“At the end of the day, I’ll never apologize for being a hunter.” – Eva Shockey

Being a woman in a man’s sport is nothing new to me, and hunting is no different than racing in that sense. But there is a different perspective that I have on my love for nature when I’m outside of the cockpit of my dragster. It’s all about connecting with the outdoors and slowing down from the busy life of work and racing. For me, hunting is my escape from the computer screen and stepping away from the role of a race car driver into a conservationist.

There are multiple strategies of hunting, similar to racing, that will take many years to master, and I have a long way to go still. There are so many challenges for me when I’m preparing for a hunt; first, getting a license and tag from the state, then practicing all year with my compound bow and arrows to be an accurate shot when I’m under the pressure of an animal in my sight. Next is the species; learning their habits, where they are located on a certain property that we are legally allowed to hunt on during the proper season, and where they eat, drink and sleep. Finally, we prepare our tree stands or blinds (we make an elevated platform to put our blinds on) in different spots we believe the species travel through, then get the right camo gear and tools (such as a range finder, binoculars, hand warmers, scent remover, etc.) so we will not be seen, smelled, or heard once we are ready for the hunt.

Last year was my first year of hunting. Although I’ve had opportunities to go with my family in southern Indiana in the past during this time of the year, I never felt ready enough. It wasn’t until I met my boyfriend, Adam, who really taught me what it takes to prepare for a successful hunt.

The first time I climbed up into a tree stand while it’s still dark, I instantly fell in love with the scenery and watching the sun rise and the woods wake up. Being able to be among the squirrels and different birds without them noticing you, breathing in the fresh air, and warming up from the sun beaming on your face is incredibly calming and brings a new respect for the wildlife because these are all things we never stop to notice. I assumed hunting was about guys getting together, having some drinks, walking through the woods and shooting the first deer or animal they spot based on historic stereotypes. I quickly learned it’s not like that at all, and all about being outside of my element and becoming one with nature.

“When you regroup in nature, you push the pause button and understand how much bigger this world really is.” – Eva Shockey

I’ve spent hours and hours in a tree stand or blind and have not seen any deer while hunting, but that doesn’t necessarily mean our hunt was unsuccessful. Hunting is very challenging, and you just have to sit and wait for a deer to make a mistake and step into your shooting range. You have to be focused at all times and constantly scan the trees for any movement of brown or white. Patience and perseverance are your best friends while hunting.

On November 17^th, it all came together for me and I was able to harvest my first deer with my Eva Shockey Signature Series compound bow from Bowtech at around 4pm.

Besides all of the benefits above and the adrenaline rush of the hunt, being able to provide healthy, organic, lean meat from this deer is the top reason I became a hunter. It’s a positive, encouraging lifestyle to be able to provide for myself and my family and not having to rely on the “mystery meat” from the grocery store. I have seen all of the documentaries on how cows, chickens, and pigs are treated in factory farms and never see daylight, are fattened up with hormones and then treated with antibiotics because their bodies are not being taken care of properly, all for us to have a juicy burger or wings. I do not agree with this treatment and have committed my time to harvest my meat (and vegetables) from local sources. I know exactly where my food came from and who all touched it for a true field-to-table lifestyle.

As we all get together with family for Thanksgiving tomorrow, I’m thankful for my family instilling in me at a young age a look into their passion for hunting, my new outlook on wildlife and taking care of nature, and feeding my family with our fresh, organic venison.

Megan Meyer is the driver of the NGK Spark Plugs/Meyer Truck Center/WELD Racing A/Fuel Dragster in the NHRA Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series. Follow Megan on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. 

This DRAG ILLUSTRATED Driver Blog is presented by WELD Racing. Follow WELD Racing on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, and visit them online at www.WELDWheels.com. 

Like probably millions of families on Thanksgiving, it’s tradition to go around the table and recite what you’re thankful for this year. But instead of some vague, boring answer, what if we centered it on drag racing?

That makes it much more exciting – or at least it should be – and it’s a genuine list that could go on for a while. Don’t believe me? Take a look below.

I’m thankful for this sport, first and foremost. I didn’t grow up around it, didn’t have a father involved in it and didn’t watch my first race until I was working at a newspaper after graduating college. My very first interview after graduation was Larry Dixon. Little did I realize the magnitude of that type of interview for a 22-year-old doofus, but I was hooked. There are stories within stories in this sport, and personalities galore and I couldn’t ask for anything more.

I’m thankful for firsts, which happen every year in this tremendous sport. You had Steve Torrence becoming the first driver in NHRA history to sweep the Countdown. You had Tanner Gray becoming the first driver under 20 to win a NHRA world championship. You had four first-time world champions (J.R. Todd, Torrence, Gray and Pro Mod champ Mike Janis). You had the first 200 mph run in Pro Stock Motorcycle, the first time all four world champions (Torrence, Gray, Todd and Matt Smith) won the final race of the season and also a bevy of first-time winners – Blake Alexander, Billy Torrence, Matt Hartford, Deric Kramer, Jeremy Ray, Jose Gonzalez and Rick Hord.

I’m thankful for drivers who are talented enough to reach 100 wins, like David Rampy did this year and Dan Fletcher did the year before. I’m also thankful that we get to watch John Force win his 150th race in 2019 (yes, I’m expecting it).

I’m thankful for Pro Mod, which is thriving in its golden era. From the NHRA to PDRA to the Mid-West Pro Mod Series to the NMCA, Pro Mod is at an unparalleled level right now. With apologies to nitro lovers and radial fans, Pro Mod rules the drag racing world right now and that’s perfectly fine with me.

I’m thankful for those who haven’t let up in their passion for Pro Stock. It’s been a tough time and we may not be headed toward a happy ending down the road, but seeing those who are passionate enough to keep pushing forward indicates the type of people involved in this sport.

I’m thankful for the World Series of Pro Mod, which has recognized how to put on a show. Put one killer class in the spotlight, promote the magnitude of $100,000 on the line with two dozen-plus star drivers and let the excitement brew. If you were there and didn’t have fun, you didn’t have a pulse. Make sure you’re there in 2019 and you’ll agree.

I’m thankful for those who recognize the sport as entertainment (hello, Donald Long). Lights Out is the must-attend music festival of the drag racing world, and that type of anticipation and exhilaration continually puts the sport in a better place.

I’m thankful that two world champions – Todd and Shawn Langdon – have a great podcast, the Nomex Effect. You want real reactions, behind-the-scenes info and unfiltered talk? That’s all there and let’s hope for more of it from other drivers in 2019.

I’m thankful for publications like Drag Illustrated, which help the sport push the envelope, think outside the box and don’t rest on the laurels of yesteryear. The best is right now and is still to come, and DI has always recognized that.

I’m thankful for young standouts in drag racing. While these awesome young men and women are thriving, I was a dope wandering aimlessly at the same age. Guess I could learn a thing or two from them even now.

I’m thankful that Robert Hight is as tough as they come. Racing – and winning – a race just after breaking your collarbone? That’s badass any way you slice it.

I’m thankful for four-wide drag racing. Yeah, I have no problem admitting that, either.

I’m thankful for burnout contests, burndowns, head games and well-done trash talk (nonsensical Facebook videos don’t count) that makes the sport even more enjoyable.

I’m thankful for throwback paint schemes, Halloween costumes and wraps in Vegas and anything that stretches outside the norm.

I’m thankful for drivers like Stevie “Fast” Jackson, whose magnetic demeanor could draw a smile from anyone. Let’s make him a superstar in 2019 – and plenty of other drivers.

I’m thankful for sold out crowds across the nation, fully confident this sport is in a good place with plenty of room to grow and improve.

I’m thankful to share the sport with my son, even if it’s the crashes that get him the most excited.

I’m thankful for mosh pits on the starting line, double-gun salutes after a win and anyone who has a little exuberance in their celebrations.

I’m thankful for any driver who uses social media as a gateway for fans to get a glimpse of their lives. We’re all glad to just be along for the ride.

I’m thankful that I can realize 2018 was pretty darn great for the sport and there’s a good chance 2019 can be even better.

I’m hope you’re thankful for a lot more reasons as well. Look around, treasure the great in the sport and those reasons won’t be hard to find.

Happy Thanksgiving.

For the last 16 years, an event name synonymous in drag racing has carried a flare and a chip on its shoulder throughout the years. For Tommy Franklin, owner of Virginia Motorsports Park and the Professional Drag Racers Association (PDRA), he has had the same style flare over the past few years. When the phone rang from Bill Bader, Jr. and the opportunity was there to obtain the world-renowned event brand known as the Shakedown, Franklin did not bat an eye and accepted the chance at having a piece of history at his Dinwiddie, Virginia-based Virginia Motorsports Park.

David Hance

For the first 10 years in existence, the Shakedown was owned and promoted by David Hance and New York Motorsports while it was held at Old Bridge Township Raceway Park in Englishtown, New Jersey. In that decade, Hance built the brand into the edgy, bring your best shot to the table style of motorsports showcase that it’s known for. The fall date and New Jersey atmospheric conditions always brought the chance of national and world records to the table for every class contested.

When the event left Englishtown, Bader saw the momentum that the brand had and immediately jumped at the opportunity to have this event at his facility, Summit Motorsports Park in Norwalk, Ohio. For six years, the Bader family worked hard to have a successful event, but fought numerous years of bad weather that put them behind the eight ball before the ball ever began to roll. After yet another weather-stricken event in 2018, the Bader family decided that they were ready to hang it up for their time with the event. Enter Tommy Franklin and Virginia Motorsports Park.

Franklin, owner of the PDRA Racing series and fresh off his first season as owner of the highly regarded Virginia Motorsports Park, had a few very successful conversations with Bader that ended with the event rights and titles changing hands, effectively moving the event to VMP for the 2019 campaign and beyond.

“With Allen (Carpenter), Rick (Lindner) and Tyler (Crossnoe) on board at Virginia for the future, we have a lot of experience and motivation in the front office to build this event into a must-attend destination for all involved,” Franklin said. “Rick brings a host of experience to the table on the marketing and business organization side, while Tyler hosts his own event in the same racer market and will bring a world-class track surface to the table for whichever class is rolling through the tunnel. We are very excited to have this event on our calendar for September 19-21, 2019 and are thankful to the Hance and Bader families for their outpouring support and stamp of approval with the event going forward at our facility.”

“I’m excited to see what Tommy, Tyler, and the team at Virginia can do with Shakedown,” said Evan Bader of Summit Motorsports Park. “The event has always been near and dear to my heart and despite not being able to make it work at home, the event is in the best possible hands. Tommy and Tyler are tapped into that market and VMP will be an excellent facility and geographic location for the event. I’m excited to see the changes and hope to attend in 2019 to see the Shakedown first hand.”

Tommy Franklin

Pro Modified will continue to be a headline class at the Shakedown Nationals XVII just as it has been since the inception, with $20,000 to the winner in a 16-car qualified field. The team plans to continue the original “small tire” category with Outlaw 10.5, pitting the 33×10.5” slick tire entries against the 315 drag radials, creating a rivalry like no other to decide which tire propels to victory. A unique twist on Radial vs. The World will bring some of the best in the country to Virginia Motorsports Park for the very first time, while Limited Drag Radial, X275 and Ultra Street racers will chase the ever-important championship points for their season-ending championships, not to mention run for a large sum of money across the board. Top Sportsman and Top Dragster will uphold the sportsman side of the event with a unique twist on both classes that will put big money up for grabs to a locked field of racers.

“I am extremely excited about being a small part of the rich history that is Shakedown,” said Crossnoe, the newly appointed track manager at Virginia. “I came up one round short of a victory in 2017 as a racer at Shakedown and the feel of this event is something special. Whether it was the brass knuckles and cigars that were given to the winner or the sheer rush of winning an event of this magnitude, this event has an aurora around it that is special. In 2019, instead of getting a shot at winning it, I’ll get a shot at producing it and with the help of Rick Lindner, Allen Carpenter, Tommy Franklin and the entire VMP team and the upcoming marketing partnerships, I think we have a great chance to create another staple event here in Virginia.”  

