All in the Family
Top: Steven Whiteley has enjoyed
a breakout season in the NHRA
Pro Mod class, winning his first
race at the season-opener in
Gainesville and showing im-
pressive consistency since.
Left: A year of winning rookie of
the year honors in NHRA, Pro Stock
Motorcycle’s Cory Reed started his
own two-bike team, adding three-
time world champ Angelle Sampey
as rider and team manager.
Right: The winner’s circle celebra-
tion has become a regular thing for
Jim and Annie Whiteley, with Jim
boasting a strong resume in Top
Alcohol Dragster and now Pro Mod,
while his wife has performed well
for years in Top Alcohol Funny Car.
it came to different classes and cars.
For Jim, it was about driving in the Top Al-
cohol class that lit his passion decades ago as a
child. As business took off, that dream became
a reality. Then, as his racing operation increased
substantially, he became a standout driver, win-
ning Top Alcohol Dragster championships in
both 2012 and 2013.
“When the business took off, it really helped my
dad have success,” Reed says. “I think it drove the
April 2017
whole family, too. Racing is fun; winning races
is even better and winning championships is the
best; everything kind of fell into place. My dad
has always been the pioneer and willing to try
whatever.”
It helped that Annie Whiteley was fully on
board, too.
“As we’ve grown our business, at the same time
we’ve been able to grow our racing and step up
into faster cars and faster classes. Jim wanted us
to explore the things we wanted to explore. He
didn’t force us into one particular car. He was
very open to all of it,” she says.
Annie went from driving fuel altereds to Top
Alcohol Funny Car, classes Jim believed were safer
than Top Alcohol Dragster, while Reed chose
the two-wheeled route, first as a professional
motocross racer before jumping into Pro Stock
Motorcycle. Annie admits that riding in PSM was
the only way to convert Reed from motocross to
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