The Ford Modular engine has been much-maligned in heads-up racing circles, with a definite “following” of racers who campaign them and swear by the little Two- or Four-Valve Ford. Batavia, Ohio’s Brandon Alsept is one racer who has experience with them all – he’s campaigned both the Two- and Four-Valve versions in the NMRA’s heads-up Pure Street category, winning one championship with each platform, while his work ethic and talent put him into the Top Ten every year he competed in the Pure Street class – six straight years from 2006 until 2011 when the class was eliminated.

But with the demise of the Pure Street class at the end of last season, Alsept had to make a decision about what he wanted to do with his racing future. As he has always thrived on the high-winding, gear-banging mentality of a naturally-aspirated class, the decision was easy for him to move over into the NMCA’s Mean Street class. This season, the 9,000RPM Trick Flow-headed Two-Valve Modular engine in his Dynojet-backed Mustang powered him to the very first heads-up class championship won by a Modular-powered vehicle in the NMCA.

He accomplished this feat by putting together three race wins in 2012 including this past weekend’s double-points NMCA World Finals in Indianapolis. Although he missed the season-opening race in Florida, his showing through the rest of the season was good enough to catch and surpass Jeremy Gillam for the title at the end. The last race of the season saw Alsept power to a top-qualifier spot and subsequent wire-to-wire win in the quest for his first NMCA title. “I picked the Modular for Pure Street back when I first started racing as it fit in with what we were doing in my shop at the time. I wanted something different and challenging – and it’s certainly been that. The oiling system has been our biggest issue through the years. Tony Bischoff and the guys at BES spent a lot of time working on it until we had lots of happy bearings during inspections,”Alsept said.

Challenging, but ultimately successful.