While purses and preliminary details are still under construction, the date and location are set in stone and the team at Virginia Motorsports Park is excited about the addition of the 17th Annual Shakedown Nationals to the jam-packed 2019 schedule. Stay tuned to www.VirginiaMotorsports.com for more detailed information on the star-studded event, upcoming on September 19-21, 2019.

A nitromethane burner can be more temperamental than a teething baby.

Give it just what it wants and it can be beautifully peaceful and harmonious. Upset it and a boisterous, unruly fiasco can break out.

Perhaps no one understands this better than 40-year Top Fuel Motorcycle veteran Larry “Spiderman” McBride, whose Trim-Tex team became flummoxed and bewildered at what tune-up their 5.61 record-holding machine known as “Star” wanted to get down the track cleanly at the Man Cup World Finals from South Georgia Motorsports Park, Nov. 15-18. McBride trusted his team could find the magic formula to lead it to a 19^thchampionship title.

McBride’s race week got off to an ill-fated opening when the first two days of testing were rained out and the team failed to make a full pass on Friday.

“It was hard to figure out. The track was good, but very different from last year. It was like we suffered from lack of wheel speed,” McBride said.  “There was so much glue it was like the bike was stuck to the ground. You could hardly push it into the lights.”

Saturday’s first two qualifying runs brought more dissatisfaction as team McBride smoked the tire at the outset.

“It was grabbing the tire and banging back on the bar,” McBride said. “We just didn’t calm it down enough.”

It set McBride up as an underdog in a gargantuan pressure-filled showdown against Dave Vantine with a season title hanging in the balance.

Facing elimination in the championship chase, McBride stepped up on Saturday night to run a 5.77 at 241 mph to defeat point leader and then No. 1 qualifier Vantine in the final of the rain-postponed Dragway 42 final from July. The clutch win shortened the points deficit up to just 16, less than a round, heading into championship Sunday.

“It could not have come at a better time,” McBride said with a sigh of relief.  “We were focused on getting down the track. Not getting to test really hurt us. My team did a great job working with what they had.”

McBride said a dropped cylinder was a blessing in disguise, keeping him from overpowering the track and again smoking the tire.

“It stuttered a cylinder early, dropped it, picked it back up and went out again,” McBride said. “I have to believe that helped.”

What transpired on Sunday spoke to the unpredictability and unforgiving nature of Top Fuel. While most were expecting a McBride vs. Vantine, winner-take-all final, Norway’s Sverre Dahl had other plans. In opening eliminations Dahl snuck by Vanitne in a pedal fest, all but crowning McBride with the championship.

“That shocked me. I hated it for Dave. He had a great season. I was very lucky to have won this championship,” McBride said.  “I smoked the tire twice against Dave this year so I know exactly how he feels. Getting out run is one thing but beating yourself is another. It hurts a whole lot worse. I wouldn’t be surprised if Dave was battling the same situation I was.”

McBride took the insurmountable points lead with a tire-smoking solo pass on his first round bye. It was fortunate for McBride that he qualified in the top spot and earned the bye.

“We made our best run when it mattered most,” McBride said.

The event upsets were far from over. In the second round of eliminations McBride again was unable to make a clean pass, smoked the tire hard and was defeated by Ian King of England.

“I knew it was all over and I was done right away,” McBride said. “It was a tough loss for my team. We really wanted to win this race. The only thing you can do is take it back to the pits and regroup for next year.”

What’s even more baffling for McBride is the team left the same exact 5.77 setup in the bike from Saturday for Sunday.

“We were definitely dealing with changing conditions,” McBride said.

McBride congratulated Mitch Brown for advancing to the final and upsetting King to collect his first career win.

“It was great. It just goes to show you anybody can win if you never give up. We were all excited for him,” McBride said. “Ian was looking down at something when the lights came on. I think he had a problem with his bike. Mitch did a great job.”

McBride won the title by a mere four points. The veteran racer knows any championship, no matter what the margin, is coveted.

“It’s still a championship. When you win the Super Bowl it doesn’t matter how many points you won it by or what you did in the regular season,” McBride said. “It’s that one game that means everything. This race was our Super Bowl.”

McBride made one full pass throughout the weekend and it could not have come at a better time.  It was an unusual end to what was a bizarre and unpredictable season, greatly impacted by inclement weather.

“It was really strange. I’m surprised we won but we never gave up. The main objective was to win the championship and we got that,” McBride said. “We were on our game in Ohio. We felt good there. It goes to show how you can go from hero to a zero in one run. You are only as good as your last race and I wasn’t very good at the Finals. I’m grateful we have a chance to come back and do better.”

McBride’s record-holding motorcycle provides him with great optimism heading into 2019.

“We’ve got a really bad hot rod we just need to be more consistent,” McBride said. “Actually we were consistent. We were consistently smoking the tire in Valdosta.  We should have been in the low 5.60s again. We will be back.”

Before shifting into 2019 preparations, McBride plans to make a stop at the PRI Trade Show in Indianapolis, Ind. Dec. 6-8 to visit with sponsors and friends. 

Story by Jack Korpela/CycleDrag.com
Photos by Jeff Mundale/CycleDrag.com

In 1999 Mark Adelizzi left a 14-year stint at a well-established business and struck out on his own to start a company from scratch. Almost 20 years later, his drive and passion has taken Flatout Gaskets from a speck on the map to an industry leader.

Flatout began as a graphics company, but, as Adelizzi explains, that was never the long-term goal. “When we started, I planned on getting into gaskets, but not right away. We started with graphic design and production. We made decals and signs. We made all the signs for years for IHRA. I was involved with IHRA for a long time on contingency programs and through displays at the track. And then around 2001 we got into gasket manufacturing and started to grow the product line from there. The first catalog was like 6 pages and now it’s 15. We have just added to the line as we went and really targeted performance V8 engines, as well as some 4- and 6-cylinder engines, but mostly the stuff you see at the drag strip.”

Now their gaskets are utilized by countless champions, and the Mundelein, Illinois company continues to have a major impact on the industry, not only through incredible performance but also through programs and sponsorships like the PDRA’s Flatout Gaskets Nitrous Wars, arguably the most successful program of the series.

Innovative design never quits at Flatout Gaskets, as Adelizzi jokes he was recently drawing gasket sketches while flying home from vacation. In an industry where performance rules all, Flatout is setting a standard that’s impossible to deny. The current push for Adelizzi is a new design for Top Fuel head gaskets. He readily admits he’s drawn to the highest performing classes and uses that to his advantage, where “trickle-down technology” has a positive impact on everything from Top Fuel to 4-cylinder engines, as well as crossing over into areas such as performance diesels.

“We’ve done a lot of new things in Top Fuel and Pro Extreme, especially in the 5.3” bore space area,” Adelizzi elaborates. “I seem to be drawn to the fastest cars to try to come up with solutions to solve problems. We’ve done a lot of innovative things with gaskets over the years, things that were never done before, one of them being silicone coating on upper gaskets to seal the coolant. That was one of the first things we did. From there we’ve done a lot of innovative things like embossing gaskets around certain areas to increase their pressure on the head and the block to give it better sealing locally.

“We’ve worked with engine builders and manufacturers on their newest stuff before it was even released. We’ve built good relationships with people like Charlie Buck, Reher-Morrison, Sonny Leonard, Pat Musi and so on – every top engine builder in the country, including manufacturers like Alan Johnson and Brodix and Dart. It’s been good. It’s taken a while to get there. People don’t like to change anything and that includes gaskets. We have to get them to take a chance and try something new they’ve never done before. Once they do it and see how well it works, they’re usually customers and friends for life.”

Flatout Gaskets has customers across the industry with well-known names like Top Fuel drivers Steve Torrence, Clay Millican and Terry McMillen. “I sell Alan Johnson everything else except copper head gaskets on all his Top Fuel engines. And there’s a few other teams we do the same thing with. Selling to Alan gives a trickle-down effect because he sells to most of the top pro teams directly. So we end up being on a lot of those teams, like Pro Line and some of the other fast Pro Mod guys that run his product.

“We strive for a high-quality product,” he continues. “I only use the highest quality products available on the market. I don’t want to take a chance with a guy’s $80,000 engine just because something in the material failed or leaked. I won’t have it. I’m always on overkill when it comes to materials. I’m always seeking the best coatings and materials to help improve the products. Quality is número uno here. We push it pretty hard.”

That commitment has made Flatout Gaskets an industry leader with a wide range of offerings. In recent years, the company has utilized its full CNC fab shop to fabricate products for manufacturers outside of the gasket business. Flatout can cover everything from design to production for products of all metal types, including stainless, chrome moly, steel, aluminum and copper.

“You have to diversify in this day and age because you just don’t know what’s going to happen next year,” explains the Illinois native. “We’re doing more and more fab work all the time and doing gaskets for things outside of racing all the time, like the performance diesel stuff. We’ve grown that part of it. That’s not the focus of our business, but they come to us and we find solutions for them and that creates a good relationship.”

One of the things that sets Flatout Gaskets apart is their use of a fiber optic laser to cut copper gaskets. This type of laser technology has only been available for about five years and Flatout is one of the few to utilize the benefits, preferring to cut on their fiber optic laser over the more widely used water jet.

Adelizzi hopes to debut his new Top Fuel gaskets at PRI, just in time to ring in his 20th year of business. “It’s hard to believe [it’s been 20 years]. Seems like yesterday. Launching the new gaskets will be fun. It’s just constant evolution in that class, as well as every other class. It’s trickle-down technology. Once we prove this new concept in Top Fuel, it’ll trickle down into the alcohol classes, plus Pro Mod and Funny Car. It’s exciting.”

This story originally appeared in DI #135, the State of Drag Issue, in August of 2018.

Northeast Dragway continues to thrive since opening for business 18 years ago. Nestled in Hertford, North Carolina, which is among the oldest towns in the state, Northeast Dragway by contrast, represents one of the newer drag strips to open in the Tar Heel state, with a construction date of 2000. At the time of its grand opening, drag strip owner and builder Curtis Trueblood, a lifelong Hertford resident, made note that the northeast tip of North Carolina was wide open for a new drag strip, even in a state where tracks are plentiful, with around 20 in operation.

Jr. drag racing is popular at Northeast Dragway.

The main motivation wasn’t because Trueblood was a drag racing enthusiast at the time, but rather, he simply owned the perfect piece of property that he had acquired years earlier. The parcel of 98 acres that adjoined Trueblood’s childhood home came up for sale in the 1990s and he was excited at the thoughts of buying it and simply logging the property initially, not really having a long-term plan in mind. It wasn’t until the land was cleared and reseeded that Curtis realized the dimensions were perfect for an eighth-mile drag strip. “My background was actually in tractor pulling, but I thought this particular piece of property would be perfect for a drag strip,” Trueblood explains.

The track he constructed nearly two decades ago is one he strived to make safe and efficient, and while he declares that the track isn’t fancy, the grounds are meticulously maintained, and the natural beauty surrounding the track creates an undeniable appeal. If you continue in an eastward direction from Hertford you’ll be looking at the ocean in about an hour. The coastal climate plays a favorable role in the track’s operation throughout the year. “We usually try to open up around February and run through late November,” says Trueblood.

It was unseasonably cold this past winter before going straight into excessive summer heat right after the 2018 racing season was getting cranked up. “The weather has been crazy this year and there’s just no way to predict it either, but because of things like Facebook and our track website, it’s so much easier these days to keep our racers informed of any scheduling changes, should a storm cause us to have to cancel the race abruptly,” Trueblood says.

The track has been IHRA sanctioned for much of its existence, although Trueblood decided to go his own way in recent years, and says he’s happy with the track’s current independent status. “Even after going independent I was able to keep my same insurance on the track, so that was certainly a plus.”

