Dirt
By Lisa Collier
T
op Dragster competitor Justin
Kirk currently sits second in PDRA
championship points, just over three
rounds behind points leader David
Brown. Despite the fact that Kirk has put himself in a position to possibly win the PDRA Top
Dragster world championship, he admits it’s been
a difficult year. This season he hasn’t seen much
of the success he’s become known in his budding career.
After fighting their current dragster for the
first five events, Kirk and his team decided they’d
had enough. They were planning to build a new
dragster in the off-season, but they found a deal
they couldn’t pass up. With the help of backer
BWC Trucking, Kirk quickly decided to purchase
Bob Sheridan’s 2014 Spitzer dragster.
“Bob Sheridan was wanting to go a different
route with his racing,” Kirk explains. “The dragster has only got about six or eight races on it. We
just decided to snatch that one up now instead of
waiting to build a new one. It’s practically brand
new; he just got the bugs worked
out for us.”
Sheridan has been a 3.91 with
the dragster, proving it has what
it takes to compete in Lucas Oilsponsored PDRA Top Dragster
division. With Kirk’s engine and
drivetrain in the car, he expects it
to be even quicker. “We’ve been 3.87
with our other combination and this
car’s 200 pounds lighter,” Kirk continues. “We should be able to go in
the .80s fairly easy. We’re really not
trying to go fast. Our other car was
built as a four-link and we had it
converted to a hard tail. We’ve been
having problems leaving the starting line. We
were hoping we could stick that car out through
the season, but it’s a must-do thing I guess.
“It’s definitely not ideal to switch cars in the
middle of the season being second in points, but
we were just having problems. One round we’re
good and the next round it won’t leave the same.
My lights are all over the board.”
Kirk pinpoints the problems he saw in his old
car to the four-link to hard tail conversion. The
Spitzer dragster that debuted at the Memphis
Drags in mid-August is a hard tail, and is also
26-inches longer than his
previous dragster.
“The blower combination seems to be hard on
driveshafts. We’ve slung
two driveshafts out the
car. The ProChargers, I
think they can get away
with a four-link because
they don’t leave as hard.
Their power comes in on
out. I just think the initial
hit with a four-link in a
blower car a lot of flexing goes on.
“Every racer seems to
say they don’t have no
luck, but the best package
in first round seems to
be beside me most of the
time. We’re hanging in
there. There’s 16 rounds
of racing left and we got
three rounds left to catch
David Brown so we’re trying to chip away it.”
Kirk thanks Randy and Cathy of BWC Trucking, Matt Hornbuckle of PEN Performance Engines, and his father, Doug, for supporting him
as he chases his first championship.
“We want to thank the PDRA for giving us
a place to race. As long as PDRA is there we’re
going to be there,” he adds. “I also want to thank
Andrew, Jason, and all the boys back at Randy’s
shop for making the car switch happen. They put
in about 25 extra hours just for the race car on
top of what they do for Randy.”
Kirk will test the new-to-him dragster before
the Memphis Drags, making every effort to ease
the transition into the new car and give him the
best chance at chasing down David Brown in the
final four events of the season.
“It’s always exciting to debut a new car. Not
something you want to do in the middle of the
season, but something we have to do to give us the
best chance at fighting for the championship.”
DI DI DI
DI DI DI DI
DI DI DI
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Issue 112
PHOTOS: DRAG ILLUSTRATED ARCHIVES
Justin Kirk’s Getting Serious