob\u2019s put him in. Putting him in the Bumblebee at King of the South? That\u2019s me trying to pour a little fuel on the fire.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"
Bill Lutz<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

He\u2019s blunt about the car, too.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThat thing wants to run. Patrick and I aren\u2019t going to hold anything back. He\u2019s going to feel exactly what we\u2019ve been feeling in the \u201868 all winter. His job is to drive it. That\u2019s all I need from him.\u201d<\/p>\n

To understand why this opportunity matters, you have to understand what Corey Stamper and the Buff family have built in Shelby.<\/p>\n

The King of the South started as an idea and became, in remarkably short order, the race every small-tire driver in America wants on their r\u00e9sum\u00e9. Last year\u2019s edition pulled in Ryan Martin, Kye Kelley, Lyle Barnett, Brad Edwards, Ryan Mitchell, Ryan Hendrickson, \u201cTurbo John\u201d Phillips, Shelby Lynn, and eventual winner Larry Larson. Race cars were pitted in the front yards of the houses on the property. By Saturday afternoon, the fire marshal closed the gates. Roughly 5,000 people on the grounds. Tailgates and barbecue grills covering Shadyside\u2019s three-tier pit area like an NFL parking lot.<\/p>\n

Stamper, who runs Spoold Media, summed up his vision for the race in DI\u2019s own coverage: \u201cWe\u2019ve merged worlds of fans that never would have been together. This is the biggest race I\u2019ve ever been a part of in my life.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Larson \u2013 who came in as an alternate, and who builds, tunes, and drives his own \u201866 Chevy Nova \u2013 beat Lyle Barnett by\u00a0.004 of a second in last year\u2019s final to claim the $75,000, he was moved to tears. Both drivers are already locked in for 2026.<\/p>\n

New for this year is the $10,000 \u201cKnight of the South\u201d 16-car invitational on even smaller 26\u00d78.5 slicks.<\/p>\n

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Bumblebee being unloaded at last year\u2019s King of the South<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It all sits under the Ronnie Buff Memorial Weekend banner. The Buff family has been stewarding Shadyside since 1982, when the late Ronnie Buff bought the track. His grandsons Seth and Zach Buff run the place now, and Seth used a telling word to describe last year\u2019s experience: surreal.<\/em> \u201cI woke up and said, \u2018This is unreal,\u2019\u201d he told DI.<\/p>\n

Jimmy Dale was there last year running Lil Gangstas. He felt all of it.<\/p>\n

\u201cLast year was awesome to be a part of. Corey Stamper and the team at Shadyside have built something special. There\u2019s nothing else on the schedule that feels quite like it,\u201d Gunner says. \u201cWhen you walk out of a race like that, you immediately want back in. The fact that I\u2019m coming back in a car like Bumblebee, that part still doesn\u2019t feel real.\u201d<\/p>\n

There\u2019s one more piece that matters, and his name is Michael Poland \u2013 Gunner\u2019s best friend and partner in the Lil Gangstas franchise, the guy who\u2019s been at his side through every late night, every bad tow home, and every breakthrough. When Lutz\u2019s call came in, Poland was the first name out of Jimmy Dale\u2019s mouth. He\u2019ll be in the corner at Shadyside the same way he\u2019s always been. The Lil Gangstas connection isn\u2019t a footnote, either. Barnett, the same guy who lost last year\u2019s final by .004, races the class himself in his \u201cBeer Money\u201d Mustang.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"
Michael Poland<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

King of the South takes place May 21\u201324 at Shadyside Dragway. The full 64-car field has officially been announced by Stamper, with Larson and Barnett garnering the first two invites. When Bumblebee rolls off the trailer with Gunner behind the wheel, it\u2019ll be one of the most-watched cars on the property, and a real test of where this version of Jimmy Dale is right now.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s not pretending otherwise.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not going down there to be happy I got the call,\u201d says Gunner. \u201cI\u2019m going down there to win the race.\u201d<\/p>\n

This story was originally published on April 7, 2026. \"Drag<\/p>\n

The post JIMMY DALE GETS THE KEYS: TOM GUNNER STEPS INTO BILL LUTZ\u2019S BUMBLEBEE CAMARO FOR KING OF THE SOUTH<\/a> first appeared on Drag Illustrated<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When the call came in from Bill Lutz, Tom Gunner already knew exactly what kind of opportunity he was being handed. Lutz \u2013 the small-tire veteran whose flat-black, screw-blown \u201868 Camaro tore through True 10.5 competition during the DI Winter Series this past winter \u2013 was looking for a driver. Not just for any race, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-103335","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103335","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=103335"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103335\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=103335"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=103335"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=103335"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}