Trueblood has seen the drag racing landscape steadily change over the years, particularly with the declining participation of bracket racing, with a noticeable shift toward grudge racing and 10.5 competition in this region. Nothing, however, has surprised him more than the surging interest in diesel drag racing, both in the department of performance as well as participation.

“From a performance standpoint, we’ve got trucks that weigh nearly 7,000 pounds and can run in the 6-second zone, with some slightly lighter trucks running in the fives.” The interest continues to build in this style of racing to the point that Northeast Dragway now hosts a pair of diesel events each year, both of which thoroughly pack the pits and grandstands. “Those diesels are strong, too – hardly ever do they break!” Trueblood smiles.

The track also hosts weekly test-and-tune sessions, lots of grudge racing events, as well as eight bracket point races that are scheduled for 2018. Staying true to his tractor pulling roots, Trueblood also has plans to relocate a tractor pulling facility he owns to the expanded grounds of the drag strip. They recently broke ground on this project, and are making significant progress. “We hope to have the tractor pull facility up and running sometime this fall,” Trueblood says.

At 74 years of age, Trueblood is showing no signs of slowing down. He’s also been in the wrecker business since 1972, has owned and operated various garages, and is constantly trying to improve and grow his motorsports business. When the drag strip first opened, he operated it alongside his wife, Annette, and son Tony Curtis, and years later the grandkids have also joined in the operation of this family enterprise. While some of the finest sportsman race cars can be found in this area, the Trueblood family take great pride in updating and improving this facility with each passing year, much to the approval of those who enjoying coming here. 

This Dialed In feature originally appeared in DI #135, the State of Drag Issue, in August of 2018.

The Pro Extreme class made its final run on June 2, 2018, spelling an unfortunate and, ultimately, abrupt end to a class that almost immediately captured the attention of the sport just more than a decade ago.

At its peak, fans and drivers alike marveled at the screw-blower outlaw doorslammer class, both in its wild unpredictability and eye-popping performances. It was a special kind of magic and it led to a meteoric rise almost overnight. As for the drivers trying to tame these monsters, it was also the ride of their life.

Terry Leggett (veteran standout who raced Pro Extreme from 2009-2018): It was a class of pioneers, to some degree. It was really just wide-open. It was entertaining, it was a challenge. It was just a fun thing to do.

Jason Scruggs (two-time Pro Extreme world champion): In the heyday, it was the hottest class around, in my opinion.

Tommy D’Aprile (veteran standout who raced Pro Extreme from 2008-2017): It was exciting. You never saw more fires and blow-ups. Using a clutch, swapping feet, it was the most exciting thing ever. Guys were driving.

J.R. Todd (current Funny Car standout and former Top Fuel driver who raced Pro Extreme in 2011): Outside of Funny Car and Top Fuel, I thought those were the most badass cars out there. They looked cool and driving them was a lot of fun.

With the once-incredible class coming to a sudden end due to a lack of driver participation, DRAG ILLUSTRATED talked to a number of key figures who were there from its inception to the peak and then eventual decline. It happened at a seemingly break-neck pace, too, perhaps fitting for a class that became known for the quickest eighth-mile runs in doorslammer history.

THE BIRTH

Pro Extreme was born in February 2005 at the American Drag Racing League (ADRL) Winter Drags in Hattiesburg, Mississippi., with Michael Neal beating Troy Critchley in the first event. The class was the brainchild of then-ADRL President and CEO Kenny Nowling. He held the inaugural Dragstock event in 2004, giving Nowling his first look at Outlaw Pro Mods, which got his wheels spinning.

The success of that initial Dragstock event – more than 100 Pro Mod cars showed up – led to the birth of the ADRL and the creation of an unlimited class in Pro Extreme, where the screw-blown cars could call home. John Lynam won the first Pro Extreme championship in 2005, with the class starting with eight-car fields that year.

Kenny Nowling

Nowling: At the first event, heck, I think we only had 17 Pro Extreme cars and 9 Pro Nitrous cars show up, if memory serves correct. It actually worked out great. The fans had a great time. In the winner’s circle I remember telling (ADRL Executive Vice President) Jeff Fortune I might have stumbled onto something. These guys are badass and this is the coolest thing. They’re just balls to the wall, they’re all-out and they just want to go as fast as they possibly can, and it’s entertaining as heck.

Scruggs: At the time, when Pro Extreme first started, Kenny had come out with the ADRL and I had been racing Pro Mod-type outlaw cars for close to 10 years at that time, and basically we were already running no-rule type races. When Pro Extreme came out, it basically took the same thing we were doing and put it on a little bit better tracks and more publicity. 

Todd Tutterow (North Carolina doorslammer racing hero, who raced Pro Extreme from the outset and won a world championship in 2009): It was basically no rules, bring what you got. It was really exciting.

By Dragstock in 2006, the class was ready to explode. The ADRL started its free-ticket promotion for its debut event at Rockingham Dragway, and fans flooded the track, many seeing the class for the first time. The class caught on quick and it rocketed into the limelight.

Scruggs: It was new and everybody likes new and fresh. (The ADRL) was packing the

Jason Scruggs

grandstands at the time, it was larger than life and it was pretty cool. And it also gave everybody who was used to running on kind of bad tracks, they could come run on a good track. In 2006 and 2007, they weren’t as good as they were when the Traction Twins (brothers Cody and Cale Crispe) started doing the track, but they escalated into better and better tracks. At the same time, the same things that brought everybody also went away with the downfall a little bit.

Nowling: The racing at the events was just crazy. The Pro Extreme guys, specifically, they had never raced in front of anything like that. If you had ever driven a Pro Mod, you had never driven in front of a crowd that size. 

Scruggs: When Pro Extreme first started, everybody had clutches and all that, and the tracks were good, but they weren’t as good as they are today. You could go out and run 3.70s and 3.80s back then, but sometimes you weren’t quite as consistent because the clutches were harder to make consistent and the tracks weren’t quite as good. So a guy could take a 3.90 car, a 3.95 car and still win some races. A lot of cars had a chance, so that helped the car count back in those days. For the most part, it was one of those things that escalated into everybody wanting to be part of it because it was the hot ticket in town. It was exciting times.

THE PEAK

Exciting times would be an understatement. At its peak, Pro Extreme was drawing more than 40 cars a race, all wanting to get their taste of the action in front of big crowds and better tracks. In fact, an unreal 50-plus Pro Extreme cars packed Texas Motorplex in Ennis, Texas, one year for the World Finals.

Bubba Stanton won the 2006 championship, with Scruggs dominating the scene the next two years with back-to-back titles. In that, though, was a live-on-the-edge style that always pushed the envelope. Scruggs was at the forefront, making the first 200-mph pass, also becoming the first to a number of magical milestones. Those shots-heard-around-the-world with such massive fields made the class larger than life, putting even more mystique in the suddenly thriving class.

Scruggs: At the time, we were breaking a lot of records and stuff that people had never seen with a doorslammer at the time. You look back on it, we were the first to the 3.80s, first to the 3.70s, first to the 3.60s and the first over 200, and we went 210 mph in testing. Everything was kind of like a milestone at the time. 

That part of it was exciting and with the no-rules format, it enabled you to try different things. It was exciting to be able to go out and try those things.

Jason Hamstra (Ran IHRA Pro Mod before becoming ADRL Rookie of the Year in 2009, world champion in 2011, now running well in NMCA and Mid-West Pro Mod Series): It was the best deal at the time. You didn’t have to spend a lot to get in at the time. It started and there weren’t a lot of lightweight cars at the time. You could put a screw on a Pro Mod car and run the deal. It looked like something we could get into and be somewhat competitive.

Nowling: If you look at the history of drag racing, I don’t know if you can find a category over a four-year period that ever advanced the way Pro Extreme did.

I remember when the bump got into the 3s, and I thought, ‘This is just insane.’ A few short years later we’re running 3.50s and approaching the 3.40s at over 210 mph. In a 10-year period, the class had basically picked up a half-second and well over 40 mph. That’s just staggering, and I don’t think you could find anywhere in drag racing history where any category had picked up that ET and speed in a short amount of time. It was a testament to the fact that the rules were wide open, and the fact these guys were so ahead of their time. They were pushing the envelope every single time.

D’Aprile: We had a really good field in those years. Guys were pushing the envelope. To qualify and win, you had to push yourself to the limit. To do that, you better be ready to spend a lot of money.

After Tutterow’s championship in 2009, the milestones continued to pile up, as Frankie Taylor blasted off to become the first in the 3.50s at Rockingham in 2010. He won the world championship that year – a true underdog story that encapsulated the class at its finest – as new faces continued to climb into the class.

Mick Snyder

Mick Snyder (ADRL Rookie of the Year in 2010, world champion in 2012): At the time, we were running Alcohol Funny Car and it looked like it was going the other direction. Pro Extreme was the cool thing to do at the time and it more fit our personality. There was a lot of excitement. It was a bunch of cars, running fast and a ton of competition. Qualifying was hard enough and to go rounds was even more impressive. There’s just something cool about how fun those cars were to drive.

Nowling: These guys were now racing on the big stage where they really deserved to be racing. Their personalities and hot rods were as cool as anything in motorsports. They were our Top Fuel. They were our marquee class. Pro Nitrous was right there with them, but, man, even the Pro Nitrous guys would come up to make sure they didn’t miss a Pro Extreme session because you just never knew what was going to happen.

Leggett: To me, way back when there were no rules and it was wide open, all of that was just really good. I think it had a lot more crowd appeal than people realize. People came to run Pro Extreme because it was the fastest and most exciting thing there was. But I think time will only let something like that go on for so long.

THE DECLINE

No rules meant an unlimited budget for some, and many believe that’s where the class started to go downhill. Nowling resigned his position in 2010, the start of a tumultuous three-year stretch for eighth-mile racing in general.

 In the midst, names such as Al-Anabi Racing came into the sport, bringing people like Todd, Frank Manzo and even Sheikh KH Al-Thani into the mix. It brought notoriety, but some believe the essence of the class was at stake. By most accounts, the magic was fading.

Tutterow: Money got involved and money ruins anything that is unlimited. It pushes out the small guy. We saw that. Bil Clanton and everybody else, they just didn’t have the money. Some people had unlimited funds. Everybody spent money to run fast. If you didn’t spend the same, you might as well stay home.

Hamstra: They needed to put a reasonable weight limit on it, 2,450-2,500 pounds. If they had it that way, they might still be running.

I said back then, (not having a weight limit) was going to kill the deal. You can’t have something with no restrictions, no minimum weight. You’re going to get out of control. What’s it good for anyway? If they put a minimum weight on it, that would have really helped.

Leggett: To me, that was kind of the ultimate downfall, that swath of money to come in there, and buy them cars and a certain few had them. I just think that kind of really got it screwed up.

Not even a huge payout could change the direction of the class. Hamstra won the Pro Extreme title in 2011, earning a $75,000 check, which was the largest payout ever for the class. But Hamstra saw the writing on the wall and never raced another Pro Extreme race after that year.

Hamstra: The class wasn’t the same as it was at the beginning. We didn’t have a light car and we would have had to build a light one to keep running. It’s hard to spend that kind of money on something that’s going to fall apart. Big power and a lightweight car is not a good match. It’s too bad because it was such a neat deal at first.

Snyder: Times change. As stuff progressed, the costs got out of control and you couldn’t maintain the interest. Is ego and spending this type of money worth the fun you’re having? Obviously people started thinking no. As the cost went up, it wasn’t as much fun. Plus, it’s a hard class to drive. Not everyone can just jump in one, so your driver pool is limited. 

Nowling: Here’s the thing, and ask yourself this question: Wouldn’t the Pro Extreme guys rather have a high 3.60, low 3.70 class, $10,000 to win and $2,000 to qualify and $50,000 to the champion, and have 30 guys to compete against rather than ultimately not have a class at all? I would have to think the answer would be yes.

