Q&A
BARRY DANILUK
By Nate Van Wagnen
Race Tech-built dragster to the Top Dragster fi-
nal-round win over touring regular Matt Cooke.
Using a narrow holeshot advantage, Langley ran
a 4.628 on his 4.62 dial-in to defeat Cooke’s 4.104
on a 4.01 dial-in. Cooke was chasing his second
consecutive win on the PDRA tour. Langley de-
feated Camrie Caruso, Travis Laster and Jason
Kirby before facing Cooke.
T
h e P D R A’ s To p S p o r t s m a n c l a s s i s
filled with a variety of personalities, body styles
and engine combinations. While nitrous-assisted
power plants have typically topped the charts, one
man has made it his mission in racing to prove
that a naturally aspirated car can be a major player in Top
Sportsman. Red Deer, Alberta, Canada’s Barry Daniluk
made history at the PDRA Southern Extreme Nationals
this March when his ’68 Camaro became the first naturally
aspirated, full-bodied doorslammer to run in the 3-second
zone – a 3.989-second pass. He’s bettered his mark to a
3.976 and has intentions of going even quicker before the
year is over.
Drag Illustrated spoke with Daniluk during qualifying
at the North-South Shootout to learn more about his car
and his drive to succeed without power adders.
Your history-making 3-second run was also a major
personal milestone. How important to you was that run?
That was a huge achievement, something I’ve been try-
ing to do for so long. Every time you come so close – ran a
4.00 at Memphis last year – you know it’s right there. We
just had a lot of trouble harnessing the horsepower and
getting the car down the track. The car has a lot of torque
and it’s a struggle to manage that.
What was the game changer?
We started at Valdosta this year and tried a totally differ-
ent approach with gear ratios and shocks. Adam Lambert
and Precision Racing Suspension were key in helping us
get the car down the track. If it wasn’t for them, I don’t
think I would’ve gotten that 3-second run. They’ve got it
figured out. I’ve always had the horsepower, I just haven’t
been able to get it to stick. As the air gets better, this thing
just turns into a monster.
98 PDRA660.co m
PDRA MagnaFuel Top Sportsman has become such a
competitive class. What is it about running a naturally
aspirated combination that drives you?
Well, everybody goes nitrous or turbocharged or su-
percharged. Nobody does naturally aspirated – nobody.
I thought, well, if we can get Ron Miller to build a motor
big enough, we can do it. Ron is an extremely meticulous
engine builder and he likes getting after horsepower. I
started with his mountain Pro Stock motor, which at that
time was 832 c.i. I was able to get that to go fast; faster
than when he had it in a Pro Stock car. Then I said, “Well,
let’s build a bigger motor and go faster.” And so we started
with this one at 878, then 932 and now we’re at 978. It
runs good. It stays together. We’ll run the same engine all
summer. It’s impressive. It’s nice to run with the fast cars
and still qualify in the top half. That’s pretty cool to do that
without all the power adders.
What is it about PDRA MagnaFuel Top Sportsman
that inspires you to come all the way from western Can-
ada to race?
We make the 55-hour drive down for the first race of the
year and leave the unit down here. We fly back and forth
for the races, then we take the unit back home in the fall.
I like the Top Sportsman class because it’s very, very fast.
You have to be on kill just to qualify. I like the eighth mile
because it tears up less stuff. It’s not as dangerous either.
This car will do 232 mph in the quarter. That’s movin’. So
I like this eighth-mile racing where I do 183 mph and I’m
happy with that.
What’s next on your agenda?
Through the summer, if I can learn what the car wants
to get down the track, which I’m getting a good feel for,
I’m hoping to dip into the 3.8s at the World Finals in the
fall when the air will be good.
son defeated Tim Lawrence, Tim Molnar and
Bruce Thrift.
With a massive field of Top Sportsman entries,
a Quick 32 field was added to accommodate the
additional cars. The Quick 32 win went to Mike
Koontz, who drove his ’00 Chevy S10 pickup to
a 4.728 on a 4.73 dial-in over Ronnie Proctor’s
breakout 4.355 on a 4.36 dial-in.
Mechanicsville’s own Jerry Langley drove his