AR FAB Howard Anderson: The Road to Wild Street - WCF2019

Howard Anderson has been kicking around racecars for a long time now. Better known as Engine Militia on instagram or as his business AR FAB - Howard and his team have been a part of this community for many years. Based out of Virginia Howard and his Wife Brandi own and operate AR FAB assembling engines and helping racers reach their goals. They put together an EG hatchback for this 2019 season and as they could make it to the track between work they began to dial the car in. The goal was to compete in the Wild Street Class at World Cup Finals 2019. Well as they got close to the second goal of a seven second pass they suffered a very unfortunate accident testing just 64 days before WCF. Howard was on a pass at his local track and after the stripe, the car collided with the wall very hard- actually moving the jersey barrier! He states that the car rolled multiple times which felt like forever. The safety crews quickly got Howard out and into an ambulance. Howard had a good amount of injuries and required a lot of rest to recover from the whiplash and pain from the violent accident. The car was totaled. They were faced with two choices, give up on the WCF goal or get to work! Fourty Five days before WCF Howard and Brandi received their new chassis, this time an EK hatchback. They knew the work load was large and the customers projects were still a priority but they enlisted some great friends to help and started wrenching, welding and wrapping away! They were able to get the car together with just ten days to go before the event- rather than worry about the cosmetics they took her out testing. Everything checked out great, the car was smooth, the motor healthy- all of the hard work paid off! They used the next few days to clean her up and give her the same look as the car she was replacing. Josh came through and wrapped the car in their trademark yellow and pink and they loaded up the trailers to head to World Cup Finals! Now this Wild Street class is super competitive. Mustangs, Camaros, Supras and so on running in the 7.3 - 7.5 range! Howard had two goals. qualify and run a seven second pass! He understood a little luck may be needed to get such a new car to hang with such tried and true RWD monsters. The qualifying field of 32 cars was tight! Top spot was a 7.30 and the bump was a 8.20 - The AR FAB EK Hatch piloted by Howard Anderson qualified 31st in a 32 car field with a 8.16! The first goal was captured! He was actually the highest qualified FWD car in the class with the record holder James Kempf right behind him in the 32 spot. After 45 days of thrashing, testing and doing everything they could to make the event, the AR FAB team had made the Wild Street qualifying field! Unfortunately first round of eliminations on Sunday they rolled into the burnout box and as Howard released the clutch an axle snapped. This was not the ending they wanted of course, I personally would have loved to see this car make one more pass on championship Sunday. His competitor ended up running a 7.50 with a .08 R/T so the round win may have been tough anyway but these guys are not done by any means. If anything, this is just the start! We are honored to be able to cover Howard, Brandi and the entire AR FAB Race team story and WCF experience. We thank him and his team for trusting us to capture these memories and cant wait to see them reach that 7 second goal. I have a feeling they will be back at WCF2020 looking to kick some ass again in the Wild Street Class! Make sure to check out www.ARFabrication.com and follow @EngineMilitia on instagram for more of Howard and Brandi's story!