It only got worse after 2012, as the ADRL dissolved, only to resurface the following year with Nowling again at the helm. The ill-fated X-DRL also formed in 2013, adding to the friction. It didn’t last a season, while the ADRL disappeared at the end of the year after financial controversy. The PDRA picked up the pieces in 2014 and kept the class going, but the mystique was waning. Taylor became the first in the 3.40s, yet the class appeared on a path that couldn’t be reversed.

In the end, numbers told the story. Interest dropped each season since 2014, and some in the class expected it to be done in 2017 after low participation. In fact, only three drivers raced at all eight events in the class that year. It took another severe dive in 2018, with drivers and teams choosing a number of alternatives like the NHRA Pro Mod class, PDRA’s own Pro Boost class, the NMCA Xtreme Pro Mod class and the Mid-West Pro Mod Series. After a decade, it wasn’t just Pro Extreme and Pro Nitrous anymore.

 In short, there were more – and perhaps better – options, especially as Pro Boost moved into the 3.60s as a much more cost-efficient option.

D’Aprile: There was a big difference between Pro Boost and Pro Extreme, a good half a second. That’s a pretty sizeable margin. Well, Pro Boost teams did more and more research and it got to where half the field in Pro Boost could qualify for Pro Extreme. If you ask any fan, they don’t know the difference between the cars. And the cost to run a Pro Extreme car was way more. You changed a belt every couple runs. If it hiccups, you were changing a bunch of stuff. The Pro Boost car is way easier on parts, on the pocketbook.

Tutterow: (Pro Boost) wasn’t as much money. The blower belt is the biggest thing on a Pro Extreme car. Max, you got three runs if you could even get three and those were $300 apiece. On a Roots blower, you can run one for a whole season. The cost just kept going up. Pro Extreme cars hit a flatline right around 3.50 flat. In Pro Boost, the blower cars are going mid-3.60s, and they’re still getting better all the time, still creeping up.

Scruggs: Pro Extreme was still good during those times, but over time, truthfully, the splits I think hurt the class. Truthfully, some people just got sick of it, some people didn’t know where it was going, some people changed classes. It was just a little bit of everything. You could see it was going downhill the last few years. And then the PDRA rolled along and you just really never had the car count. (But) Pro Nitrous is still pretty healthy and Pro Boost is pretty healthy.

Leggett: I was an advocate and I tried to promote it, and I tried to get people to come. I called, I done a lot of things to try to get cars to come and for whatever reason people wouldn’t come.

THE END

The final Pro Extreme pass came at the PDRA Summer Drags in Martin, Michigan, as Leggett grabbed the final win against a miniscule three-car field.

Less than two weeks later, the PDRA announced the end of the class, with race director Bob Harris stating, “Although the incredible speeds and outlaw nature of Pro Extreme and screw blowers have great appeal, it’s a unique niche in Pro Mod that has, at least for a time, run its course.”

Not everyone sees this as the definitive end – this is drag racing, after all – but most agree that Pro Extreme is likely done for good.

Scruggs: I wouldn’t be surprised on some level if you had 2-3 big-money, no-rules-except-weight races, kind of like what (Donald Long) does. I think that would be exciting a couple times a year.

Leggett: I honestly believe it’s done. I really do. I believe it’s done.

Tutterow: I think it’s done. Nobody is going to spend the money to do that. I don’t see it ever coming back. It’s a shame, but that’s the nature of the beast. It was a good class, but it ran its course.

Photographs by Joe McHugh, Roger Richards, Ian Tocher and Mark J. Rebilas

This Drag Strip Affairs feature appeared in DI #135, the State of Drag Issue, in August of 2018. 

Dodge has returned as the presenting sponsor of drag’s biggest party, the Drag Illustrated After Hours Powered by Dodge. Celebrating its fifth year in 2018, the must-attend event again takes over Indianapolis’ Blu Night Club on Thursday, Dec. 6 as part of the annual Performance Racing Industry (PRI) trade show, allowing show attendees the opportunity to enjoy the wildly popular party.

“The Drag Illustrated After Hours Powered by Dodge is again the place to be during the PRI weekend and we’re extremely excited to have Dodge back with us for a second straight year,” said Wes Buck, Founder and Editorial Director, Drag Illustrated. “The event somehow seems to get even bigger and better every year, and I know I can’t wait to celebrate in Indy with thousands of my closest friends.”

Now in its fifth year, the Drag Illustrated After Hours Powered by Dodge opening-day party has become the destination event of the entire PRI show, giving party attendees the chance to meet, socialize and mingle with everyone from racers to industry leaders and insiders, as well as crew chiefs, crew members and people involved in every other facet of the drag racing community. Together, it will make for one of the most unique and thrilling evenings in what has been a standout 2018 season for the sport.

“It’s amazing to see so many people from the sport converge at Blu Night Club on one night for this party,” Buck said. “It makes you really proud to be part of this sport when something like this comes together. It’s so memorable and fun to have the top stars in nitro racing to amazing Pro Mod drivers to big-money bracket racers to eighth-mile drag racing standouts come together for one night at the Drag Illustrated After Hours Powered by Dodge. Drag racing is so diverse and so interesting, and the night turns into a perfect representation of the sport.”

Passes for the Drag Illustrated After Hours Powered by Dodge will be available for free on a first come, first serve basis starting at 9 a.m. on Thursday, Dec. 6, at the Drag Illustrated booth (#4450) at the PRI show in Indianapolis. The party starts at 9 p.m.

Bobby Lagana Jr. has only ever known life at the dragstrip, and he is right at home as part of the CAPCO Contractors team in NHRA’s Mello Yello Drag Racing Series. Though listed as an assistant crew chief to Richard Hogan in NHRA’s media guide, Lagana is quick to explain that titles aren’t really a thing in the Torrence Racing camp.

“We’re a team,” Lagana says. “Richard Hogan is our leader – he’s the tuner of the car and makes the final calls – but we’re all on the same level. Every job is so important, and we’re just fortunate to have a good group of guys.”

At the core of the team are part-time Top Fuel racer Billy and his wife, Kay, along with their son, Steve Torrence, the full-time driver of the primary CAPCO Contractors Top Fuel dragster. The entire group is more of a family than anything, and that formula has worked well as the younger Torrence has been a serious championship contender in recent years.

Lagana and his brother, Dom – both experienced nitro pilots on their own merits – came to the team in late 2013, and they’ve been part of the fold ever since.

Bobby Lagana Sr.

“Our dad had passed away, and we signed up to come out for the last six races of 2013 to clear our minds and just help Billy run his car,” Lagana says. “I never would have thought it would turn into this, but the Torrences are so family oriented, and we had such an instant connection. It was hard not to want to keep racing with them. This has probably been the best five or six years of racing of our lives.”

In 2017, Torrence made a hearty run for the big trophy, beginning with steady forward momentum at Bristol’s Thunder Valley Nationals in June and on through the end of the season at the NHRA Finals in Pomona. He claimed eight Wally trophies in 11 final rounds and, for much of the latter half of the season, had hold of the No. 1 position in the standings.

In the end, it was Brittany Force who was awarded the championship following a white-knuckled battle, but Torrence came back with fire in his belly in 2018. He snatched the points lead by race 2 of 24 on the schedule, and by the conclusion of the Western Swing in mid-summer, he had yet to forfeit the lofty perch.

Lagana may not be willing to accept the titles bestowed upon him nor take credit for any of Torrence’s success, but he and Dom, the sons of well-known Northeast match racer Bobby Lagana Sr., have truly rounded out the Torrence Racing team. The Lagana brothers traveled with their family from track to track as kids, toting their Twilight Zone entries on a 1969 Ford ramp truck, and both seemed to have inherited their father’s off-the-charts passion for racing.

“We were so fortunate to have grown up the way we did,” Lagana stresses. “We had really good parents, and we 100 percent didn’t have the perfect lifestyle, but they were really out for our best interest. They taught us to respect and be good to people, and that’s how the Torrences live, both at the racetrack and in regular life.”

Missing the championship by such a narrow margin and seeing it slip away at the last race of the season was painful for the team as a whole, but Lagana has been able to temper the disappointment and focus on each run of each race in the new season.

“You have to get hot at the right time,” Lagana admits. “It’s hard because everybody out there is so competitive, and the teams are so well put together, starting from the owners on down to the crew chiefs and everyone on the team who work so hard. So many things can affect the outcome and change what you think the results will be. I might look at it differently than most people, but for me personally, I just get excited about each moment.”

The joy of every run, let alone round and race wins, is supremely evident in Lagana’s body posture and facial expressions.

“I picture my mom and dad every run we make,” Lagana says. “Anytime something good happens, I always remember my dad. He got excited, no matter what happened. We went five years and never qualified with our car, and we still went to the race with the same enthusiasm. We were born that way, and we wear it on our sleeves.”

This story originally appeared in DI #136, the Crew Chief Issue, in September of 2018. 

It’s a new year, which means it’s another new class for Alex Laughlin.

That’s simply the way of life for the adventurous Texan, but he may be facing the biggest challenge of his racing career in 2019.

Laughlin will make his Pro Mod debut next year as part of Elite Motorsports’ growing Pro Mod umbrella, racing the full 12-race NHRA Pro Mod schedule as well as making his World Series of Pro Mod debut.

It also means another massively full slate for Laughlin, who raced Pro Stock last year and made his drag radial debut. But that’s just the way he likes it, especially as it means a debut in a class he’s always enjoyed.

Brennan Shortall photo

“I’m very excited. I’ve driven a car that’s similar to a Pro Mod and I’ve been the speed of a Pro Mod with the Alcohol car, but I’ve never been that fast in a door car.,” Laughlin said. “They’re fast and little more unpredictable than a Pro Stock car. There’s nothing really more badass to run as far as door cars than a Pro Mod.”

Laughlin will drive the turbocharged Camaro built by Ryan Martin, pairing up with Elite Motorsports teammate and fellow Pro Stock competitor Erica Enders on the Pro Mod side.

It’s part of the continued growth in the class for Elite Motorsports, which is owned by Richard Freeman, and Laughlin was more than happy to make a jump into the Pro Mod deep end.

While he struggled during a frustrating 2018 Pro Stock season, Laughlin wasn’t sure he wanted to return to the class in 2019. Pro Mod certainly had his attention and he talked with Freeman about the possibility of only running in that category. But in the end, Laughlin opted with more seat time, choosing to run all 12 NHRA Pro Mod races, plus the full 18-race Pro Stock slate.

“I like being busy at the track and I like getting out of one car and getting right in another,” said Laughlin, who has two career Pro Stock wins. “I’m more than happy to run Pro Mod and Pro Stock. The Pro Stock car is good again and there’s no reason we shouldn’t have a chance to race for a championship. I feel good about next year.”

Enders, a two-time Pro Stock world champ, made her NHRA Pro Mod debut in 2018, making considerable strides throughout the year and putting together a solid showing at the World Series of Pro Mod in Denver in August.

Laughlin’s addition to the Elite Pro Mod operation could mean even bigger things for the two-car team in 2019.

“We’ve worked with Alex and his father, Kenny, and his family for a long time and it’s exciting to have a chance to expand the relationship,” Freeman said. “We’re thrilled with the growth of the Elite Motorsports Pro Mod program and it’s a huge step to have both Erica and Alex running at all 12 races.”

Laughlin isn’t one to back down from a challenge, embracing the mantra of being comfortable being uncomfortable.

It’s a style that suits Laughlin well, carrying a gunslinger attitude that should serve him well in the Pro Mod ranks.

“I definitely don’t want to be vanilla,” Laughlin said. “I don’t want to be just like everyone else. I like being different and I think that helps.”

It’s been imperative in Laughlin selling himself to potential sponsors and it should be beneficial in a 2019 season that promises to be one of his busiest to date.

