{"id":104852,"date":"2026-09-23T15:44:05","date_gmt":"2026-09-23T15:44:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/drag-racing\/uncategorized\/spencer-hyde-posts-season-best-speed-strong-performance-at-inaugural-michigan-event\/"},"modified":"2026-09-23T15:44:05","modified_gmt":"2026-09-23T15:44:05","slug":"spencer-hyde-posts-season-best-speed-strong-performance-at-inaugural-michigan-event","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/drag-racing\/uncategorized\/spencer-hyde-posts-season-best-speed-strong-performance-at-inaugural-michigan-event\/","title":{"rendered":"Spencer Hyde Posts Season-Best Speed, Strong Performance at Inaugural Michigan Event"},"content":{"rendered":"

Reigning NHRA Rookie of the Year Spencer Hyde and the Head Contractors & Engineers Funny Car team continued their strong 2026 NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series campaign this weekend at the inaugural Dodge NHRA Great Lakes Nationals presented by MOPAR at US 131 Motorsports Park.
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Despite persistent rain that disrupted the schedule throughout the weekend and ultimately forced the NHRA to postpone Sunday\u2019s planned eliminations until Monday, Hyde and the Jim Head-led team delivered one of their most consistent qualifying performances of the season.
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Three of Hyde\u2019s four qualifying runs were solid A-to-B runs, highlighted by his Friday evening pass of 3.9169 seconds at 331.13 mph. The run was not only Hyde\u2019s quickest pass of the weekend, but also the fastest run of his 2026 season to date. The performance placed Hyde No. 9 in the Funny Car qualifying order for Monday\u2019s eliminations.<\/p>\n

Hyde backed up that performance with another strong run during Saturday\u2019s third qualifying session, posting a 3.9333-second pass at 327.99 mph. The run was the third quickest of the session and earned Hyde one valuable bonus point towards the NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series championship.
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The Michigan event also marked the beginning of the six-race Countdown to the Championship. Hyde entered the playoffs among the championship contenders and leaves Michigan 10th\u00a0in the Funny Car standings with five Countdown races remaining.
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On Monday, Hyde faced Daniel Wilkerson in the opening round. Both drivers are searching for their first NHRA Funny Car victory, and the two delivered a highly competitive side-by-side race.
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Hyde had a slight reaction-time advantage and the Head Contractors & Engineers Funny Car was competitive down the track, but Wilkerson ultimately posted the quicker elapsed time to advance. However, Hyde\u2019s .0236-second reaction time established a new personal benchmark for the sophomore year Funny Car driver<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, we wanted to go rounds today, but there are a lot of positives for us to take away from this weekend,\u201d said Hyde. \u201cThat 3.91 on Friday was a huge run for us, and to go 331 mph was really exciting. It was our fastest run of the season, and then we backed it up with another 3.93 on Saturday and picked up a bonus point. That\u2019s the kind of consistency we\u2019re looking for, especially in the Countdown.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Hyde\u2019s race day ended in the first round, the weekend provided plenty of positives for the Canadian driver and his team as they prepare for another event next weekend.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe first round was a really good drag race with Dan,\u201d said Hyde. \u201cWe were right there with him, and it came down to a very small margin. I\u2019m proud of the way our team performed, and that .0236 reaction time was pretty cool. That\u2019s something I\u2019ll take a lot of confidence from. We\u2019re proving that we can run with these guys, and now we just need to keep putting all the pieces together.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Michigan weekend was also a memorable one for the fans, who endured repeated rain delays, a changing schedule and a Monday race day while continuing to support the first NHRA national event at US 131 Motorsports Park.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fans here were incredible,\u201d said Hyde. \u201cThey dealt with some crazy weather all weekend, and they still showed up, stayed engaged and supported us. For this to be the first NHRA national event at this track, I think everybody involved should be proud of what they accomplished. We loved seeing the fans stick it out, and hopefully we gave them some good racing to watch when we finally got on the track.\u201d<\/p>\n

Supported by Hyde Construction, OUTLAW Light Beer and The Caine Group, Hyde and Head Racing will have little time to regroup before heading to North Carolina for another first-of-its-kind event. This weekend was the beginning of a three weekend in-a-row run for the team. The NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series heads to Rockingham Dragway in Rockingham, North Carolina, next weekend for the inaugural NHRA Nationals at The Rock.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we\u2019re heading to Rockingham with a lot of momentum,\u201d said Hyde. \u201cWe\u2019ve got five races left in the Countdown, and we know we have a car that can run in the 3.9s and go over 330 mph. That\u2019s encouraging. Now we get to go to another new track and another new NHRA national event, and we\u2019re excited to be part of that history, particularly during the NHRA\u2019s 75th\u00a0anniversary. We\u2019ll keep building on what we learned here and go after some rounds next weekend.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hyde and the Head Contractors and Engineers Funny Car will be back in NHRA competition next week at the inaugural NHRA Nationals at The Rock on September 25-27 at Rockingham Dragway in Rockingham, North Carolina. There will be two qualifying sessions on Friday, September 25 and two qualifying sessions on Saturday, September 26. The second race day of the 2026 Countdown to the Championship will be contested on Sunday. For tickets or more information on the NHRA Nationals at The Rock visit\u00a0nhra.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This story was originally published on September 23, 2026. \"Drag<\/p>\n

The post Spencer Hyde Posts Season-Best Speed, Strong Performance at Inaugural Michigan Event<\/a> first appeared on Drag Illustrated<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reigning NHRA Rookie of the Year Spencer Hyde and the Head Contractors & Engineers Funny Car team continued their strong 2026 NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series campaign this weekend at the inaugural Dodge NHRA Great Lakes Nationals presented by MOPAR at US 131 Motorsports Park.\u00a0Despite persistent rain that disrupted the schedule throughout the weekend […]<\/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-104852","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104852","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=104852"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104852\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=104852"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=104852"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=104852"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}