My ties to drag racing date back to 1999 when I moved back to California and needed a job after working in radio in Oklahoma for 4 1/2 years. After a lenghthy job search I was hired as a Media Relations Manager for the NHRA. I had the job for three days and then was put on a plane to Englishtown, N.J. to get thrown right into the thick of it. My official "initiation" into the sport was having to stand with Rick Stewart during Top Fuel qualifying on Friday night and standing between Jim Head and Kenny Bernstein. I could have sworn they were trying to kill me.

No longer working for the NHRA anymore but stay connected to the sport by writing for an auto racing website, FastMachines.com. I made a lot of friends while working at the NHRA and still stay in touch with many of them. Ask Reinhart. He is one that is on my "special email list".

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Check out my blog on being a better tailgater - TailgatingIdeas.com

My connection to drag racing can be seen here
http://youtube.com/watch?v=TDEHTJrxwh0

No connections, nobody in the family ever raced, I just started watching on the TV and got hooked. Then I went to Ennis and was REALLY hooked!

I am nobody famous. I have been racing since about 1963.....And we even had rubber tires......

I started setting up other peoples cars due to no money, something that has plagued me throughout my life. Late 70's started driving a bracket car and did ok. Started working on other peoples cars at their request. Worked on some really neat cars like a Hemi Anglia. Eventually I meet my long term friend and we went TAD racing and then on to TA/FC all told for about 10 years as a crew chief. I have messed with nitro for which I am very thankfully and damn is it addicting but I have also worked on some other cars that were different like a mid-engined blown alky astro van...

Now I am retired from racing as my health issues have been the top eliminator lately. I now watch other people and if I can help I will but I try to keep my mouth shut and just enjoy what is going on. I am a very lucky man as I have been blessed with memories that very few people on this earth have and I am greatful.

One final thought: I love the cars and the competition but it has been the people I have met along the way that made it one hell of a ride.

jim

So that is the short version but damn it has been a good ride

My family owns Applied Friction Techniques, Inc. (AFT Clutches) Manufacture, rebuild and service our parts every day, all day. Talk to racers and crew guys on the phone all day. See all the local So Cal drag racers and crew guys all the time. My dad has lunch with Jim Brissette (crew chief for Doug Herbert) every Tuesday. Del Worsham and Robert Hight are in here all the time.

My dad was a drag racer in the late 50's early 60's. Had the national speed record in top fuel for a while, drove the Doss Bros. world fastest Chevy powered top fueler, as well.

He went to work for Mickey Thompson in the 60's, then started BRC (Brooks Racing Components). Started AFT in 1985.

Pops has been a consultant with Dale Armstrong on Bernstein's, Dixon's and Toliver's cars in the past. And crew chief on Bartone's WWF funny car.

I have been going to the drag's since I was still in mom's belly. Look forward to taking my 15 month old when he is old enough.

I built the 60's style altered 1930 Ford sedan with a 392 Hemi in my avatar about 6 years ago.

Grew up in SoCal and my first drag race was the '65 Winternats. After that, I started going to Irwindale and OCIR on pretty regular basis. Got to work with a few nitro FC's, a few TF and bracket cars, but mostly AA/GS & Comp cars.

Worked at a shop that painted choppers, show cars & race cars and got to work with Tom Stratton while he was learning lettering & pinstriping. After my military stint, went to work for Stratton but had leave later due to bad allergic reaction to paint.

Got out of racing for a long time and now I'm back building a top dragster altered.

Drag racing seems to be a lifelong addiction!

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Paul, just another keyboard "expert"
www.ConceptsEngineering.com, check out the new "Animation" section
Check out altered construction

Paul,
Poly Isocyinates?
Why I got out of the paint selling biz... too many times in the booth demoing without a real respirator...

d'kid

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Comfortably Numb- Fly Navy, Build SEABEES
A friend helps you move, A Real Friend helps you Move Bodies
http://www.myspace.com/ocir_forever

Don't know about the "Poly Isocyinates", but, I didn't use the respirator very often, specially when spraying candy, we use to use Japanese bike touch-up colors that smelled like bananas, I was told they contained banana-oil.