Throw in the World Series of Pro Mod, where there is “absolutely nothing that could come up that would keep me from that,” plus Donald Long’s drag radial events, and Laughlin will compete in 34 races next year.

It’s a behemoth undertaking, but Laughlin welcomes it. He plans to test in the Pro Mod Camaro right after Christmas, making his official debut at the NHRA Pro Mod opener in Gainesville.

“There’s definitely a lot to learn. The cars are different, the power is way different, but with two cars we can learn twice as fast,” Laughlin said. “The deal is, with the equipment we’ve got with Elite, there is nothing better. We’ve got the top of the line. It’s just about getting used to the car, taking the data and technology and being able to be apply it, and then just go out and try to be competitive.”

Corey Michalek is rolling his nitromethane-injected A/Fuel dragster out of its long white gooseneck trailer when a young fan approaches the pit area seeking a used part or an autograph. At 30, Michalek doesn’t have to think back too far to a time when he was in the same position as the young boy walking the pits at Ohio’s Summit Motorsports Park, dreaming of one day strapping into a Top Fuel dragster and racing down the storied Norwalk quarter-mile. This is a big weekend for Michalek, who will attempt his NHRA Top Fuel license runs on Monday, but for now, all he can focus on is the task immediately ahead of him: qualifying in a stacked Top Alcohol Dragster field at the Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals.

“When we show up at these races, we’re very much aware that we’re at a point where we might not qualify,” Michalek says. “We’re not a guaranteed car yet. We’re not fighting for a top 5 position at this point – we just don’t have the performance. A lot of it comes down to making sure we make the right run at the right time. So many times in my career, and even last year when we got this car, we wouldn’t get qualified until the last session. At a place like this, maybe you only get one qualifying session. So we really needed to come out and put a good number on the board from the beginning.”

This is the first of just two confirmed events on the Michalek Brothers Racing 2018 schedule, so the weekend forecast – isolated thunderstorms all day Friday and Saturday – is especially puzzling for Corey and his brother and car chief, Kyle.

“So much rides on every single time we start this car,” Michalek says. “I know the whole ‘treat every run the same’ thing is a cliché, but that’s something we’ve really tried to drive home. I try to cut a light every single round. We don’t really do any testing. We treat every single run like it could be our only run of the year. If the crank goes out of it or something like that, it really is our only run of the year.”

Adding to the pressure of the weekend is the situation surrounding the branding that appears on the dragster and matching crew uniforms. Energize – not to be confused with the battery people – is a motorsports marketing company owned by Bill Bader Jr., who happens to be the second-generation president of Summit Motorsports Park. This is the first time Bader has put one of his projects on the side of a race car, and he’s clearly excited about the set-up when he stops by the pit area to see the car for the first time and give his best to the team. It’s “added motivation”, not pressure, as Michalek asserts. “When the guy you’re representing owns the literal surface that you’re going up and down – what I consider to be the greatest facility on tour – it’s an honor and a really great opportunity for us,” he says.

As the announcer makes the call for the first round of qualifying, Corey and Kyle push their Spitzer-built dragster out of the pit area and roll up to the staging lanes, joined by co-crew chiefs Clay and Chase Copeland, crew member Cory Cox and myself, as I’ve been asked to assist Corey with packing parachutes and clutch duties this weekend. The highlighter yellow Energize dragster snakes through a sea of fans in the nitro pits, slowly creeps through the staging lanes and pulls onto the track for its first hit on a track since Michalek drove it to a runner-up finish in its national-event debut at the NHRA Carolina Nationals last September. Expectations are modest for that reason, so the resulting 5.402-second pass at 249.72 is a welcomed surprise. The shower of nitro that Michalek received in the cockpit around 600 feet? Not so appreciated.

“Anything within the low 5.4s would’ve been great,” Michalek says after getting the car back to the pits. “It didn’t end up hurting itself, but it was a little hairy for a moment when the fuel line came off. We caught a break and didn’t hurt anything there. That run was a good thing, but we were definitely surprised. Now that we’ve got that first run out of the way, I think expectations have risen quite a bit. Now it’s like, ‘OK, if we can get this thing to go to the finish line, we might have something for them.’”

Michalek will have to wait nearly 24 hours to see what the car will do under power through the quarter-mile mark, as the Friday schedule has been adjusted to put priority on the Mello Yello Series classes.

When it comes time to spin the starter and pull the wires for the second qualifying attempt Saturday morning, the 433 ci Alan Johnson engine sitting between the frame rails just won’t turn over. Unfazed, the father-son Copeland duo run a couple checks and try again. Nothing. A third time – nothing. On the fourth try, the beast fires up, coming up to temperature on methanol before the primer bottle is removed and nitromethane starts flowing through its veins. Michalek rolls through the water box, lays down a short burnout and backs up. The Copelands make their final adjustments and send Michalek toward the pre-stage beam, where Kyle is waiting to bring him into position. The blue LED pre-stage half-moon lights up, then the bottom half illuminates. The ambers drop and Michalek stands on the throttle pedal, but the usually snappy A/Fueler lurches off the starting line. Once we return to the pits, a corrupt file in the car’s command module is singled out as the culprit.

“That was the first time we ever had any trouble trying to start it,” Michalek points out. “It just kept fighting us. But I think that’s a testament to who we’ve been able to team up with. Both Chase and Clay knew exactly what they were doing out there when they were troubleshooting. Nobody really started to panic, nobody rushed and we still took our time. When we did get the car started, everything from there was business as usual until I stepped on the gas.”

A similar fate is awaiting Michalek in Sunday’s first round of eliminations, which was pushed back from Saturday night, giving the team time to sort through an issue in the fuel system. The issue rears its ugly head again Sunday morning, though, when Michalek drives into nearly immediate tire smoke alongside 2011 world champion Duane Shields.

“I did everything I could to get a little jump on the line, but Duane cut a great light, then obviously, we smoked the tires right at the hit,” Michalek says. “We had a little too much power and we were able to look at the computer and see that all of the fuel system changes we made still had not really accurately addressed the problem.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

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After a positive start, it was a battle the rest of the weekend. We had the car hopped up for E1, but the track just didn’t want to take it and our weekend is over after losing traction. We’re more motivated than ever to come out and make a statement at our next race. Thanks for following along! #GOMBR #TeamChampion #NHRA #ENERGIZE

A post shared by Michalek Brothers Racing (@michalekracing) on Jun 24, 2018 at 7:33am PDT

The team returns to the pits and goes to work removing parts and preparing them to be sent out to manufacturers for repairs and recertification. The Copelands finish up their work and head to Cleveland so they can fly back to their native Texas. The crew starts to pack up the pit area while the group of family and friends who came out to support the brothers begins to filter out of the pit area. As this portion of the weekend comes to a close, Michalek has time to reflect on the results.

“It’s been such a feast or famine thing in general since I started driving these cars,” Michalek says. Driving the Dreher Motorsports car, he won his debut at Charlotte in 2014, then broke a crankshaft before eliminations at the next race at Norwalk. He returned to Charlotte to defend his win in 2015, only to break a rocker arm when the car started for first round. A runner-up finish followed at Norwalk.

The Michaleks, originally from nearby Louisville, Ohio, then purchased their own car and assembled the operation they debuted at a regional event in Indianapolis last summer, understandably failing to qualify. The car then went straight to the final round at the Carolina Nationals. “Up until this race,” Michalek begins, “if the car started first round and we staged it, we went to the final round every single time. So this is the first time, essentially, that we lost in the first round. It was just a different experience. It’s given us a lot more motivation and a reality check that things aren’t going to be as smooth sailing as they were in the past.”

As the back door of the trailer is closed and locked up, its contents neatly in place and locked down for the short drive back to the MBR headquarters in Utica, Corey’s focus returns to the idea of strapping into Pat Dakin’s Commercial Metal Fabricators Top Fuel dragster in just over 12 hours.

“There was so much going on with our program this weekend that it distracted from the opportunity waiting at the other end of the weekend,” Michalek admits. “Now that we’re finished, the reality of the situation is starting to set in.”

It’s Monday morning at Summit Motorsports Park, where just a handful of the several hundred race rigs from the race remain in place for the “Monday Nationals”. Some teams are servicing their cars after a long Sunday, while others are testing and working out issues before the New England Nationals in Epping, New Hampshire. Meanwhile, just after 8 a.m., Michalek has just experienced his first warm-up in an 11,000-horsepower Top Fuel car. It’s not exactly what he expected, but in a good way.

“I played up a lot of this stuff in my head, between just visualizing runs in my head and thinking about different scenarios,” Michalek says. “Anytime you do that, it’s always way more drawn out than what it really is. So when you show up at the track and you think about all these things that are going to happen, it’s kind of sobering when they’re just like, ‘Get in the car. We’re about to start it,’ where there’s not all this hype and buildup that you always think about. They just put me right in the heart of the action from the get-go.”

Team owner and driver Pat Dakin and crew chief Scott Graham are not here for hype and buildup. After all, Michalek was sworn to secrecy regarding the Top Fuel licensing plan until Sunday night. They’re here to get Michalek his Top Fuel license and they’re trying to do it as quickly – yet safely – as possible. The plan is to make both runs – two full 1,000-foot passes required to upgrade a TAD license to TF – before lunchtime.

“Some drivers take two or three years to gradually get comfortable with these cars, but that’s not really an option for us,” says Michalek, who worked alongside Kyle as a clutch assistant on Dakin’s car for the 2011 and 2012 seasons. “That puts a little extra pressure on everyone involved, whether it’s the crew to make sure the car is set up right or myself to basically say, ‘Hey, the first time you step on the gas in this thing, you have to take it down to the finish line.’ You don’t really know what’s out there. It’s the fear of the unknown, not knowing what it’s going to do.”

Sure enough, the first run challenged Michalek’s expectations. The first 300 feet were not nearly as violent as he expected. “It left extremely hard and it got my attention, but you can almost get it through your mind that it isn’t uncontrollable at that point,” he says. “Right when I was starting to gain confidence, that’s when it really decided to be like, ‘You have no idea what’s about to happen.’ It just absolutely took off when the clutch locked up.”

Armed with the experience from the first run, which was aborted shortly after dropping a cylinder around the half-track mark, Michalek and the Dakin crew went back up to the starting line for the second and final licensing pass. This time, all eight cylinders stayed lit, allowing Michalek to blitz the 1,000-foot course in 3.849 seconds at 310.70 mph.

“When I took it all the way through the stripe, it just did not let up,” Michalek says, going on to explain how the run compared to a lap in his injected nitro dragster. “The A/Fuel car is a monster, don’t get me wrong. It goes out there and really charges the first half of the run. I don’t want to say it lays over, but it lets up a little bit in the back half. With the Top Fuel car, it’s pulling hard from the time you step on the gas until you let off and pull the parachutes. That was just completely mind-blowing and I have the ultimate respect for the people who do this stuff for a living and make run after run in these things.”

While Michalek insists he has no immediate plans to go Top Fuel racing, it’s obvious this licensing process wasn’t something done on a whim on either end of the deal. In fact, it had been in the works for around two years. On Michalek’s end, a combination of factors inspired him to do it: crossing off a bucket list item, seeing if he had what it takes to finesse a Top Fuel car down the track, and making a major leap toward the next step in his drag racing career. For Dakin, who’s been racing in Top Fuel since the early 1970s and nearly won the NHRA season championship in 1977, it was an opportunity to help a deserving young driver achieve a lofty goal.

“This was an opportunity, graciously provided by Pat and his team, to get my license,” Michalek realizes. “Do we have plans in the immediate future to go Top Fuel racing? No. If somebody knocked on the door and says, ‘Hey Corey, we need a driver,’ I’m there at the drop of a hat. These opportunities just don’t come around often, so if it would present itself, we’re ready to go.”

