After a horrific crash last month at the Snowbird Outlaw Nationals presented by Motion Raceworks, nobody would have blamed four-time PDRA Pro Nitrous world champion Jim Halsey if he missed the final two races of the 2025/2026 Drag Illustrated Winter Series presented by J&A Service.

Halsey admitted that in the moments immediately following the wreck, he wondered if he should step away from racing. But sitting back and watching simply isn’t in his DNA. He and his team have been thrashing ever since the incident to be able to return to Bradenton Motorsports Park January 23-25 for the U.S. Street Nationals presented by M&M Transmission.   

“My initial reaction afterwards was I was done,” Halsey said. “I’m not the youngest guy in the in the world, and this is two cars in two years. So my first thought was that maybe it’s time to retire. But after I cooled off a little bit and got home, we were already discussing how to get things back together. The phone calls started the next morning. Everybody between (tuner) Brandon [Switzer], the folks at [Jerry] Bickel’s shop, and my guys, they put a plan together. They picked the car up on Tuesday or Wednesday after the race and took it to Bickel’s for repair.” 

Piloting his brand-new nitrous-fed “Blacklist” ‘68 Camaro, the 2021 U.S. Street Nationals winner and 2024 World Series of Pro Mod runner-up was involved in a top-end crash with Jeff Rudolf during the second Pro Mod qualifying session at the Snowbirds that saw both drivers impact the retaining walls in the shutdown area. 

It was a tough ending to what started out looking like a promising weekend. Halsey ran a 3.605 at 210.67 mph in the first qualifying session, placing him in the No. 4 spot out of 80 cars. Heading into Q2, with the sun down and cooler temperatures in the air, he appeared primed to improve even more.  

“That thing of mine was on a pretty good run,” said Halsey. “It was probably going to run a 3.57 or .58. It just kept driving left. I kept my foot in it as long as I could. I saw he was out in front of me, so when I got out of it, I switched lanes and was just going to clear the quarter-mile cones and get back over…and that’s when all the other stuff started happening. 

“I hit the brakes, because he was right in front of me and the last thing I wanted to do was hit him,” Halsey added regarding Rudolf. “The bottom of his car turned around pretty quick on me and I slammed the brakes. It’s possible it could have been avoided. Without rehashing it too much, it’s hard to say. It happened so quick.” 

With the U.S. Street Nationals just over a month away, time was of the essence to get the car repaired in time. Luckily, Halsey already had a spare body and front end ready to go. That, along with the damage not being as bad as they first feared, allowed the team to truly believe they could be ready to go in January. 

“The car wasn’t as damaged as bad as it initially looked,” said Halsey. “When I wrecked my other car at Galot in 2024, I bought a body anticipating that we would either try to repair that car or expedite the construction of a new car – but we never ended up using that body. I just had to get it delivered out to Bickel’s shop. It wasn’t even a complete front half. All the brake and suspension parts were pretty much reusable. I mean, it was a major repair, but it wasn’t as bad as we originally thought.”

Now, with everything on track to be ready to go for the U.S. Street Nationals, Halsey is ready to prove once again that nitrous cars can be competitive against the best Pro Mods in the world. He realizes his power adder of choice requires just a little more time, effort, and innovation to stay near the top, but it’s a challenge he and Switzer embrace. 

“Based on our performances prior to the accident – not only in Bradenton, but at the Yellowbullet Nationals and testing earlier last year – I feel that we can run at the top of the field, or very close to it,” Halsey said. “My guys are ready and willing to put in the work that it takes to do that. Not only the work at the track, but the work at the shop between races, working on the car to get things where they need to be to make it competitive. That’s the bottom line.”