Man I use to LOVE that smell! Might explain my mental "issues" now!

__________________
Paul, just another keyboard "expert"
www.ConceptsEngineering.com, check out the new "Animation" section
Check out altered construction

Poly Iso is the hardener for urethanes... clear coats and two part paints... repeated exposer affects the tiny hairs that clean the garbage out of your lungs...

d'kid

__________________
Comfortably Numb- Fly Navy, Build SEABEES
A friend helps you move, A Real Friend helps you Move Bodies
http://www.myspace.com/ocir_forever

I was born and raised in Detroit.... growing up we always had street rods, hot rods, you name it. My brother even competed on the Supercross 125cc series for a while. Dad raced several different car types when I was a kid at a track called Motor City Dragway. In the mid 1950's he and a few buddies actually started the Michigan Hot Rod Association, along with the Modifiers & Bearingburners car clubs. One kid in particular he got to be good friends with because his Dad had a propane & natural gas shop where he'd let them come in after school & work on the cars inside and use his lift, tools, welder & air compressor. Then on the weekends they'd DRIVE the cars to Motor City Dragway or Detroit Dragway, undo the laker pipes, put slicks on them & pull out the seats. Dad & most of those kids eventually got away from cruising & racing and all got married and had kids. That one kid though, he kind of stuck with racing. His name is Conrad Kalitta.

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On my arm until the day I die, but in my heart forever

How many even belong to NHRA, let alone racing ties?

Guess you could say cars & racing runs in the family for me...
My Mom's dad, Frank Copple, had a body shop in L.A.; he did coachwork for Pierce Brothers Mortuary's hearses & did repairs on guys cars who raced at Gilmore, Ascot & Carrell Speedways...

Dad's dad, Larry Auzene Sr. was a mechanic for almost 40 years in the L.A. area. He built-up early Olds & Caddy motors in his spare time and was the mechanic on my uncle Jack Dalton's '23 T lakes car that held a class record at El Mirage back in 1946-47.

My Dad, Larry Auzene Jr., co-founded the Pharoahs of Burbank back in 1952 with Dick Boyd (who went on to work with Lucas on American Graffiti); one of his favorite cars was his '51 Olds 88 coupe with a hot 303 in it that Grandpa built up...

My uncle, Tommy Garrison, ran Blown Fuel Hydro boats in the '70's & '80's...
Over at his house in Burbank, I'd run into Tommy Ivo, Rod Peppmuller and many others...

My late father-in-law, CR Holder, founded and ran Rocket Muffler in Burbank from 1960 to 1995. He worked on and sponsored several race cars over the years; I still race and show his '55 Chevy wagon, the Rocket Muffler Special.

I've been a member of the Burbank Road Kings since 1992 and the Vanishing Breed Street Machines of Glendale since 1984. I've ran at Famoso, LACR, Carlsbad, Pomona, and Irwindale (new). The '55 & I have been up at the Bakersfield Hot Rod Reunion since 1993....

Oh, yeah, I'm also a proud member of NHRA with a Competition Number!

I'm a member.

My ties to drag racing start basically from the day I was born. My whole family are sportsman racers. From the late 70's to the early 90's my dad did a ton of racing and won alot. So I was raised at the dragstrip. My dad has a picture of me at 11 months old in a wagon at the US Nats with the Hurst Girls when he was running SG. (Mark "the Cowboy" Pawuk beat him in the semis). Then he sold everything in the late 90's and we raised show animals till last year when he decided to go back racing.

I have lots of friends in racing and am related to a few people who work on a few pro teams. Its in my blood, it doesnt matter if its bracket racing or top fuel, its all enjoyable to me!