With 2023 in the rearview mirror, five-time NHRA Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series world champion Justin Lamb is spending hour after hour in his new race shop at his home in Henderson, Nev., preparing for an even stronger go in the new year. A somewhat challenging season in Super Stock was somewhat assuaged by the satisfaction of a championship-contending year in Stock that culminated in a top 10 finish, and the Las Vegas-area businessman believes there is plenty more to reach for in 2024.<\/p>\n
For the bulk of his career as a Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series competitor, Lamb has finished in the Pacific Division top 10, and last season marked a seventh consecutive top 10 finish as he claimed third in the Stock Eliminator championship chase. Lamb has finished third or better \u2013 and earned three division titles \u2013 each year since 2017. Overall, he\u2019s a seven-time Pacific Division champion, including two in Comp Eliminator, three in Stock, and two in Super Stock. He also won the ET Finals division championship in the Pro category in 2023. In his most prolific season \u2013 2017 \u2013 Lamb was the division champ in both Stock and Super Stock.<\/p>\n
Lamb racing his Stock RAD Torque Systems Chevrolet COPO Camaro at the NHRA Nevada Nationals in Las Vegas<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
While the first-generation drag racer and former Jr. league champion doesn\u2019t take success at the division-level for granted, he has, historically, kept a tighter focus on national achievements. Lamb has 12 top 10 finishes across three categories at the national level, and in 2023, he claimed the No. 5 spot in Stock.
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\n\u201cWe had a good season in Stock,\u201d said Lamb. \u201cWe felt like it was going to be a decent year after we won the Phoenix division race in February, and by the time we got to the Western Swing, we thought there was another win coming.\u201d
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\nThe win most certainly did come, and it happened during Lamb\u2019s most productive two weeks of the year. In Seattle, he claimed the victory in Stock, and one week later, he earned the 31st national event win of his career at the Sonoma Nationals in Super Stock. The triumph came in Lamb\u2019s reliable, championship-winning Chevy Cobalt while the Super Stock COPO was getting dialed in back at the shop.<\/p>\n
At the In-N-Out Burger NHRA Finals, the Larry and Carol Stone-owned RAD Torque Systems Super Stock COPO was effective and right on target, and Lamb was as well. After fortune fell his way in the first round at the Pomona season-closer, Lamb became nearly unstoppable. His ultra-steady .010 reaction time in the second round was replicated in both rounds three and four, and each time, he paired the swift start with an incredibly well-predicted number.
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\nIn the first round, he clocked an 8.829 on an 8.81 dial, and in round two, he was dead-on the number with an 8.818 (8.81). Round three came with an 8.858 on an 8.85 that knocked out pal Brad Burton\u2019s 9.467 (9.48), and in the semifinals, Lamb was again spot on with an 8.895 on an 8.89. The trouble, though, was that fellow Division 7 standout and the gentleman who had just claimed the Stock national championship was in the other lane. It was an incredible and intense race, and Kyle Rizzoli was .001 at the starting line with a 9.062 on his 9.05 to win by mere inches.<\/p>\n
Lamb and crewman Gary \u201cPirate\u201d Tackett after winning the 2023 Sonoma Nationals in Super Stock<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Even still, Lamb was elevated by the performance of the Super Stock COPO that has been unpredictable and challenging over the past two seasons. The reliability of the Stocker and the awakening of the Super Stocker have Lamb eager to get back on track in the new year.
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\n\u201cI\u2019m proud of what we\u2019ve been able to accomplish over the years,\u201d said Lamb, whose first of now 31 national event wins came in 2006 (in Top Comp). \u201cIt\u2019s never easy, and my dad and I have put a lot of effort into this program for a long time. To finish in the top 10 is great, and I\u2019m very confident in the Stocker. The way it\u2019s running, we\u2019ll really only have to do some maintenance in the off-season.
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\n\u201cBut what I\u2019m really happy about is that all we wanted was one good race in Super Stock, and we finally got it at the world Finals. I was hoping to do better with it sooner; I worked so hard on that car for two years and gave up being competitive, in a way, so that I could figure it out. To end last year on such a positive note, that\u2019s a good feeling going into this new year. I don\u2019t go racing just to go racing. I race to be competitive, and that\u2019s what I\u2019m looking for this season.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Justin Lamb Racing (JLR) team has expanded in recent years to include Lamb\u2019s son, NHRA Jr. Drag Racing League competitor Jayce Lamb. The two-time Race of Champions winner will lead off for JLR in late January as he makes his season debut. The up-and-comer graduated from the Jr. league\u2019s 8-9 age division to 10-12 in the off-season, and with that move, Jayce will be permitted to go as quick as 8.90-second in the eighth mile. That\u2019s quite a jump from the 11.90 he\u2019s been racing.<\/p>\n
Race of Champions winner Jayce Lamb in 2023 at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\u201cI\u2019m excited for that, and Jayce is, too,\u201d said Lamb, who\u2019s youngest child with wife Jeanine, daughter Jovi, is the official shop helper until she decides racing is something she wants to do as well. \u201cThis is a family thing for us, and it has been since my parents gave me my first Jr. dragster for my eighth birthday. To see my kids taking interest in this is really special. Drag racing is a great sport, and it isn\u2019t something you just pass down to the next generation \u2013 you get to live it right alongside them. There isn\u2019t anything like it, and we\u2019re all eager to get back on track in 2024.\u201d
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\nLamb intends to start his own race season with the double divisional event in Phoenix in February. In addition to a strong slate of national events, he plans to compete at the Spring Fling Million bracket race in Las Vegas in April.
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\nThe Justin Lamb Racing team competes with the support of RAD Torque Systems, SilverState Plumbing, Stone Chevrolet, Matco Tools, Goodyear Race Tires, Liqui-Moly, Palmer Electric, Moser Engineering, Redback Boots, and A-1 Performance.<\/p>\n
Follow the JLR team on Facebook<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Instagram<\/a>.<\/p>\n The post Top 10 again, and Five-Time Champ Justin Lamb Eager For More in 2024<\/a> first appeared on Drag Illustrated | Drag Racing News, Opinion, Interviews, Photos, Videos and More<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" With 2023 in the rearview mirror, five-time NHRA Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series world champion Justin Lamb is spending hour after hour in his new race shop at his home in Henderson, Nev., preparing for an even stronger go in the new year. A somewhat challenging season in Super Stock was somewhat assuaged by the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,78117,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-90948","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-drag-racing","category-race-pages","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90948","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=90948"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90948\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":91080,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90948\/revisions\/91080"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90948"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=90948"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=90948"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}