Life in the Fast Lane

A Way of Life for Mopar® Sportsman Racers

Words: Darren Jacobs and Bruce Biegler

Walk around any NHRA or IHRA event and you’ll find them, pitted far away from the extravagant setups of professional racers—they of the tractor-trailers brightly festooned in sponsor graphics, the well-manned, nattily uniformed race teams and well-stocked hospitality tents, complete with personal chefs. It might take some hunting, but if you search hard enough, you’ll discover the quiet engine of the drag racing world and, most importantly, of the Mopar® Nation—grassroots sportsman racers.

No one begrudges professional racers, most of whom began their careers in the sportsman ranks, the perks they’ve earned. But their grassroots brethren deserve recognition as well. For although they may never star in an ad campaign, or sign an autograph, or see production of their own custom-made, limited edition t-shirt or drag car diecast, the men and women who compete across the country in the sportsman ranks rival any pro racer in their effectiveness as brand ambassadors due to the die-hard passion they display for all things Mopar.

Members of the sportsman breed are easily discernible. They’re the ones who toil throughout the week at regular jobs, raising dollars to go racing, all the while dreaming of the weekend and their chance to do the only thing that really matters—whip the person in the opposite lane at their local quarter-mile. They’re the ones hauling their Mopar-powered dragster cross-country in a plain white trailer (no ornate sponsor logos here) hitched to their personal Dodge Ram truck, paying today’s high cost of fuel out of their own pocketbooks. They’re the ones who act as their own sponsors and whose “hospitality” area consists of a few lawn chairs and a table lined with a spread of cold pizza and a few cold beverages.

They’re the ones who consider the Mopar Performance Parts catalog as their racing “bible”—and through which they order an amazing amount of Mopar parts. They’re the ones working in a family-owned, doing-just-enough-to-get-by race team, dissecting every tough loss and celebrating every hard-fought win late into the night. And they’re the ones who go right back to work on Monday after racing on Sunday, grinding through another work week just to get the chance to go racing again the next weekend.

They deserve to be recognized, one and all, these Mopar grassroots racers, but space constraints dictate otherwise. Instead, we offer the following portraits of four grassroots racers and race teams to act as a snapshot of the legions of Mopar-powered sportsman competitors. And we hope perhaps the next time you find yourself in the sportsman pits at a drag race you’ll have a little better understanding of the dedication, perseverance and passion that fuels these unsung heroes—Mopar-powered grassroots racers.

Steve Wann

Modesto, Calif. resident Steve Wann caught the Mopar bug like many a racer before him, from his father. Wann, a mechanic in his day job, has been a “Mopar man” since watching his father run with Mopar power at drag strips in the late 1960s.

“That’s what I’ve grown to love,” said Wann, who also builds Mopar race engines in his shop, Steve Wann Racing Engines, after working his 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. day job. “I’ve only raced Mopars.”

Wann currently competes in a 1973 Dodge Dart Sport equipped with a 340 engine in the NHRA Stock Eliminator class and also drives a 1969 Plymouth Barracuda with a 383 engine in NHRA Super Stock competition. He has a racing partner who owns the Dart and splits expenses, but Wann still estimates his costs to enter 20 races across the country at about $30,000 annually out of pocket.

“Everything you do you have to try to make smart decisions—where to spend money, where not to spend money,” said Wann, talking by phone as he hauled his racing rig and car through Utah en route to the O’Reilly NHRA Summer Nationals in May at Topeka, Kan. “You have to try to go conservatively to offset your expenses. I’ve always had to work hard just to be able to race.”

Wann is not conservative about the number of Mopar parts he uses to power his race cars. If it says Mopar on it and the part is permissible, he runs it.

“We run the Mopar blocks, heads, valve covers, intake manifolds,” said Wann. “Whatever you can run legally that Mopar makes, we run.” So it stands to reason that Wann is a big proponent of the Mopar Contingency Program, which rewards sportsman racers with financial payouts for competing with specified Mopar parts (see sidebar on page 14).

