“Honey, you’re never going to believe what I saw at the race track today…”

I met Bobby at the ORSCA event held in Montgomery, AL last November, and I immediately took a liking to his style. He’s pretty much been the man when it comes to making huge horsepower and mud racing. However, after conquering that world, he felt compelled to do what any true-bloodied outlaw innovator does…look for a new challenge. So, he decided to “give this drag racing thing a try.” I’m sure glad he did. Check out his site:

www.msmisery.com

At PRI Orlando, the topic of tires came up. I told him that 4wd drag trucks aren’t exactly our specialty, but if he’s up for it…so am I. Look for Ms. Misery to be wearing some Phoenix test sneakers sometime in 2010.

Click for video of Bobby testing his 4×4 Outlaw 10.5 Truck

EG

Ps- I just got back from the IHRA Nitro Jam in FL, look for the full 411 in the next few days.

October 3rd – Southern Outlaw Heads Up Last Friday morning my mood reflected the weather outside…rainy, cold and dark. I’m not going to get into everything, as this aint a self-help column, and I’m a drag racer….not the Unabomber. Anyways, it had been 4 weeks since I’d gotten to race, and it appeared as if this particular evening’s qualifying session was also in jeopardy due to rain. To be perfectly honest about it, I didn’t really care whether it got rained out or snowed out for that matter. Although the weather did come around, and qualifying did happen, I finally just decided to sit it out and see how I felt about things Saturday morning. (more…)

It’s not every day that you happen to come across two nitro funny cars while on your way to pick up toilet paper and potato chips…but that’s exactly what a few lucky gear heads ran into last Friday morning in the Wal-mart parking lot in Lookout Valley, TN. My buddies Army Armstrong and Heath Fike were trucking it through town in a 53 ft. rig hauling JJ2 to Oklahoma where they were to rendezvous with the rest of the Texas Jungle crew. Since Chatt-a-Vegas is on the way, they decided to swing through for an impromptu visit and to pick up JJ2’s older brother, JJ1, for a family reunion of sorts to be held in Bakersfield, CA (read:NHRA Hot Rod Reunion). (more…)

…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. (more…)

Well it’s my first Fall season in the South and what a magical time of year it is. Change is in the air; the mornings are crisp, afternoons are sunny and warm, college football is the talk of the town and for the most part, the drag racing season is winding down. However, it seems like things are just getting wound up on this end…although it’s been the Summer of discontent with almost every conceivable mechanical/scheduling difficulty you could think of for racing a car…I’ve managed to make huge strides in the past couple of weeks. Recent test sessions have netted several consistent ET’s in the 6.02-6.05 range…which is right where we need to be for the last non-sanctioned, Outlaw 6.0 “heads-up” race of the year scheduled for November 1st-2nd at the Brainerd Optimist Drag Strip in Ringgold, GA.

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Comp Eliminator Qualifications
September 26th-28th, Memphis, TN, NHRA Mid-South National

Darren Breaud topped the field in Super Stock Competition last weekend in Sonny Stancil’s Phoenix tire equipped Dodge Stratus. Darren had an untimely first round departure after a mechanical issue kept him from getting to the starting line. 14 of the 66 class participants in Super Stock were on Phoenix.

Breaud gets ready to set the pole in qualifying

Glen Self continued his winning ways in Competition Eliminator at Memphis. Glen qualified second and eventually finished in the runner up position. Also of note, Super Stock standout Jimmy DeFrank recently qualified #1 and won the NHRA divisional race in Eagle Point, OR. Hat’s off to each of these gentlemen for their excellent performances using Phoenix race tires! (more…)

Over the past few months I’ve had the distinct privilege of getting to know a couple of local Chattanooga police officers who support a very noble cause. Officers Joe Warren and Marty (get-r-done) Dunn. Joe was introduced to me early this Spring by mutual sponsor and friend Mike Goodman of Honest Charley Speedshop. Joe represents the local chapter of a national organization called “Beat the Heat” which features police officers who like to drag race all the while promoting a positive message to youths in the community…”keep it on the track and off the streets.” Marty is building a very cool retro/police/race car, and helps turn a wrench every now and then on my own rig. (He also provided my first ride in a cop car without wearing hand cuffs! It’s the little things in life that make it all worthwhile).

Cop Car

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Gettin ready for some more T-N-T (test ‘n tune)

“Successful racers test. The primary source of knowledge should come from personal experience. Young racers excluded, those late nights in the shop, parts failures in the heat and dumb attacks on the race track all serve the purpose of a maturing racer. Importance should be placed on surviving each lesson until you know what you are doing.” This excerpt was taken from Dave Morgan’s book “Door Slammers: The Chassis book“…which after first glance, at its various formulas and diagrams, appeared to me as having been written by a Chinese mathematician.

So far I’ve tested my survival skills, patience, bank account, relationships and work in a quest for a quick and consistent race car. It all started early last year while I was still living in California. Without doing my homework, and acting like a novice fool, I went out and purchased what I thought was the fastest, nastiest race car I could afford. All the key words were in the add : “low 8 second ¼ mile car at altitude, big block, tunnel ram, 2 carbs, pro shot fogger nitrous system, lenco 4 speed, wheelie bars, parachute…blah, blah, blah” It looked and sounded like it was doing a 160mph just sitting there. That ought to scare the neighbors. Perfect.

Wrong. Instead of going the speed of sound the first time out, the car ended up frying like a crispy piece of bacon with me in it. I ended up learning how to use a fire extinguisher and water house before I ever got to arm the fancy nitrous system. Upon further investigation, the rocket scientist who wired the car didn’t bother to use any fuses, therefore creating a very dangerous electrical fire that started somewhere around the firewall and worked its way back through the car. (more…)

Hello and welcome to the first edition of EG’s blog. It’s my distinct pleasure to be part of dragracetires.com, which is a new website intended to provide you with the latest information about Phoenix, M&H and Firestone Nostalgia drag tires. I’m a recent transplant from LA (that’s LA California…not Lower Alabama), I work for Coker Tires’ Performance Division in Chattanooga TN, my full name is Eric Gullett, and my title is Drag Tire Specialist. Whew!

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Well, you’ve met Mike Crutchfield, VP Performance tires. Now, you gotta meet Eric Gullett! Eric came to Chattanooga just a few short months ago, and I am very pleased he is on board as a Drag Tire Specialist. I spent the whole weekend getting tat’s just so he would feel welcome.* Eric will be piloting the blog on Dragracetires.com. You can call him and order tires too! So, ….Here’s Eric!

Shift gears, burn rubber, go fast, live right!

Corky Coker