Michalek’s biggest takeaway from the whole experience, and something he wishes more people could understand, is that driving a Top Fuel car is no Sunday cruise. They might not move around on the track like a Pro Mod or require shifting like a Pro Stocker, but by no means does that make them easy to drive, as some people have claimed in recent years as a sizable group of A/Fuel drivers have upgraded their licenses.

“There’s nothing easy about standing on the gas and going to the finish line,” Michalek asserts. “There may be drivers who make it look that way, but from my experience, it is the ultimate test in concentration to be able to pilot one of these things down the track. I’m sure a Pro Mod, Pro Stock car or alcohol Funny Car all have their individual challenges. There’s nothing different about a nitro dragster or Funny Car in that respect. Handling the intensity was the ultimate challenge and I feel validated for having been able to do so.”

Photographs by Roger Richards and Bob Szelag

This story originally appeared in DI #135, the State of Drag Issue, in August of 2018.

Paul Burruss and Dylan Griffey readily admit they’re a couple of “goofy guys” who don’t take themselves too seriously. After all, that might get in the way of having tons of fun, which is their chief goal in racing, as well as in life in general.

“People have watched us follow each other around and race together for years, and they’ve made the observation that we act like Mutt and Jeff,” laughs Burruss.

By example, the original Mutt and Jeff syndicated comic strip portrayed a couple of characters who made people laugh, primarily by picking on each other, and that description seemed to be the perfect fit for Burruss and “Griff”, as he’s affectionately known.

“We are brothers – not biological – but brothers none the less,” they both agree.

The two are lifelong natives of Carlisle, Pennsylvania, and hung out at the Burruss farm growing up, along with many other young people in the neighborhood. They eventually discovered racing of many varieties and have competed in a wide range of vehicles, including dirt track cars, snowmobiles, motorcycles, mud boggers, as well as drag racing machines. They both stepped away from racing at certain points in their lives, but were later lured back to straight-line motorsports.

When Burruss made a return to drag racing, he began attending events such as the Spring Fling, Fall Fling and other celebrated bracket gatherings. “I was having so much fun, I told Griff that he really needed to come experience these awesome events and see how much fun they were,” Burruss recalls. Staying true to their Mutt and Jeff resemblance, wherever one would go, the other would follow – and something hilarious would happen, for that you could be sure.

With each big bracket event they would attend together, they begin to realize more and more that they wanted to launch a race of their own, so Mutt and Jeff Promotions was born! They started off small at first, deciding upon a Super Pro Electronics-only class event, which they held at their local South Mountain Dragway in Pennsylvania four years ago. It was challenging from the get-go since the original race date was rained out and it actually snowed during the rescheduled event, though they stayed and saw it through to the event’s conclusion.

“We wanted more cars and faster cars for the second annual event, so we struck a deal with Elmer Wachter at Mason Dixon Dragway in Boonsboro, Maryland. South Mountain is a small track, and it can only do what it can do,” Griffey explains.

As expected, the event grew larger with the change of venues to a larger facility. The once-yearly event remained exclusively Pro Electronics for the first three gatherings, although they decided to include a Footbrake class for the most recent running, held in June. Car counts soared with the addition of a second class, and it was also the first ever two-day meet for the annual Mutt and Jeff race.

“We decided that if we were going to grow this deal we were going to have to step up our game, so we rented the track for two days and increased the payout from $1,500 to $4,000 and guaranteed a $10,000 payday for Saturday,” Burruss explains.

Lots of round money was awarded, as well as many prizes and gift certificates from sponsors. Since Mutt and Jeff Promotions specializes in fun, special recognition is given to all sorts of circumstances.

“There’s perks for everyone, including trophies for things like the ‘worst losing package’ and ‘best losing red light,'” Griffey says.

Both promoters agree that attending PRI recently was crucial and they credit that effort with making new friends and growing their event. Longtime friend Mike Weney of S&W Race Cars was among the first to gladly assist them in sponsoring the event, and the list began growing more robust with each and every year.

“Riggeal’s Performance Fiberglass came on board, as well as Meziere Enterprises, Mike’s Fab Shop, Drag Race Results and so many more,” Burruss adds.

Although the Mutt and Jeff race has far exceeded their expectations, they agree that it’s not something that just happens overnight.

“We would love to grow this into a three-day event right here at Mason Dixon. We’ve got such a great staff and we must also thank our friends Tina Mohle, Jenn Decker, Kelly Russell and Morgan Monroe.”

The Mutt and Jeff race has turned out to be exactly as they planned: a light-hearted gathering of friends with a great family atmosphere. It began with a dream, they say, and it’s a dream that is continuing to come true for these lifelong friends who simply wanted to make drag racing as fun as they possibly could.

This Dialed In feature originally appeared in DI #135, the State of Drag Issue, in August of 2018.

As the 2018 season of NHRA’s Mello Yello Drag Racing Series wound down, 2017 Pro Stock world champion Bo Butner made a decision to shift gears and step back from the class. The longtime Sportsman racer elected to return to his roots and spend more time with his growing family, but when an abbreviated schedule was announced for Pro Stock, Butner and company had to think twice.

With the support of his family, Butner will return to tackle the 18-race Pro Stock tour in 2019. He also remains committed to competing in the SAM Tech Factory Stock Showdown in his Cobra Jet Mustang.

“I’m a glutton for punishment,” joked Butner.

When rumblings of 18 races rather than the full 24 for Pro Stock began to surface, it was Butner’s mother, Dottie, who began to question the decision to leave the Professional-level naturally aspirated factory hot rods behind.

“She shocked me and said that maybe we should keep doing this, and I told her I thought it was time to move on; we’d already been successful with the best team out there,” said Butner. “But I did say I’d think about it.”

Butner went home after the last race of the 2018 season and discussed the idea with his son, JB Butner, the General Sales Manager of Jim Butner Auto Group in Clarksville, Indiana. JB and his wife, Elizabeth, are expecting a baby in April of 2019 – Butner’s first grandchild and one of the leading factors in his initial decision to scale back from a 24-race commitment.

“JB runs the dealership, so it was important to make sure he was on board with it. And of course, when his baby is born in April, I want to be there for that, even if I have to miss a race,” said Butner.

True to their roots, Butner’s fiancé, Randi Lyn Shipp, will continue to race Stock Eliminator at the national event level, and Butner’s participation in the SAM Tech Factory Stock Showdown will take shape as the year goes on.

“The Factory Stock Showdown is a great deal, and I’m looking forward to racing in it. If we have a shot to win that championship, of course we’ll take it,” said Butner, who has earned multiple division championships and the 2006 Competition Eliminator world title in addition to his Pro Stock championship.

When Butner initially decided to detour from Pro Stock, he said that he would only ever return with KB Racing. He’s holding true to his word.

“It tore at my heart to think about something happening to this class or it going away, and that’s another reason I wanted to come back. So we sat down and talked with KB Racing on Sunday afternoon in Pomona,” said Butner, who has claimed a total of seven Pro Stock wins with the esteemed group since launching his Pro Stock career in Gainesville in 2015. “They were supportive, and Ken and Judy Black said that any time I ever wanted to come back, I’m welcome. We’re all like a big family.”

Summit Racing Chevrolet Camaro driver Greg Anderson, who put KB Racing together with team owner Ken Black in 2002, was elated to learn of Butner’s planned return.

“We’re excited,” said Anderson. “Bo is like family to us, and we’ve had a great run together the last few years. We’ve had a lot of fun, and he’s a heck of a racer. We hated to see Bo leave the class, and it’s great to see him come back. Not just for KB Racing, but for Pro Stock.”

Butner will likely remain in the same KB Racing-owned Jerry Haas-built Chevrolet Camaro that he drove last season, and the calls on his car will be made by his crew chief Darrel Herron, along with KB Racing’s Tim Freeman. Tyler Hogan, of Hogan’s Manifolds, will return, as will Jack Line [Team Summit driver Jason Line’s son], as school permits.

“I think everything is going in the right direction with this team. Everyone at KB Racing is pumped up and working hard,” said Butner. “I’m excited to get back to it.”

Drag Illustrated’s annual 30 Under 30 list will be revealed during its official press conference and magazine cover reveal at 1:30 p.m. on Friday at the Performance Racing Industry (PRI) show at the Indiana Convention Center in Indianapolis.

The fourth annual list will be announced in the PRI Media Center, Rooms 116 & 117, and one-on-one interviews will be available with Drag Illustrated Founder and Editorial Director Wes Buck, as well as the 30 Under 30 honorees in attendance following the press conference. The cover of Drag Illustrated #139 will also be officially released at that time.

Annually one of the most popular annual issues for Drag Illustrated, the 30 Under 30 list spotlights 30 top drag racing drivers, crew members, fabricators and industry insiders who are all less than 30 years old. The distinguished and highly anticipated list has become a coveted honor within the sport, highlighting the upcoming stars in all areas of drag racing.

“It has been a thrill to see all the excitement generated from the Drag Illustrated 30 Under 30 list, making the press conference one of the highlights of the weekend at the PRI show,” Buck said. “It is truly rewarding to honor the young stars in the sport and their families, and the support the 30 Under 30 list has received within the industry has been immense. We annually get thousands of submissions through the ZP Performance Steering Nomination Process and this was our biggest year yet. The interest in the 30 Under 30 list continues to skyrocket and that is evident with the amount of people who make their way to the PRI Media Center for the official unveiling. It makes me extremely excited for the future of the sport and I can’t wait to honor this year’s 30 Under 30 list at the press conference and in the pages of Drag Illustrated.”

The event will also mark the second straight year the 30 Under 30 list will be released in its entirety during the press conference at PRI, and nearly all 30 of the honorees are expected to be in attendance.

For those unable to attend the press conference at the PRI show in Indianapolis, the full event will also be streamed on the Drag Illustrated Facebook page starting at 1:30 p.m. on Friday.

An official press release detailing the 30 honorees and their achievements in the sport will be provided immediately following the press conference. A group photo of 30 Under 30 Class of 2018 honorees will also take place on stage during the press conference.

What do you get when you pair legendary drag radial and small-tire Mustang great Dwayne “Big Daddy” Gutridge with a hand-picked team of builders and tuners? You get the Horsepower Wars $10K Drag Shootout Dream Team, which put together a 1990 Mustang using a combination of new and used parts in just 10 days. 

Through a pair of unfortunate first-round losses in the Countdown to the Championship this year, Greg Anderson decided to take in the rest of eliminations from the stands.

As disappointed as he was about the early exits – ending any chance he had for a fifth Pro Stock world championship – he couldn’t help but smile as he began to take in what he saw taking place in the stands.

What he witnessed and what he heard was a fanbase still passionate and still very excited about Pro Stock racing, further the legendary Anderson’s contention that there is still plenty of life left in the class.

Greg Anderson

“The people in the grandstands were excited as hell,” Anderson said. “I’m telling you, there was as much interest in Pro Stock as any other class. When I got to go up there and be a fan, the fans liked all of it. It reassured my belief that the majority still like this class and are a fan of Pro Stock.”

Anderson and his longtime Summit Racing Equipment teammate Jason Line continue to stay positive about the future of the class, even as it has dealt with more twists and turns that to send plenty of others running.

But Anderson, Line and a host of other talented drivers have rolled with the punches, intent on persevering through what everyone will agree is a tumultuous time in the class.

The latest – and certainly the biggest – change came earlier this month when the NHRA announced Pro Stock will move to an 18-race schedule in 2018, a reduction of six races.

While some have pegged it as the writing on the wall and a possible final blow for a class rich in history, Line, Anderson, the sanctioning body and several others in the class have taken a different route.

They hope a smaller schedule leads to more participation, pointing to strong participation in Pro Stock Motorcycle, which has 16 races, and the explosion of Pro Mod, which has 12 events, and, ultimately, more excitement. Line knew it would be easy to take the change as bad news, but in the midst of earning his master’s degree the past few years in dealing with change and adversity in Pro Stock, the three-time champion has maintained a positive outlook.

