(Words by Bad Brad Klaassen, photos by Bob Snyder, Wayne Lederer, Trent Work, Kenny Youngblood, and Bad Brad Klaassen) – Saturday morning, January 14^th, found us rolling into Wild Horse Motorsports Park in Chandler, Arizona, ready to shake off the Oklahoma winter blues and burn our first nitro of the New Year. To say the team was both focused and excited would be an understatement. You see, for our team it’s almost impossible to even get our nitro breathing beast to fire in our typical Okie winter climate. Our first of two qualifying passes for the day was slated to begin around noon. So we unloaded the gal out of the box and began our usual routine of servicing the car and prepping it for warm up. Unfortunately, there were a few on track incidents that pushed the schedule back a bit, which gave the team ample time to check our slingshot over from top to bottom. Then it was time for what the entire team had been waiting for since October 2016, fire the beast up. With an injected nitro car it’s started on methanol to build sufficient heat in the motor before the fuel pump is turned on to the good stuff. And that’s just what the team did. The distinctive pop and cackle of any motor on nitromethane is unmistakable. Our 392 based hemi engine sounded crisp and sharp and ready to blaze a trail down the quarter mile one more time.

After we received the call from the NHRA race official, it was time to tow up to the staging lanes for Q1. Our driver, John Harless, strapped in and was ready to go. The crew gave the car one final once over and all looked good.

Okay boys, it’s time to show them what us Okies are made of. The starter gave the signal to fire it up. Crew member, Donna Harless, wife of our driver, wheeled the golf cart into place with starter and battery pack onboard, so the car could be fired and once again our nitro injected slingshot came to life! After the normal warm up on methanol the car was switched over to the “pop” and then the driver eased his foot off the clutch to let her roll through the water box. Harless watched for the signal from crew chief, Mike Manual, to begin his long smoky burnout. The rear slicks grew as the horsepower from the motor transferred to them to create a nice rubbery path to hopefully pave the way for another good run. For race fans in the stands this procedure is akin to some type of religious experience that has been going on since the birth of drag racing. But, most don’t understand the amount of money nor hours of work it took to get to this point.

Trust me, it’s considerable. So, after Harless backed up into the groove with help from crew member, Anthony Griffin, it was time to make the final adjustments to the motor by crew chief, Manual. Crew member, Dave “Biscuit” Peoples, checked under the car for any type of fluid leaks before the car was eased forward to begin the staging process. Crew member, Howard Tribbey, was also another set of watchful eyes and ears on the car. Car owner, Jon Brook, guided his driver forward just short of entering the staging beams, he then gave his usual hands clasp in prayer for his driver and car as crew member, Trent Work, flipped the switch to activate the data recorder and just like that Harless staged the car and that familiar ear splitting sound of an eight cylinder nitro motor screamed it’s magical tune. The car thundered its way down the track for its first pass in 2017 to the tune of a 6.23 at 227 mph. We’ll take it! That put us in the provision number one spot with one more qualifying pass remaining. And of course I was in my usual spot on the wall shooting our hot rod in action. After the pass it was time for me to get back to the pits, put up my camera and help service the car.

After the car was towed back to our pits it was time to service the car and this is the part most aspiring race fans wanting to burn nitro often miss. The work! Few realize that after that six second lap you’re faced with a laundry list of things that must be performed before another pass can occur. Here goes; put car on air/hydraulic jacks and raise up, blow down fuel system to remove any excess nitro, spin motor over without spark plugs in it to remove any unburned nitro from cylinders, perform leak down test on each cylinder to insure the motor isn’t hurt, remove valve covers and recheck valve lash, remove car body panels to readjust clutch and gain access to the oil filter, drain oil, clean oil filter, drain puke tank, haul used oil to tracks onsite oil dump, refuel car, repack parachutes, recharge starter batteries, recharge data recorder battery, recheck air pressure in shifter bottle, download run data from onboard recorder, put fresh oil in the motor, re-fire motor on methanol to check for fuel or oil leaks, replace removed body panels and wipe entire car and motor down so it’s shiny and sexy again.

Whew! With a large team like Grand Prix Racing servicing the hot rod usually takes approximately thirty-forty minutes. The routine is well coordinated at a break neck pace and not for anyone allergic to hard and often extremely hot dirty, oily, greasy and sweaty work. I’m not trying to scare any race fan away from chasing their dream just like I’ve been fortunate enough to do. But, you can ask anyone that’s ever seriously burned nitro and to a man or woman the answer is always going to be the same; it’s hard work, but what a labor of love. So, why do it? Easy, it’s NITRO! There’s nothing in the world like it. As my friend Down Under Thunder nostalgia nitro funny car team owner and driver Bazz Young once put it, “the needle runs deep.” It’s true too.

Due to several light rain showers our second qualifying pass was postponed until Sunday at 10 a.m. so we packed everything back up in the box like we’ve done over and over again and headed to the hotel for a good night’s rest because tomorrow was raceday. It was another early wakeup call so at 6 a.m. the team met in the hotel breakfast room to get the day started with some much needed fuel for us. Sunday would prove to be an even longer and harder day, but for nitro crazed racing junkies it all goes with the territory.