“The program helps inspire a racer to want to build a Mopar versus another brand,” Wann said. “Mopar actually pays out contingency awards and they are there for the support, where others are not.”

The long-time sportsman competitor enjoyed his best season in 2000, when he finished No. 2 in the national points in NHRA Stock Eliminator and won the Division 7 Stock Eliminator and Super Stock championships, driving a 1970 Plymouth GTX and a 1997 Dodge Dakota pickup, respectively, both of which Wann has since sold.

Wann isn’t shy about stating his opinion about the importance of grassroots racers.

“I feel sportsman racers are the backbone of the sport. We are the majority of cars that attend all the races,” said Wann, who joined forces with his fellow Mopar compatriots out West to found a Web site, www.westcoastmopargang.com, to spotlight the endeavors of West Coast Mopar sportsman drivers. “I understand the fact that the pros are there to bring in the big crowds at these large events, but I don’t think we get quite as much recognition as we should.”

That fact doesn’t deter Wann, who has plans to unveil yet another race car this year, a 1969 Stock Eliminator Plymouth Barracuda. He hopes to debut the Barracuda at the Mac Tools U.S. Nationals in Indianapolis on Labor Day weekend but, in a concern common to self-funded racers far and wide, Wann said, “It all depends on the finances.”

The Downing Family

For the Downing family, both work and play center around Mopar power. During the week the Arizona clan of racers repairs Chrysler vehicles in their day jobs as mechanics at Bill Luke Chrysler-Jeep®-Dodge, but on the weekend the four-car Downing team rips it up at the strip in their Mopar-powered sportsman race cars.

There was never any choice as to which brand the family would drive, as father Dwight worked as a mechanic at the Bill Luke dealership for 40 years before retiring. Dwight’s sons, Bryan and Keith, followed in their father’s footsteps and have worked at the dealership for 26 years and 20 years, respectively.

The Downing family began its long affair with sportsman racing in 1982, when Dwight built his 1979 Plymouth Arrow, which he still competes in today in the NHRA Super Street class. Bryan, the eldest son, steers a 1993 Dodge Daytona in the Super Gas class, powered by a 571 cubic inch big block Mopar Wedge engine with Mopar B1 heads.

Keith races a 2004 Super Comp dragster outfitted with a 500 cubic inch big block Mopar engine, also equipped with Mopar B1 heads. Bryan’s son Nik steers a 1970 Dodge Challenger fueled by a small block Mopar engine in the Super Gas and Super Street classes. Not to be left out, Bryan’s son Austin, 15, is having his own dragster built, and Bryan’s nephew Zack is also being groomed to race.

Bill Luke Chrysler-Jeep-Dodge provides the Downings with invaluable support, helping with parts and entry fees and also accommodating requests for time off to go racing. That aside, the family races on their own dime, pumping in about $40,000 per year to fund their Mopar-powered race team. Pennies must be pinched, corners must be cut, and the sudden break down of a part can lead to a tough decision.

“If we break a motor, sometimes we have to make a choice on which cars to take to the track,” said Bryan Downing, who stole a moment on break from his day job to talk. “You know, which car will stay at the shop and which will make the trip. Sometimes we have to sit out a couple of months and get it back together and do it again. We do whatever it takes to get to the track. It’s a challenge to keep all of the cars running.”

Bryan spends at least two nights a week aside from his job as a mechanic fine-tuning his Dodge Daytona and getting it competition ready. He assembles all the engines for the team, which does all the chassis work on the vehicles themselves to cut costs. The Downings mostly attend West Coast events, and they save money by sleeping at the track.

“We try to hit as many as we can, about 10 events a year,” said Bryan. “We go to events in Nevada, Arizona, California, Colorado. This year Dad will travel to Topeka and to Chicago for the JEGS All-Star event. When we travel, we stay at the track. Our race car trailer also has a microwave, fridge and shower. We just basically camp out as a family. It’s kind of cool. It makes it nice.”

