Matt Stutzman Goes 200mph Without Arms
Matt Stutzman isn’t your average NHRA racer. Behind the wheel of his Pro Mod Camaro, he’s been chasing one big number this season: 200 mph. Last week at Brainerd Motorsports Park’s NHRA Top Sportsman event, he not only reached that goal, he obliterated it with a run of 214.69 mph. Plenty of drivers have broken the 200-mph barrier on a drag strip before, but Stutzman may be the first to do it without arms.
Paralympic Past
Known as the “Armless Archer,” Matt Stutzman has earned worldwide recognition for his precision with a bow, competing at the highest levels of archery despite being born without arms. Shooting a bow without arms seems almost impossible—driving a 3,000-plus horsepower race car at over 200 mph, even more so. Yet Stutzman has made both look not just possible, but impressive.
His path to this milestone has been chronicled in a YouTube series called Quest For 200, produced with sponsor PennGrade 1 Motor Oil. The series follows his process of fine-tuning his Camaro and steadily increasing its performance to break into the 200-mph range. With that goal checked off the list, Stutzman might already have his eyes set on 300 mph.
300mph Is Next
In a previous interview with DragCoverage, he shared that ultimate dream: “To know what 300 mph feels like.” It’s an ambition fueled by more than just a need for speed. “I pride myself on not just racing, but building,” he says. “Pretty much every nut and bolt on this car, I’ve touched—put my foot on,” he adds with a grin, referring to his own unique method of applying “foot-pound torque specs.”
For Matt Stutzman, racing is his first love. On his personal website, he recalls how his father encouraged him to drive from an early age, tossing him the keys to their farm truck with the faith that he’d figure it out. Today, his ’68 Camaro, complete with a supercharger big enough to rival a duffle bag in size, is a far cry from that old farm truck, but one thing hasn’t changed: Stutzman still figures it out, and he does it at full throttle.