We rolled into Wild Horse Motorsports Park by 8 a.m. for our last time this trip because it’s Sunday, January 15^th, Raceday! Once again I think you race fans are getting the idea, take it out of the box, load it in the box, repeat, repeat, repeat.  The glamour side of any race team, but nitro teams always have more “stuff” to load and unload from the box. It goes with burning the nectar of the race Gods and we wouldn’t have it any other way. Since we’d already serviced the car Saturday afternoon in preparation for Raceday the team’s pace and routines were at an easy glide conserving our energy for what everyone hoped and prayed would be a long day of racing and maybe even winning. Once again we fired the car and warmed the motor in preparation for our second and last qualifying pass. After getting the call from NHRA to head to the staging lanes, once again it’s time to burn some nitro. The slingshot fired without a hitch, Harless staged the car and away she went. But this pass wasn’t to be. The car drifted out of the groove and the driver clicked it. No worries, after Q2 we still remained in the number two position. Stop me if you’ve heard this before race fans, it’s time to service the car again and get ready for the first round of eliminations, and that’s what the team did. In E1 we faced off against Prescott Valley, Arizona’s, Rick Ewens. He had trouble right off the line and our team took the win. Since there were only five cars competing in the class we received a bye after E2 into the finals against one of the toughest and now quickest car in the class. Drew Austin from Tacoma, Washington ripped of a 6.06 at 224 mph in his Pro Max slingshot!

So, as the crew preformed the normal service on the hot rod after the E2 bye run we discovered we’d sacrificed a piston to the nitro Gods. What’s that mean race fans? More work. On top of the laundry list of regular maintenance, now add dropping the oil pan, removing the intake, removing the cylinder head, removing the head gasket, taking the rod cap off the crankshaft, banging out the rod and piston assembly, assessing the damage quickly, cleaning everything and then reassembling the motor again with a new piston in the cylinder. Easy right? Well, it is if you have a good team and Grand Prix Racing’s team owner is quick to acknowledge and thank his all volunteer crew often. Jon Brook is celebrating his 55^th year of racing and he’s still going strong, but without a strong team Brook is well aware that wouldn’t be possible. What I’m saying is the team has over 100 years of racing experience combined and they know how to get it done. So, when a piston needs replacing, no big deal. Any good nitro team can perform this task with their eyes closed and often do, but it does add more work to running the car, but hey that’s nitro racing.

As darkness began to fall on the Arizona dessert at Wild Horse Motorsports Park it was finally time for the two nitro injected A/Fuel slingshots to face off, Tacoma Washington’s Drew Austin and the Austin Family vs. the Okies from Tulsa at Grand Prix Racing. Both cars fired after receiving the nod from the starter. Our driver, John Harless, prepared to light up the hides for what we hoped would be one more good pass in the finals. Unfortunately, Austin was shut off by his crew because of some type of fluid leak that would have made it unsafe for him to make the run. As the Grand Prix Racing team looked on in disbelief, the driver launched the car down the track for a solo win in the finals. What a day, what a race. And for me, I FINALLY got to be part of a race team that won an NHRA Wally! I’ve come so very close before, but this time it was a reality. Honestly, I still can’t believe it. I’ve been chasing my dream for twenty five years and it finally happened. But, let me be very clear race fans, drag racing is a total team sport 100%. Everyone on a team has to do their job to perfection every time to keep the driver safe and to make sure the hot rod performs at its peak every lap down the quarter mile. There really is no “I” in a drag racing team.

So, it was off to the winners circle for pictures and grasping that long sought after trophy. Then you guessed it race fans, load it all up, strap it all down one more time, head to the hotel for one more quick shower before hitting the road again for another long road trip back home. But, I can assure you heading back down that long lonely road in the dark is a heck of a lot easier with a Wally along for the ride. So why do we do this? Good question. It’s so hard to put into words for the average race fan to understand. All I can say for me is I was once you. I sat in the stands watching everything and soaking it all up while thinking man I’d like to do that someday. Be careful what you wish for. For me I wouldn’t change much. Being a part of the drag racing and drag shooter family is second to none. I’m so blessed to be able to do this and have become friends with many I love and call brothers and sisters today. This is my second family and I wouldn’t change that for anything. So race fans if you’re not afraid of hard work, long hours on the road and being away from your family at home for long extended periods of time, maybe it’s time you left the bleachers behind and made your home in the drag racing pits. It was the right thing for me to do, maybe its right for you too?

Thank you for following along with this nitro saga. Thank you to everyone that’s supported me in shooting and crewing on a few hot rods in my day. And thank you to Brian Lohnes and Chad Reynolds here at Bangshift for publishing my stuff. I really am living the dream and I’m nowhere near ready to quit burning nitro or hanging on the wall trying to shoot it.

See you at the drags,

-Bad Brad