“As participants, our role is reactionary,” Line said. “It all comes down to how we react to what

Jason Line

the sanctioning body tells us we need to do in order to compete. We obviously have a little bit of a different mindset going into next year, but I think it’ll be fun.”

It may have been a tough pill to swallow at first for both veterans, and Anderson said there was some initial disappointment from their longtime sponsor, Summit Racing Equipment. But sensing it could be a good thing for the class, Anderson senses a renewed enthusiasm from his sponsor and the KB Racing team.

“They’ve got the smiles back on their faces, they’re ready to adapt and make changes and so are we,” Anderson said.

Those changes to get the Pro Stock momentum swinging back in the right direction aren’t fully known yet, but Anderson sees things in motion. As opposed to the 210-plus mph passes people are used to in the class, it’s slow-moving change, but steps are being made.

Anderson knows the biggest one would be bringing back manufacturer diversity to a class now almost fully dominated in participation by Chevrolet Camaros.

“We know we have an issue right now where there’s not enough different brands of cars,” Anderson said. “We absolutely know that’s a problem and we’re trying and thinking every day to how we can get that back, and get the different brands and factories involved again.”

Until that happens, Pro Stock may never recapture that excitement it once had, but there’s still plenty being done.

While others have understandably lamented the departure of 2018 world champ Tanner Gray to NASCAR and others, Anderson points to 2017 world champ Bo Butner deciding to stay with the class.

He sees others returning and newcomers as well, and he believes the 18-race schedule will ensure solid participation.

“I know we’re going to have enough,” said Anderson, who has 91 career wins and 102 No. 1 qualifiers. “The reduction of races, it brings about some negativity, but I think it’s more appealing to the racers, especially the ones who can’t do all 24. This gets them closer to trying to do the full series and I think there will be more interest.”

Said Line: “This gives us the opportunity to do some different things that we haven’t done in the past.”

For Line, that means more Sportsman racing in 2019, while it means the KB team can log even more time in the shop developing their race program.

That’s something that Anderson is anxious about, and he also predicted a reduced schedule isn’t far off for other classes and other motorsports.

But as far as Pro Stock, the longtime star is adamant the class isn’t going anywhere – not now and not in the future.

The class has managed to persevere through a number of changes in recent years and Anderson believes that’s a testament to the people in the class. It’s also why he remains fully confident Pro Stock will bounce back.

“We want the class to go on forever. We want our kids to be racing in this class,” Anderson said. “There would be nothing better than for them to follow in our footsteps. I still believe it’s the best class going and every person I come in contact with feels the same way.

“I think the product is great and I don’t believe the naysayers who say it isn’t. It’s still a very exciting class. We don’t give up and we’re not going to give up. The people in this class, they do not give up. If it was another class, I feel they would throw up the white flag. But we’re not going to quit until we figure it out.”

You’ve heard it. You may have said it.

Mopar or no car.

The brand has a presence in racing like no other. Mustang and Camaro? Much respect to those legends. Having one iconic car is an accomplishment. But having several? Like the Challenger, the Charger, the Superbird, the ‘Cuda; hell, the Dart?

That’s Mopar.

Recently at Gateway Motorsports Park outside St. Louis, the facility hosted its inaugural Monster Muscle Car Weekend, a celebration of all things Dodge, Plymouth, and Chrysler. The event within the event, the Hellcat Nationals, displayed Mopar’s Factory Stock entry. The brand received a huge bump when Leah Pritchett, an NHRA Nationals Top Fuel and Pro Mod winner, double-dipped in the Factory Stock class, winning both the US Nationals and the points title.

Leon Epling also knows a thing or two about caressing a Hellcat to the finish line. In a car he built, Leon’s son Jason Epling set a number of new records at Gateway on that hot, greasy weekend. With an 8.51 at 159 mph, Jason’s pass set the new marks for quickest pass by a Hellcat as well as the mile-per-hour record and the Hellcat blower-only record.

September in the St. Louis area can still see some high temps and high humidity, as was the case for the Eplings. It wasn’t surprising to hear Leon wasn’t expecting Jason’s pass.

“Not in the heat, no,” Leon said. “No one was expecting those kind of numbers in the heat. We’ve got a new Epling-Hensley motor that me and (Matt) Hensley built and a new Kenny Bell supercharger 4.9 that took care of the heat better than we thought!”

For his part, Jason knew he was piloting a special lap when he launched.

“Oh, yeah. When you get a good launch, you can feel it in the small of your back pretty good!”

In another highlight of the weekend, NHRA Sportsman veteran Jim Pancake took his ’68 Dart to the Winner’s Circle, courtesy of a victory over Doug Fazzolare in the finals of the Hemi Challenge.

“Doug gave me a good race,” Pancake said. “We’ve been fairly fast all weekend and the car acted a little funny that run.”

Like others over the course of the warm weekend, Pancake’s machine struggled. “It’s not liking that 145-degree track and I’m not liking the heat, either,” he said. “Everything went well, the car performed perfectly. Couldn’t ask for more.”

Matt Arnold photo

The car itself has a pretty incredible story. The body is the original, found in Las Vegas with house paint on it. “It was pretty funny, actually. It’s just as solid as anything body-wise and it’s got all the original sheet metal including the trunk.”

Making the win more special is the relationship between Pancake and Fazzolare. During photos, the two hugged and laughed with one another. Strong, respectful competitors on the track, great friends off it.

“A great competitor, Jim’s always been tough,” he said. “Always fun racing Jimmy, I’ve known him for many years.”

Fazzalare also faced issues, but not necessarily from the heat. His ’68 Dart had dealt with gremlins for a while and Gateway was no different. Fortunately, he had an escape plan.

“We’ve been fighting it,” he said. “It just hasn’t been running well. We struggled at Indy. It wasn’t 60-footing, it still hasn’t 60-footed right. Actually, it kept getting quicker in the 60 foot as we ran today, but it’s still off. And we’re fighting it.

“I think we’re going to play a little golf in Dallas next week and get away from this race car stuff. Try to get our thoughts together and have a little relaxation.”

Promoting the event is Phil Painter, the longtime force behind Muscle Car at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. At The Strip last month for Mel Roth’s Nitrous Outlet Street Car Super Nationals 14 Presented by FuelTech, Painter talked about his love for the Mopar brand and his desire to promote muscle car culture to a generation with little knowledge of the great American cars from our past.

“Watching these racers not only go out there and compete at the highest levels, but to recognize and promote the beauty and power of these great pieces of automotive history, it’s incredible,” said Painter. “I know there are a lot of people like me out there who respect the muscle cars of the past and want to share that love.”

Muscle Car at The Strip continues its tradition of honoring Mopar April 26-28, 2019. If you love these cars, if you want to promote our shared history of adoration for these legends, come on out. See why Mopar continues to be the bar by which the competition is measured.

Growing up, Carl Rossler had a knack for fixing transmissions, so much so that he repaired a number of them before was even old enough to drive. Self-taught simply from being a voracious learner and staying passionate about the process, it has kept Rossler and his Ohio-based business, Rossler Transmissions, on the cutting edge for nearly four decades. Rossler has patents on two of his creations, while his Turbo 400 and Turbo-Glide revolutionized the doorslammer world.

Meanwhile, Rossler has remained the in the same building in Girard, Ohio, for all 37 years, building an all-star team of nine full-time employees in the process. There have been numerous additions to the building, while inside there have been innovations and successes that have entailed the last 37 years. All of it, though, came from Rossler’s fascination with coming up with solutions on cars and, specifically, with transmissions.

“I learned how to fix stuff because I did everything myself,” Rossler says. “I had a small-block Chevy and you would break stuff every week. That’s how I learned to fix it. This is all I’ve ever done since I was a teenager. I just loved working on these things.”

Rossler started Rossler Transmissions in 1981, but as his expertise and skill became known to customers, the business became more specialized. A little over a decade into it, he was left with a decision about the direction of the company. Needless to say, it’s one he made rather easily. Instead of working on transmissions for everyday cars, Rossler made the decision to become a race-specific shop. It cut out half the income he was pulling in at the time, but as things played out it was a decision that has worked out almost perfectly.

“I was making more on the regular side of building transmissions, but I really just loved the racing side and that’s what I really wanted to do,” Rossler confesses. “We took half the income and pulled the plug on it and that was a little scary at first, but we’ve managed to do pretty well over the years. I like to be happy when I work and I didn’t have any fun doing regular jobs. Door cars that run fast, that’s my passion. It’s managed to work out well for us.”

That might be an understatement. Rossler has worked with the top names in the Pro Mod world, and his transmissions have been the products of choice for drivers in a number of classes and series, including no-prep racing, Pro Street, drag radial and many more. Street Outlaws stars like Justin “Big Chief” Shearer, “Murder Nova” Shawn Ellington and Jeff Lutz all use Rossler Transmissions as well, but the innovative breakthrough came with the creation of the Turbo-Glide in 2007.

Now heavily imitated, Rossler made a distinct impression in the industry with the product. It gained steam quickly in the 10.5-inch tire world with the likes of Phil Hines, making such a difference that racing competitors were taping runs and accusing Rossler’s customers of using traction control to make such rapid improvements over a short period. Rossler simply took it as a compliment. “It was hilarious. They couldn’t figure out why they were running so well,” Rossler laughs. “It was amazing the difference it made.”

Star tuner Steve Petty soon endorsed the product, having major success with 10.5 driver Tim Lynch. Word spread quickly and sales went through the roof. The work with Petty soon took the product into the NHRA Pro Mod world, where the Turbo 400 took the class by storm.

Rossler worked with Roger Burgess’ highly successful R2B2 Pro Mod team, as the product was a pivotal piece of Melanie Troxel’s record-breaking Corvette and Leah Pritchett’s Road Rage Camaro. The entire team enjoyed a great deal of success and Rossler was excited to play a major part in that.

“At all the NHRA Pro Mod races, it would be a big talking point in the tower that this car has a Turbo 400, and then they would all come to the pits,” Rossler remembers. “It was really something and so exciting to see the cars on TV and then win with a Turbo 400. But you always want to keep improving the product. We want to give everybody the best.”

The Turbo-Glide blazed an impressive trail, but Rossler Transmissions has continued to stay at the forefront of transmission innovation thanks to its in-house design and machine shop. Rossler has four full-time machinists on staff and his team also includes one employee with 30 years of experience at Rossler Transmission, and another who has been with him 29 years. It’s given Rossler a distinct advantage, allowing him to move from the 2-speed Turbo-Glide he invented to a 3-speed transmission that has been dominant in both eighth-mile and quarter-mile racing.

“We make our own stuff and we can experiment because we do all of our own stuff,” Rossler says. “We can make a lot of special pieces, so if you see a weak link coming, you can fix it before it happens. The 3-speeds are now dominant over the 2-speeds, but because we make our own parts, we know what works.”

Rossler and his team can now make a new gear ratio in a week, an unmatched part of the process that has given his company a big advantage. Rossler also has a pair of patents – one on a trans brake and a design patent on a snap ring stabilizer for the Turbo 400 – and he has invented a ringless input shaft for a Powerglide as well.

That innovation and ability to create a new product from scratch instead of being reactionary is something Rossler has taken a great deal of pride in over the years.
It’s a work ethic and ingenuity that’s been part of Rossler’s make-up since he was a teenager, and he has no plans of slowing down anytime soon.

“If we want to make something as an experiment, we don’t have to rely on people,” Rossler says. “We can change it, make it better and that’s a big advantage. Everyone here works hard and we all have the same goal.”

This story originally appeared in DI #136, the Crew Chief Issue, in September of 2018.

It’s hard to beat a good wheelstand video. Fortunately, master videographer Hans Pierre Jr. at Free Life Films assembled this incredible compilation of wheelstanding, flying race cars and motorcycles from events around the country. You’ll see no-fear Pro Street motorcycle riders, drag radial Camaros, No-Time Mustangs and more.