The Downings’ hard work has paid off with on-track success. Keith has finished in the top 10 in the NHRA Super Comp point standings two years straight, while Bryan has finished in the top 10 of the Division 7 Super Gas standings three times and won the NHRA Division 7 ET championship five years ago and advanced to the World Finals at Pomona. Dad Dwight has captured the Division 7 Super Street class championship two years in a row and has been invited to the JEGS All-star race in Chicago for three years straight.

Another batch of Downing men are reaching adulthood and are impatient to take their turn behind the wheel of a Mopar-powered sportsman race car.

“It’s pretty well just a family deal and it’s been a great success story,” said Bryan. “With my children and my nephews involved, we see it moving on to the next generation as well.”

Shane and Jonathan Gray

NHRA drag racing veteran racer Johnny Gray, who is racing partner to Allen and Roy Johnson’s very potent Mopar Pro Stock Dodge Stratus R/T racing team, may compete in the professional ranks, but like most grassroots racers he fuels his S.K.I. (Spending Kids Inheritance) Team on his own dime. The organization is funded by Gray’s highly successful New Mexico-based oil company, and Gray is now spearheading the development of his two sons in drag racing (guess he’s spending at least some of the inheritance on the kids!).

While Gray remains active on the full-time NHRA Full Throttle series his sons Shane and Jonathan are busy campaigning a second Dodge Stratus within the NHRA Sportsman level Competition eliminator ranks.

Driven by Shane Gray and using a 448 cid HEMI® engine program by Larry Morgan, the A/A classed Stratus has already skipped to a super-quick 6.97-second elapsed time and has had some very strong event outings, including a No. 1 qualifier at Las Vegas and a semifinal finish during last year’s World Finals at Pomona. In addition to driving, Shane oversees the engine tune-up. His younger brother Jonathan is tasked with drivetrain and suspension duties.

“We acquired this car from V. Gaines during mid-2008 and ran four national events with it last season,” Shane revealed. “Basically, it’s a Pro Stock car, a 5-speed with a smaller motor. We’ve really begun to get a handle on the car—it’s more than capable of winning. It’s really just a matter of me living up to it as a driver in this tough category.”

While Shane’s team remains totally focused on Competition Eliminator for 2009, they are also eyeing the chance to make the ultimate jump for a sportsman racer—stepping up to the pro level and into the Pro Stock ranks.

“Our plan is to do well in this phase with an ultimate goal to go Pro Stock racing,” Shane confirmed.

Herb and Mike McCandless

As the Downings have shown, it’s not unusual for the passion of grassroots racers to be passed down from generation to generation. For Herb McCandless, one of drag racing’s most famous and recognizable names from Pro Stock racing during the 1970s, both his sons and grandsons are now carrying the torch forward. Recently, his sons Herb Jr. and Mike have taken on an interesting project, a totally unique and rethought 1967 Dodge Coronet which features a 360 cid Magnum® motor. That car will be campaigned with IHRA Stock eliminator “crate motor” competition.

“We started this project only very recently during the spring,” explained Herb Jr. “It was originally a U/SA with a 273 2-barrel motor. It changed hands a few times and morphed since then. Shortly after acquiring the car we drove it into my dad’s shop and we took it apart. My dad then went to work on it doing some of the trick stuff he did back in the 1970s which many racers of today are really not aware of. After that chassis tune-up, and still using stock Chrysler cylinder heads, the car immediately picked up performance.”

The car, which tips the scales at 3,800 lbs with the driver, is expected to run in the 7.25 to 7.30 second range to the one-eighth-mile and between 11.40 and 11.50 seconds in the quarter-mile.

Mike McCandless has been tasked with the driving chores for this season; however, the team confirmed that Jonathan McCandless (who is currently 14) will take over as driver when he turns legal age in two to three years. Jonathan’s younger brother, nine-year-old Jason, is also a budding future drag racer—he is already a Junior Dragster Champion in IHRA racing.

Future plans for the creative machine and team also include the possibility of converting it to Super Stock class competition with most probably a 383 cid engine program.