– Bowling Green, KY

A couple of weekends ago, I had the privilege of attending the NHRA Hot Rod Reunion in Bowling Green, KY.  It’s difficult to put into words what an awesome experience I had, and the positive impression that Texas Jungle Racing, the fans, and fellow competitors left upon me.  Take it from a fan of the sport, no story or images can really do it justice…it’s just something that you need to see for yourself.
Thursday morning my buddy Steven and I loaded up the restored, original bodied, Jungle Jim Nitro Funny (from here on out it will be referred to as JJ1) Car that rests peacefully at Honest Charley Speed Shop and Coker Tire HQ in Chattanooga, TN.  The plan was to transport JJ1 to Bowling Green and rendezvous with the Texas Jungle Racing Team which was hauling up the brand new Jungle Jim Car (from here on out it will be referred to as JJ2) from San Antonio.  JJ2 was purpose built under the current rules/specs/guidelines for nostalgia funny car racing, and was completed about a month ago.  Although the car had been fired up and shook down a time or two, this would be its first attempt at the full quarter mile under power.  JJ1 is for show…JJ2 is for go!

Since neither Steven nor I had been to this particular event before, we didn’t really know what to expect.  All I knew for certain was that it was going to be nice to have a break from our own racing and I looked forward to the opportunity to shake hands with some legends of the sport.  Upon arriving at the track we met up with the good ole boys from TX.  The crew consists of Randy Liberman (Jungle’s son), Mitch King (driver), Rudy and Pete Trevino (co-crew chiefs), Bobby Rex, Greg Hubble, Ed and John.  Team owner Henry Gutierrez, and remaining crew members Army Armstrong (back up driver) and Heath Fike would arrive the following day. Read the rest of this entry »

Last Wednesday I had a conversation with a good friend named Dan Reynolds who is a pastor for Oakwood Baptist Church.  During the course of our talk, he told me about a board game that he had played the night before with his family and how towards the end of the game he needed to have a seemingly impossible set of variables go his way in order to win.  He went on to talk about his intuition that somehow, some way, he had this incredible feeling and he just knew that it was going to come together.  Sure enough, the completely impossible happened and he won…much to the disbelief of his family, and dismay of his new son-in-law. Read the rest of this entry »

The man that is credited with being the innovator of  modern day drag tires passed away on June 3, 2009 at the age of 94.  Please see the article below regarding the SEMA Hall of Famer, and the legacy that lives on with the M&H brand that he created.  Humble and hard working, Marvin was always quick to give credit to the racers that helped him test and develop tires through the years.

Godspeed Marvin

See Marvin’s SEMA Hall of Fame Profile

…well, I have a race result, and unfortunately it’s not a very good one.  On Friday, May 22nd my crew chief Steven Farrow, his trusty assistant Lee “Golden Gallon” Hitchcock and I made the journey to Baileyton, Alabama (home of the Tater Hauler) for an outlaw style 6.0 – Modified Class, “Heads Up” race.  The drive took as about 2 ½ hours across some of the most beautiful terrain that the Southeast has to offer. Read the rest of this entry »

…as promised, glamour shots

“If you don’t have anything nice to say…then don’t say anything at all.”  This trite but true saying pretty much sums up my state of mind towards writing a blog for the past month.  That’s not to say that everything is gloom and doom with no relief in site, quite the contrary.  Read the rest of this entry »

At least its warm with all this stuff on

It’s NCAA tournament time, and my #1 seeded Louisville Cardinals are marching towards Detroit.  Let’s hope that my qualifying effort for my first ORSCA event to be held this coming weekend at the brand new I-22 raceway in Alabama…will be good enough to get in a tournament style elimination-bracket of my own.  Pre-season testing to date has been good, bad and ugly. Read the rest of this entry »

NHRA Lucas Oil Division

Check out this weeks special guest blogger, Mike Crutchfield, VP of Coker’s Performance brands.  Mike has raced the first three NHRA divisional events this season in Super Stock and is checking in with the full 411 on what’s taking place in the trenches.  Take it away Mike…

Phoenix drag race tires are on a roll!  Despite being barely a month into the season, the results so far have been amazing.  On March 1st, way out in the wild-west in division 7 Super Stock at the Firebird International Speedway in Phoenix, AZ, the first shot was fired by Emmett Mikolajczyk in his ’69 Chevy Corvette.  Despite qualifying outside the top ten, the San Antonia, TX native Mikolajczyk was able to race his way into the final round of eliminations where he defeated Byron Setters in his ’09 Pontiac G5.  Excellent job Emmett! Read the rest of this entry »

Spring has sprung, the grass has riz….wonder where my drag racin’ is?  Well I guess it’s not exactly spring yet, according to the world’s most eccentric weather forecaster, Punxsutawney Phil (of Groundhog Day fame).  According to the man in the year-round fur coat, we’re in for another 6 weeks of dreary winter weather.  Super.  Oh well, if we can’t race our cars yet, I guess the next best thing is working on them and putting together a race program.  So that’s exactly what’s been going on here for the past couple of months. Read the rest of this entry »

Competition Plus Blog

My good buddy, and fellow Roy Hill School alumni, Bobby Bennett of Competition Plus Magazine, posted this story today about fuel licensing.  He told me that for anybody who survived Roy’s school, getting a nitro license is only a natural progression…it’s either that or become institutionalized for post traumatic stress.

Happy New Year!!
EG

where are those reindeer we keep hearing about

It really is the most wonderful time of the year. 1) I’m sleeping in my own bed instead of a hotel for a change. 2) My dogs are starting to forgive my absence, and we’re getting back on speaking terms…albeit slowly. 3) Forget eggnog, ho ho ho and snow, let’s talk NITRO!!! That’s right, we’re still on track for that Funny Car Exhibition Fuel licensing effort sometime in January or February. If you’ll recall from the last post, Henry Gutierrez and Mitch King are getting things lined up. As to be expected, it’s taking a little while to get everything together, but we’re making progress. Mitch has been digging out his business from the damage that the recent hurricanes brought upon Galveston, TX, and should be up and running soon. When things get back to normal, and we can coordinate everything with the track in Houston, TX, we’ll be set for an attempt. Read the rest of this entry »