Of course, this compilation also includes the  greatest hits from the home of the flying cars, South Georgia Motorsports Park, like “Stevie Fast” Jackson in the “Shadow” and “Big Daddy” Dewayne Mills in the “Golden Gorilla” blowing over at Duck X Productions’ legendary Lights Out events. 

In 2012, NHRA rolled out a special race-within-a-race at the prestigious U.S. Nationals in Indianapolis, and since that time, the Factory Stock Showdown has done nothing but snowball. As the program has grown, it has also become more and more refined, and it draws ever-increasing interest from both racers and spectators.

Is it any wonder? The heart of drag racing beats steadily and the American muscle car is alive and well within the walls of what is now known as the SAM Tech Factory Stock Showdown. The Big Three are each represented by way of the Ford Mustang Cobra Jet, the Dodge Challenger Drag Pak, and Chevrolet’s COPO Camaro, and over time, each of these vessels have proven their worth to make for level competition where anyone can win.

The original incarnation was along the same lines as ADRL’s eighth-mile SuperCar Showdown, and NHRA’s rendition was a heads-up contest that fell in with Stock Eliminator class eliminations and raced to the quarter-mile. The competition was a way to showcase the drag-racing ready, factory-built vehicles coming out of Detroit that had captured the attention of veteran racers, and that first Indy event drew a handful of fierce and recognizable competitors in both naturally aspirated and supercharged entries.

In the final round, it came down to a matchup of Cobra Jet Mustangs between a pair of standout racers: 2006 Competition Eliminator champion Bo Butner and second-generation drag racer Brett Candies, son of NHRA legend Paul Candies. Candies left first but spun the tires, and Butner sailed ahead for a 9.10-second win at 148.84 mph.

“To win anything at the U.S. Nationals is huge, but that was really cool. I still have that big inaugural Factory Stock Showdown check hanging up,” says Butner, who has accumulated four Factory Stock Showdown wins to date. Although he hasn’t yet raced the shootout in 2018, he’s planning a return at Indy this year in a new Cobra Jet Mustang.

Butner became widely known when he turned Pro in 2015 and slid in behind the wheel of a KB Racing-powered Pro Stock Chevrolet Camaro, but his roots are deep in the Sportsman ranks. Aside from his Factory Stock Showdown titles, the 2017 Pro Stock champion has 21 national event wins across five categories, including six each in Pro Stock and CompEliminator, three in SuperStock, five in StockEliminator, and one in SuperStreet.

“This type of racing is where I came from, and it’s probably where I’ll end up,” says Butner, regarding the Factory Stock Showdown. “It’s a good class, but it’s getting pretty tough. Between the three manufacturers, they’re all pretty close. It’s a growing deal, and it’s a lot like the old Pro Stock, which is cool. It’s bringing new people into the sport.”

Partnership and steady growth

In 2013, the special series expanded to three events – with races added in Englishtown and Charlotte – and split into two classes within Stock Eliminator to separate the naturally aspirated engines and supercharged entries. The respective class winners in Charlotte ran one another for the championship, which was won by David Barton in a naturally aspirated V8 Dodge Challenger Drag Pak over a red-lighting Butner and his supercharged Cobra Jet Mustang.

Four events were on the schedule from 2014-2016 as popularity continued to grow. The School of Automotive Machinists and Technology (SAM Tech) stepped up in 2016 as the series sponsor, with director of student motorsports Brian Massingill taking the reins on their involvement in the program. The partnering of SAM Tech with the series was a no-brainer.

“We knew we wanted to be involved with NHRA, and we talked about a few things – but we were excited when NHRA offered [sponsorship of this class] to us,” says Massingill, who has become something of a liaison between the racers and the sanctioning body as they work to refine and grow the class while still keeping it accessible and as affordable as possible. “It was a good fit for us because it was right in line with what we were building at SAM Tech. This was a way for the students to see what they were working on translate to real life on the racetrack.

“We have several graduates who work with various teams in the class. Travis Hilger helps with the cars that have Ray Barton Racing engines, Collin Jackson is Archie (Arthur) Kohn’s crew chief and car chief – nothing goes in or out of that car without Collin knowing what it is – and Conner Statler helps the Stanfield Racing team at the events. We get a lot of calls asking for our students to work on things because not only do these guys like racing, they really know what’s going on. We build COPO engines for a few Sportsman racers, so they see it first-hand, know what goes into it and know how to tackle things.”

A fifth race was added in 2017, and the Factory Stock Showdown was booming. For 2018 it became a seven-race series with the championship awarded based on the best six of seven events. Evolution of the class brought it to a Quick 8 Eliminator format in 2016, and in 2018 it was designated as a 16-car field.

“Having this as a true heads-up, 16-car field is something that’s easy to explain, and even casual fans can relate to it and understand,” says Massingill. “With all three of the manufacturers involved, you have people coming by the pits and saying, ‘Hey, my dad has one of these,’ or ‘My wife has a blue one just like this.’ The fans are coming to the pits and looking at the cars, asking questions, and taking an interest in the class. The racing is tight, there are 25 cars showing up for every race, there are Pros in the class now. The evolution of it has been crazy, and it’s exciting to see this thing continue to grow.”

Inherent balance for the win

Rules have been implemented and shifted along the way in an effort to maintain a level playing field and curtail astronomical spending, but one thing that has stood out above the rest as a dream-killer or day-maker regardless of rules is the 9-inch wide tire.

“We have a great equalizer with those 9-inch wide tires, and that keeps things on equal footing – for better or for worse,” says Massingill. “There are times when teams don’t try to go after it or put everything into a pass because they’re a little worried about the track. Is it better to run an 8.20 and know that you’ll get down the track, or do you try for an 8.0, possibly blow the tires off, and your day is done? The tire makes it about a lot more than the power of the engine. You have to get the power down, or you’re going to be in trouble.”

One of the teams that seems to have found the right combination is Ray Barton Racing Engines, with David Barton as the driver. They have claimed more Factory Stock Showdown trophies than anyone else in the series. The son of renowned HEMI engine builder Ray, the younger Barton began his successful tenure in the class behind the wheel of a Mopar, but in recent years he’s been campaigning – and still achieving success – in a COPO Camaro owned by Bob Wolkwitz.

“That’s what’s really cool about the class. It’s still new to all of us, and we’re all trying to figure out what is the best way down the track. It’s easy to get away from you,” said Barton on a pre-season WFO Radio podcast with Joe Castello. “It’s hard to find that balance (to get the power to the ground), but that’s one of my strong points – covering the whole car. I’m not just an engine guy; I realize what it takes to get the chassis right.

“We give it all we got trying to figure this stuff out, but some of the best advice my dad ever gave me was to stick to basics. A lot of these guys have good power, but sometimes they don’t know how to bring it all together, give it a good old-fashioned tune-up, get the gearing right, and so on. It’s tough.”

The Barton family way of thinking has proven effective, and Barton came into the 2018 season as the Factory Stock Showdown series champion. He’s had plenty of competition this year, though, as three different drivers have won the first four events. Stanfield Racing-powered Stephen Bell claimed the first 2018 title, Bell’s teammate Arthur “Archie” Kohn scored the second, and Joe Welch went back-to-back in his Challenger Drag Pak in Bristol and Norwalk.

“It’s pretty crazy to be No. 1,” adds Barton. “There are a lot of people stepping up, and a lot of good cars involved. Within the last few years, this whole new muscle car era has really exploded. It’s everything I love about drag racing – it’s heads-up, everything you’ve got, full throttle racing, and it’s what people want to see.”

The race for seven

Those people who hunger for exciting heads-up racing also want to see big numbers on the scoreboards, and the current target is the 7-second zone. Veteran Mopar guy Geoff Turk got it done at the NMCA season-opener in Bradenton with 7.97 and 7.99 passes in his Dodge Challenger Drag Pak, but at the time of print, the sevens have remained untouched in NHRA Factory Stock.

Barton set a positive tone of hope for the season when he clocked a quick 8.020-second pass at 171.36 mph at the 2018 Factory Stock Showdown opener in Gainesville and bettered it with an 8.019 in Charlotte, but so far no one has gone quicker.

“We want that real bad,” says Barton, speaking of the honor of being the first to reach the sevens. “We’re just trying to get our ducks in a row and take it one step at a time. I (don’t) want that to cloud my brain and get too silly with the tune-up, as we all know that it isn’t always the quickest guy that wins; it’s the guy who’s the smartest from one round to the next, how long your stuff lasts, if you can keep it hooked up to the ground, and how good you can be as a driver. It’s everything put together, that’s what it takes to make something like that happen.”

From the series sponsor’s perspective, that target is just one facet of what’s propelling interest in the SAM Tech Factory Stock Showdown. Among those staking their claim in the series are a handful of Pro drivers, and the byproduct of those high-profile entries is that there is even more attention on the class. Don Schumacher Racing fields two Factory Stock Showdown entries with Top Fuel driver Leah Pritchett and Pro Stock veteran Mark Pawuk piloting a pair of Kevin Helms-tuned Dodge Challenger Drag Pak entries. Pro Stock champ Erica Enders has competed for Mopar, and 2012 world champion Allen Johnson, who retired from Pro Stock racing at the conclusion of the 2017 season, has reappeared as a competitor in the Factory Stock Showdown with his father and former Super Stock racer Roy Johnson as his crew chief on a Jeff Teuton-owned Drag Pak.

“There is still a lot of room for growth, and there are a lot of good ideas that are slowly being rolled out,” reveals Massingill, who noted that for each of the first four events this season, there have been between 24 and 30 entries. “I really do see longevity in the program, and that’s because of the accessibility, especially for the racers. If you want to race this class, you can get a used car and have a good engine built, and you can qualify. Then you spend the next year learning from these other teams who have been doing this for a long time. It’s definitely something exciting, competitive, and fun to be part of.”

Previous SAM Tech NHRA Factory Stock Showdown Winners

2012
Indianapolis
Bo Butner – Cobra Jet Mustang

2013
Englishtown
Gary Richard – Cobra Jet Mustang

Indianapolis
Chris Holbrook – Cobra Jet Mustang

Charlotte
David Barton – Dodge Challenger Drag Pak

2014
Gainesville
Chris Holbrook – Cobra Jet Mustang

Indianapolis
Chris Holbrook – Cobra Jet Mustang

Reading
David Barton – Dodge Challenger Drag Pak

Las Vegas
Bo Butner – Cobra Jet Mustang

2015
Gainesville
Bo Butner – Cobra Jet Mustang

Englishtown
Kevin Skinner – Cobra Jet Mustang

Indianapolis
Bo Butner – Cobra Jet Mustang

Las Vegas
Kevin Skinner – Cobra Jet Mustang

2016
Gainesville
David Barton – COPO Camaro

Englishtown
David Barton – COPO Camaro

Norwalk
David Barton – COPO Camaro

Indianapolis
Chris Holbrook – Cobra Jet Mustang

2017
Gainesville
David Barton – COPO Camaro

Charlotte
Peter Gasko Jr. – COPO Camaro

Norwalk
Charles Watson – Cobra Jet Mustang

Indianapolis
David Barton – COPO Camaro

St. Louis
Peter Gasko Jr. – COPO Camaro

2018
Gainesville
Stephen Bell – COPO Camaro

Charlotte
Arthur Kohn – COPO Camaro

Bristol
Joe Welch – Drag Pak Challenger

Norwalk
Joe Welch – Drag Pak Challenger

Indianapolis
Leah Pritchett – Drag Pak Challenger

St. Louis
Leah Pritchett – Drag Pak Challenger

Dallas
Leah Pritchett – Drag Pak Challenger

Photographs by Rick Belden, Roger Richards and NMCA

This story originally appeared in DI #135, the State of Drag Issue, in August of 2018.