Drag Illustrated Issue 113, September 2016 | Page 74
MIKE
JANIS JR.
74 | D r a g
I l l u s t r a t e d | DragIllustrated.com
chiefs. After winning the IHRA Pro Modified
world championship in 2001, Janis parted way
with his crew chiefs, leaving the father-son duo to
make the tune-up calls on their own. That’s when
Janis Jr. had an important epiphany.
“I was sitting in the truck one day and never
really understood how
the clutch worked. Right
there I kind of realized I
had to teach myself starting right now because no
one is going to help me
anymore. I started asking more questions. That
truck ride was a major
turning point. I started
asking my dad questions
and he started trusting me
with decisions on the car.”
Janis Jr. never looked
back, forging forward to
tune his father to a second
IHRA Pro Modified world
championship in 2004.
As important as the Ironman trophies are to Janis,
he also places significant
value on the opportunity
to go racing and travel
the country with his father. The duo has spent a
lot of time together, from
long days in the shop to
late nights behind the wheel of their toterhome
while chasing the IHRA and NHRA Pro Mod
series around North America.
“It’s an experience that you can never really
have the words to say how cool it is,” Janis says.
“I went to college and earned a bachelor’s degree
but I ended up working
for the family business. It’s
something that can never
be taken away. I’ve been
working with my dad fulltime since I was 14. Not
everyone gets to work
with their dad every day.
If we don’t see eye-to-eye
all the time we talk it out.
He’s my best friend. The
memories that we’ve made
have just been awesome.”
As Janis Sr. said, the
arrangement has worked
very well for the Jan-Cen
Motorsports team. Janis
has finished in the Top 10
in points four times in the
six seasons that Pro Mod
has been recognized as
an official, points-earning NHRA class. In fact,
the Jan-Cen Camaro even
came within 14 points of
the 2015 NHRA world
championship on the
“IT’S ALL ABOUT
SURROUNDING
YOURSELF WITH
REALLY GOOD
PEOPLE. THAT’S
WHERE WE’VE BEEN
ABLE TO SEPARATE
OURSELVES FROM
EVERYBODY ELSE,”
JANIS JR. CLAIMS.
Issue 113
PHOTO: STEVE JANIS
W
hen Mike Janis Jr.
walked into the Las
Vegas Monte Carlo
Hotel and Casino ballroom last October for
the 2015 NHRA J&A
Service Pro Mod Series championship
awards banquet, he never expected to
hear his name called when it was time
to dole out the Crew Chief of the Year
award. Surely it would be Steve Petty, the turbo wizard who tuned Troy
Coughlin to his second NHRA Pro
Mod championship, or Chris Bell, who
turned Bob Rahaim’s nitrous-assisted
C7 Corvette into an instant contender
with a surprise win at the season-opening NHRA Gatornationals. Instead, it
was indeed Janis who was called up
to the stage to accept the award previously adorned by names like Jimmy
Rector, Howard Moon, and Petty.
“I almost fell off my chair,” Janis
laughs. “That was my first reaction. After that, I felt really proud and respected because of everybody who voted for
me. We couldn’t vote for ourselves, so
that means my peers were who voted
for me. That was a really big deal to
find that out.”
The Crew Chief of the Year award
ultimately recognized Janis’ role in his
father’s 2015 campaign during which the Pro
Modified veteran finished second in the NHRA
Pro Mod points standings. At just 34 years old,
he’s easily the youngest recipient of the prestigious award, but his humble speech in front of
his peers reflected a maturity beyond his years.
“It was just the whole deal about being in disbelief and having known that we’ve worked so hard
and that I’m just a piece in the ultimate puzzle.
It’s a great award, but I wanted to share it with
the rest of the team and my dad.”
And though he has loads of appreciation for
the work of his son, the elder Janis admits he
was just as surprised when he heard Mike Jr.’s
name announced.
“Being the father, being proud of your son, I
guess words can’t describe it. I had tears in
my eyes when they said that because we were
in shock. We had no idea he was up for it. The
feeling as a parent that your son came up and
he’s that responsible is unreal. At first, years ago,
I would kind of second guess him. Now I have
my own thoughts and I just keep them to myself
and he just does what he needs to do. It’s working
very, very well for us.”
A weekend at the local drag strip was the norm
for Mike Jr. as early as five years old. He grew into
the usual beginner tasks: cleaning tires, polishing
his father’s car, generally helping out with simple
tasks here and there. By his late teens, though,
Ja nis was helping with motor assembly and disassembly, and even serviced the clutch under
the tutelage of his father and the team’s crew