PHOTOS: COLE ROKOSKY, CHRIS SEARS, NATE VAN WAGNEN |
Andrew“ Andy” Johnson gained a certain amount of viral-video notoriety this fall when his“ Black Knight”’ 57 Chevy briefly took flight off the launch of a qualifying pass for the No Mercy 8 event at South Georgia Motorsports Park. The all-four-wheelsoff-the-ground incident was spectacular enough, complete with a sparks-flying return to earth, but the fact that it came in Johnson’ s first-ever attempt at radial racing made it that much more memorable. Johnson obtained his Jerry Haas-built ride early this year and promptly swapped the Pro- Charger-boosted BAE Hemi and transmission from his Top Dragster into the doorslammer in order to make his Top Sportsman debut with it in the PDRA event at Indianapolis this summer. He made it all the way to the semis that weekend, performing well enough to convince him a trip to South Georgia was called for.
“ I didn’ t even have any radial tires with me when I got to the track,” says the 28-year-old, who normally campaigns in Top Sportsman trim alongside his father Lester’ s similar ProCharger-equipped’ 55 Bowtie.“ I’ d decided to go to the race only a week earlier, so I bought a spare set of wheels and got radial tires for them when I got to the track. But I didn’ t know how to set up for radials, didn’ t have a clue what I was doing. When I got there, I had brand-new shocks on the car and I couldn’ t loosen them up enough to make the car work, so I ended up taking them off and putting the old, wore-out ones back on and that worked out a lot better.”
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After going 3.90s in Top Sportsman trim, Johnson eventually ran a best of 4.01 seconds on radials in a second-round loss to eventual No Mercy winner Dewayne Mills, but vows a return to SGMP for the Lights Out event next February to break into the threes.
With his dad, Johnson co-owns Total Performance Solutions, an industrial automation company in Cynthiana, Kentucky, and says they both gain a certain amount of satisfaction in going their own way when it comes to racing.“ We’ ve always liked to be just a little bit different,” he explains.“ We’ ve been running EFI and ProChargers for about six years now, making us one of the first in the country to run them. I think that’ s what I’ m most proud of so far in racing, just being a little different.” – IAN TOCHER DI
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TYLOR MILLERAt 27 years old, Tylor Miller is a seasoned driver, having started in full-size cars at the ripe age of 9. He’ s also versed in track prep, tunes alongside great minds of the sport, and still has most of his career ahead of him. He came into his own last year, proving that he and his team had staying – and winning – power in PDRA Pro Boost. And while Miller has maintained a competitive presence in Pro Boost, he’ s found himself at a crossroads in his career. His father’ s business, Pee Dee Fleet, has always been the greatest monetary backing of the team, but now with the family’ s latest venture in running Darlington Dragway, plus the continued cost of being competitive in a professional category, it’ s time to reevaluate the racing operation.
For the Millers, that means going radial. Tylor spent much of his early days on 10.5- inch tires, so making the switch won’ t be a far cry for the team, and will hopefully lead to a big payoff at Duck X Productions’ s Radial vs. the World $ 101,000-to-win race next March.
“ Dad said we were crazy if we didn’ t try,” Miller explains.“ If we can win that we’ ll have our racing budget for PDRA. We’ ve already been testing for radials. I made a few passes. Our third pass we made it down and it went pretty quick. Within six passes on that car we were already in the threes.”
Even though Miller is putting his bid in for radials, the team hasn’ t lost their focus on Pro Boost.
“ The car Andy McCoy is building for us now I think will be even better than the car we’ ve run the last three years. We’ re open book right now. We’ re really open to whatever anyone wants to help us go do. If somebody comes along and wants us to help us run PDRA, we’ ll go PDRA. If somebody wants to help us run NHRA, it’ s kinda hard to turn it down.” – LISA COLLIER DI
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November 2017 |
DragIllustrated. com | Drag Illustrated | 101 |