Caleb Holman is excited about his first-career start as an owner at Motor Mile Speedway. Super excited.

The 33-year-old driver from Abingdon is returning in a new role with a new team, to compete in a new class this season. Holman will be fielding an entry in the Super Street division— Motor Mile Speedway’s first-ever “outlaw” class.

“[The Super Street division] is the most original -yet simple- idea that has come along in years,” says Holman.

Motor Mile Speedway’s new class is the result of an off-season overhaul of the Street Stock division. The rules package has been modified to afford teams’ unprecedented freedom of engineering, transforming the Super Street division into the least-regulated of the track’s four points-paying classes. Minimal technical restrictions will govern the cars participating in the Super Street division; a spec shock and tire package are the only major requirements. The division is not NASCAR-sanctioned.

The restructuring encourages an unfettered first-or-worst approach to preparation. Ultimately, the division is a testament to American motorsports heritage: Any race car constructed in the spirit of a modern, American-made passenger vehicle is permitted…replete with the best ribcage-rattling engine imaginable.

The Street Stock contingent has been receptive to the changes. And outsiders like Holman have embraced the Super Street concept.

A journeyman racer, Holman’s extensive driving resume includes stints in the NASCAR Xfinity Series and, more recently, the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series. Holman has made a plethora of sporadic starts at Motor Mile Speedway in numerous divisions dating back to 2000, a time period that coincides with a 10-year run in the now-defunct X-1R Pro Cup Series with Henderson Motorsports. To date, winning the series title in 2014 has been the capstone of Holman’s career.

One year after capturing the Pro Cup Series championship, the series dissolved. Holman subsequently acquired Henderson Motorsports’ stable of Pro Cup cars, but finding an asphalt track with a class that allowed the obsolete cars proved challenging. The advent of the Super Street division changed that.

Holman repurposed the championship-winning Pro Cup Series machine over the off-season. Although identical in appearance to the Pro Cup ride of yesteryear, the new race car is Super Street legal. And in a turnabout, Holman will serve as crew chief.

“To make the car race-ready for this class, I really would not have had to change anything except for the shocks and tires,” explains Holman, noting the cost-saving measures inherent in the division’s design. “It’s great. The last thing I want to do is buy tires and spend a pile of money on shocks. The really great thing about the tires is it forces the driver to learn how to drive the thing.”

Enter Holman’s driver: Kyle Lockrow. A native of La Plata, Maryland, Lockrow sports a diverse racing background. In his brief career, the 26-year-old driver has amassed seat time in an array of disciplines, including modified four-cylinders and Legends cars, and boasts experience on road courses as a competitor in the ChumpCar World Series.

A self-funded racer with lofty NASCAR aspirations, Lockrow found the Super Street concept intriguing.

“It’s an affordable division, and what I like about Super Street is that it allows me to showcase what I can do behind the wheel,” explains Lockrow. “With the small tires and big engines, you really have to get up on the wheel.

“It’s going to be a really good experience for me,” Lockrow continues. “I’ve never been to Motor Mile before. So, for me, it’s kind of ‘same song, different verse’ in a sense. New car, new track— I’m going to have to learn on the fly against guys that have been there time and time again. I’ll be racing against guys that probably have an abundance of experience in the bigger cars compared to myself. It’s going to be a challenge, but I’ll be able to learn from these guys, which will help me moving forward in my career.”

Lockrow won’t be the only newcomer participating in the Super Street division this season. Track officials report a groundswell of interest in the new class; more than 20 phone calls pertaining to the Super Street division have been received during the off-season.

The list of headliners that have committed to the Super Street division include three-time Street Stock track champion Scooter Hollandsworth of Indian Valley, and 40-year-old defending Street Stock track titlist Doug Williams of New Castle.

–J.W. Martin, Motor Mile Speedway