Editor’s Note: As many of you might already know, Joe Hunt, the face of Horsepower Wars’ Team Midwest Mayhem died this past weekend in a racing accident while competing in the Coffeyville Street Drags in Coffeyville, KS.

Hunt was 27.

Because many Horsepower Wars episodes were filmed before Hunt’s death, he will appear in today’s and future videos we will share. Everyone affiliated with Horsepower Wars, including our friends at Summit Racing, and everyone here at OnAllCylinders extend our deepest condolences, and certainly our thoughts and prayers to the Hunt family, and his many friends.

You can read more about Hunt’s passing in this Dragzine article.

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Two teams were penalized for trying to sneak modified parts past the Horsepower Wars’ tech inspector, in the spirit of “if you aren’t cheating, you’re not trying hard enough.”

Defending champs Team Bigun tried to sneak an upgraded transmission past tech inspection.

COMP Cams Dream Team went next-level, according to Horsepower Wars.

“Upon inspection of the GM LS engine that the team presented, which was claimed to have been stock, the tech committee discovered numerous modifications and new parts that had been deliberately installed in an attempt to sneak a fast one by the tech team,” the Horsepower Wars article said. “A brand new set of lifters had had the logo shaved away, new valves were installed, and the face of the cylinder heads been painted black to appear old and worn. The team, hesitant to admit their wrongdoings, were sacked with an increased dollar value on their engine and a ‘creative’ weight penalty of 37-pounds on its 2004 Ford Mustang.”

We’re not sure whether to give them a judgy side-eye look or a round of applause.

Later, the COMP Cams team won a competitive round of trivia against the other Horsepower Wars competitors, and the trivia win earned them a new Holley EFI HP ECU fuel injection system to use on their build.

For those unfamiliar with the $10K Drag Shootout challenge, the concept is straightforward: four teams receive $3,000 in cash and a $7,000 Summit Racing Gift Card to modify their respective vehicles (on a tight timeline) and then beat all of the other teams on the track.

Building a racecar isn’t easy. It’s even more difficult when limited by both budget and time. Every team in the $10K Drag Shootout thinks it can win and is ready to prove it.

You can learn more about each team, and the vehicles they’ll be modifying for drag racing here.

You can also check out Episode 1 here, and count down with us to the the late-October showdown by watching Episode 2 above.