I started drag racing at the age of 16. All that racing was done on the streets of Detroit. A local spot near the airport would gather some real fast cars from the area and a bunch of real slugs. A showing of over a 1000 people would gather with there hotrods and show there stuff. My car at the time was a 1985 Camaro Z28. I was earning near to nothing from a local Go-Cart track I worked at. All that money would go to some go fast parts. Not really knowing what made HP at the time I would try to save for the latest and greatest part. Some made power others just made more noise.

How did you get your start?

A brother who was just a few years older than me started working on engines. As he was my biggest influence in life I always followed in his foot steps. When we were young, I was about 10 he was around 14, we had found a gas lawnmower in the garbage. My father made near nothing for money and couldn't really afford things but food and water for us. My brother thought it would be a good idea to rebuild this lawnmower for my father. We kept this a secret from him as we sneaked the lawnmower to our closet. He bought a book to learn how to rebuild it. After a few weeks we had rebuilt the lawnmower and took it outside to see if it would run. After a few pulls on it, the thing started up. The feeling that came over me at that point was indescribable. We cut the back lawn with it to test it out. We really didn't know how my dad would feel at that time about what we had done so we kept it in the garage. That weekend we told him and he went out to the garage to see what we had done. He was pretty happy to say the least, as his other lawnmower was an electric on that you had to pull the power cord around on. Not only was he happy but he gave us the responsibility of cutting the lawn each week. You know that fun responsibility wore off in a hurry. After a few years my father had saved up some money to move us out of Detroit. At our new house my brother had always wanted a go-cart. My father had a friend that was giving one away. He brought it home for us. The damn thing didn't have an engine so we needed to find one. We found a neighbor who was planning on throwing one away that was on a snow blower. The 3.5 HP would be enough to get us going. We installed the engine and would take it out every weekend to a church parking lot to play with. One weekend coming back home I found a snow blower that was thrown away with an 8 HP Briggs. I went to the house and asked what was wrong with it. The lady said "Nothing is wrong with the motor but it has a locked transmission" so I asked her if I could have it. She said as long as I could find a way to get it home. I drove the go-cart home and came back walking. I tried to get the stuck transmission free. I was never able to. So I dragged the thing home with the wheels locked. Let me tell you that the 1/2 mile trip seemed like 15 miles long. When I got it home my brother and I started tearing the thing apart. When we took the motor off we noticed we had a 1" shaft on the motor. Our clutch was only 7/8." So we took the motor apart and my brother took the crank to school and used their lathe to cut it down. We put the motor back together and installed it on the go-cart. Man did that thing fly. My brother at the time was 16 and worked at a local go-cart track where later I worked. He would get some of there spare tires to bring home for our go-cart. Lets just say that we would go through a lot of tires in one summer.

Who influenced you the most?

I picked my current car because my brother who I followed so closely was building one that he never had a chance to finish. The car was found by my best friend Denny (LSWHO on GFZ). He told me to take a ride with him to go look at something. He knew I was looking for one. We got to the neighborhood and said look down the street. I looked down the street but was looking to far down. He said "Do you see it?" I said "No" He said "look harder" thats when I seen it. I turned down the street and parked in the guys drive way. He was fixing his house up that had an orange notice from the city that said for him to clean the house up. I asked him if the car was for sale. He replied by said no. I asked him if I could take a look at it. He said go right ahead. A few moments later he said give me $3500 for it and its yours. I told him I would be right back with a deposit. I went home and got $100 and took it back to him. We took it out for a test drive. We went down Van Dyke for our 1/4 mile test run. I looked at the guy and said "if its gonna break, its gonna break on you". I stopped in the middle of traffic and shifted into first gear. I put the pedal down and the car spun the tires hard. We were all over the road. I shifted into second and the motor over revved. It blew second gear out. So I limped the car back to his house. He told me he had a Turbo 400 that we can install. I told him I would be back with the rest of the money on Monday and still wanted the car. I was 19 at the time and had a few dollars saved up. When I say a few I mean $3000. I still needed $400 so I begged my dad for it. After a few minutes he agreed to lend me the money.

What are you goals for race season 2003?

I will still be running the same combo as I did this past season. It is a personal goal to get this car down the track with a 7 second time slip. This season brought nothing but bad luck. A fire and 2 blown motors is not my idea of fun. I have switched engine builders for hopefully a more successful year next season.

Any major changes for 2003?

