Irv Johns, who recorded an elapsed time of 9.976 seconds, the quickest run ever by a Drag Pak by Mopar vehicle, prepares to make a pass at the JEGS Northern SPORTSnationals. Editor’s note: At press time, Jeremy Duncan bettered Johns' mark with a pass of 9.74, while driving Johns' Drag Pak at the NHRA Memphis event in October.
Drag Pak Fever
Mopar® historians will no doubt record the summer of 2009 as a landmark in the annals of the Mopar Nation. The season served witness to the much-anticipated competition debut of the Dodge Challenger Drag Pak by Mopar, the “first” drag-race-only factory package car to be built in 40 years, since the 1968 HEMI® Dodge Dart and Plymouth Barracuda vehicles. Once the Drag Paks hit the strip, they wasted no time in demonstrating exactly what kind of punch they “pak.”The prestigious Mac Tools U.S. Nationals in September marked the NHRA national event debut of the Dodge Challenger Drag Pak by Mopar. Front and center at “The Big Go” was “Big Daddy” Don Garlits, an eight-time winner at the U.S. Nationals, making his comeback to NHRA competition for the first time since 2003. What was “Big” driving? None other than his Dodge Challenger Drag Pak by Mopar, the first production Drag Pak ever made. Garlits competed in the Stock Eliminator class at Indy.
Garlits also participated in a parade of Drag Pak by Mopar vehicles prior to the HEMI Challenge final round at the Mac Tools U.S. Nationals on Sept. 4. The Drag Paks of Garlits, Randy Warford and Larry Griffith, whose Drag Pak was on display at the Mopar Direct Connection trailer, were paraded up the return road toward the finish line. Fans greeted the new Mopar package cars enthusiastically, standing and cheering while Garlits waved from his Drag Pak.
Unfortunately, the 77-year-old Garlits was unable to qualify for the Stock Eliminator field, posting a run that was 0.868 seconds below the class index. Warford qualified No. 6 in his Drag Pak by Mopar with a 10.013 elapsed time. Irv Johns also qualified in his Drag Pak by Mopar, though neither was able to advance deep into the Stock Eliminator elimination rounds.“It has been many years since I had so much fun at the U.S. Nationals,” said Garlits, who retired for the first time in 1987. He ran a limited schedule of four NHRA National events each year in 2002 and 2003 before he stepped out of Top Fuel. “I like my Dodge Challenger Drag Pak much better than a dragster. It takes 25 people to get a dragster to the line these days. All I have to do with the Dodge Challenger is turn the key and take it there. When the light turns green I have a ten-second ride—which is almost three times what I used to get—and I even have time to look at the tach and shift gears.”
Johns put on a display of what the Drag Pak by Mopar is capable of at the JEGS Northern SPORTSnationals at National Trail Raceway in Columbus, Ohio, in late September. He steered his Drag Pak to victory in the A/SA Stock Eliminator class runoffs after winners were determined by the lowest ET of the qualified runs due to inclement weather. Johns posted an ET of 9.976, the quickest run ever by a Drag Pak by Mopar vehicle, during qualifying.
Johns also earned the No. 1 qualifier spot for the entire Stock Eliminator field and posted the top speed of the entire class with a run clocked at 134.46 mph. The Charlestown, Ind., native was understandably proud of his Mopar-powered Drag Pak.
“We have the fastest Drag Pak on the strip,” said Johns. “I love it. It’s really an easy car to drive. The car rode the lights on me, which took some off our time. We can go in the low nines.”
Johns has set the bar high. Who will lower it? Regardless of the outcome, it makes for a most entertaining game of Mopar-powered Drag Pak limbo!
