Todd Paton’s name is no stranger to the electronic pages of BangShift. We have seen Todd through his work at Racepak, through the piloting of funny cars, and most notably though the driving he does with the family top fuel car. Todd’s dad Barry calls the tuning shots and he handled the tiller. The car is run a bunch all summer with different drivers. It appears at NHRA events on occasion but also does a ton go match racing as well. Such was the case when this video was made last weekend during the Lancaster Dragway Night of Nitro. In it, you will see Todd Paton resent the historic eighth mile track’s speed record to 233mph. The record he beat was set by Shirley Muldowney more than 20 years ago.
This is a feel good story and perhaps not for the reasons you suspect. I visited Lancaster late last season to announce a door slammer race and while I had driven by the place that sits right on Route 90 dozens of times in life I had never been inside. What I found was a neat little track that has been around for decades. The racing surface had also been around for decades and the results showed it.
There was some wreckage at the race and while the management and promotional end of the facility had come around, it definitely needed an upgrade when it came to the surface. Ownership heard the case for a new strip surface and they did it. This spring the old track was torn completely out and replaced with a new, beautifully laid drag strip that has changed the entire profile of the facility. You’ll never mistake it for the Texas Motorplex but now you’ll see X275 cars hustling, pro mods laying down numbers, and in this case, a record breaking Todd Paton really showing what kind of teeth the new track has.
No 233 is not some sort of insane speed record for a top fueler in the eighth but that’s a very important number in the history of Lancaster Dragway. The track has its mojo back and Todd Paton had a little to do with that.