No major changes for next season. The only change will be the rear axle ratio. My car goes through the traps at 7500RPM now and my shift points are around 8750RPM. The car only picks up around 700RPM in 3rd gear.


What was your first car or hotrod? this one is always good.

My first hot rod as I mentioned was my 1985 Camaro Z28. Yeah the thing was a slug but at the time it was one of the faster cars on the block. I put a set of headers, Banks exhaust, new air cleaner, a posi unit in with 3.73 gears, and a Hyperchip in it. I never took that car to an official track for an ET but now looking back the car would probably run in the high 15 second range. I guess that was not bad for a high school hot rod...

What is your quickest 1\4 mile ET, MPH, and 60 foot runs?

My best ET to date is an 8.41 @ 169MPH. the 60 foot on that run was a 1.257. My best 60 foot was a 1.250. Al from RaceFab built the chassis and comes to the track to help me tune it in. It is hard for him when I car cant stay together for more than 4 runs in a row. Our last outing was when we were looking for some ET. First 2 runs the car blew the tires off. The next run he managed to calm the car down to pull a 1.257 60 foot. The next pass is when the motor blew and the car went 8.41 @ 163. I had lost 4 MPH and just knew something was wrong. I put the car on the trailer that day to only find disaster the next morning that ended my season.

What's been the biggest challenge to your racing program?

My biggest challenge is to justify the cost of racing at all. I work a lot of hours trying to keep my business going. After work I find myself in the garage for the night trying to get the car back together. I keep dreaming of a day at the drag strip that causes me no problems. A day where I can came back and do some routine maintenance and hit the track next weekend. It is hard to have to keep pulling the motor after each time out and justify the aggravation.

What would you consider you biggest accomplishment as a racer?

When I first started this project with my car my plans were to restore the car. Well, somewhere through it all I decided that I wanted to make it a drag car. My plans were to build a car that would run 9.90's on hose. The first time out with the car the track would only let us run the 1/8 mile. I was running in the 7.2x's. I was not sure what this meant in the 1/4 but I knew that the tires I had on the car would not hold. A friend of mine had an old set of slicks that he let me have. I had the tires installed and went back out the following weekend to Ubly. My first pass was a 10.70. I was pretty impressed seeing that I had yet to install the wiring for the NOS. I continued that day with more runs. We managed to get the car down to a low 10.20. When I went back home I talked to a few people before putting the NOS to it. They said that I needed to switch from my 5.13 gear to a 4.56. So off to the Jegs book I went. I ordered one and would not be shipped for a few days. So the next weekend we went off to the strip again. My first pass was a 10.10. I was ecstatic. I went out again. A 9.94 would be my next run. Needless to say I was happy as hell and nothing could have ruined my day. I took 2 more runs that recorded a 9.82. Damn I was happy. I went home that day and started wiring my NOS up. A few days later the UPS truck showed up with my ring and pinion. I removed my reared and headed to the Ring and Pinion Shop. The next day they had it installed. I installed the reared and went off to the track that weekend and put a 200 HP tune-up in. I used a delay timer that was set for .6 seconds out of the whole. The car went 9.29 @ 148 MPH. So off to the pits I went and a bigger and better tune-up was in demand. I installed the 250 pills and turned the time to .2 seconds. Some 9.1X runs made my day. After a few weekends of 9.1x runs I was bored and wanted more. That's when I started the new combo I am racing with now. So to sum it up getting to the 9.90's on my first project was by far my biggest accomplishment.


What changes, if any, do you feel the sanctioning bodies need to make in
order for our sport to prosper?

I would like to see the sanctioning bodies go to high schools to promote racing on the strip and not on the street. I look back at the street racing and see how stupid it was. The people would make a human wall all the way down the 1/4 mile. One mistake and a lot of people would have been killed.  Pretty stupid stuff looking back.

Who are your biggest friends (or enemies) at the track?

I think most the people who hang out at the strip are great people. We all like joking around but when it comes down to it we are all there for each other. There have been a few people that think there shit dont stink and wouldn't help you for nothing. I cant remember of a recent time that I have run into this but it has happened. I think all in all most the people are great otherwise I would find a different sport.

Who do you fear having to see at the starting line?

To be honest, Im not a competitive person. I have never been. Win or lose I got my own goals and my goals are my biggest fears.

Any other pertinent info? (sponsors you'd like to thank, wives you HAVE to  thank, other things not mentioned you feel are important) ?

Yeah I have a few people to thank: