Dirt
A Cavalier Return
Legendary drag radial racer
David Wolfe surfaces at latest
big money shootouts
By Ainsley Jacobs
38 | D r a g
I l l u s t r a t e d | DragIllustrated.com
around 2012. “I race for a few
years, and then I disappear
and go back to work. It’s a
cycle. I wish it wasn’t, but to
do it full time takes so much
time and money. When I’m
not at the shop, I’m not making money.”
Founded in 1991, Wolfe
Race Craft began as a chassis fabrication shop but has
morphed into a parts manufacturer.
“We have a bunch of CNC
machines now, and we do our
own parts as well as private
label parts. We still do racecar stuff, but not on
the scale of our machine shop stuff,” explained
Wolfe of his current business model. “You have to
remake yourself about every four or five years. In
the racecar world, there’s always somebody who’s
hot and somebody who’s not.”
Wolfe’s desire to race wouldn’t go away, and
in late 2014, he picked up an ’05 Chevy Cavalier.
Wolfe obtained the ex-IHRA Pro Stock car from
a guy in Houston, Texas. What was one man’s
trash (or, in this case, forgotten project) became
Wolfe’s new treasure.
Over time, Wolfe gathered up parts and got the
Cavalier running. A 523 cubic inch big block from
Hans Feustel Racing Engines was installed along
with a set of twin Precision turbochargers, sized
to meet whatever racing sanctioning body’s rules
he needs to comply with. The Turbo 400 lock up
on board came direct from Mark Micke’s M&M
Transmission, while Billet Atomizer injectors
fuel the Cavalier’s new methanol-sipping, radial
tire life. Lastly, Clark Brothers Paint & Body in
Arlington, Texas, sprayed a coat of Wolfe’s familiar
yellow color.
“We do most of the work in-house, because I
don’t like asking people for things,” laughed Wolfe.
Issue 109
PHOTOS: JT HUDSON, ANDREW WOLF
A
sk any serious radial tire racer,
and they’ll confirm that David Wolfe
was one of the best in the game. Wolfe,
who spent a significant amount of his
time behind the wheel winning races and setting records, has taken a hiatus from the small
tire world as of late, but found he just couldn’t
stay away.
Hailing from the great state of Texas, Wolfe is
often considered to be a “silent giant”. Over the
years, he became the man renowned for having
the ability to make any car go fast. His twin-turbo
Fox body ’89 Mustang LX, though, was perhaps
his most well-known partner
and was an outlaw drag radial mainstay during the late
2000s and early 2010s.
“The radial thing wasn’t
anything like it is now,” Wolfe
reminisced. “We started out
on 10.5 tires and went to a lot
of local races, and traveled to
some of the other small tire
events. Then Donald [Long]
started his radial deal, and it
went nuts.”
World record this, low ET
that – Wolfe’s name made
headlines wherever he went,
and he was even featured
on the cover of Issue No.
42 of Drag Illustrated in
August 2010.
Eventually, Wolfe had to
make the tough decision to curtail his racing endeavors in favor of focusing on his business, Wolfe
Race Craft. “I ne eded to focus on the shop. Racing
is fun, but it doesn’t pay the bills,” he noted of
his most recent change of pace, which happened