Drag Illustrated Issue 129, January / February 2018 | Page 54
D.I. COLUMNIST
Tuned Up
with Will Hanna
F
irst off, I would like to
thank Wes Buck and the
entire staff of Drag Illus-
trated for giving me the oppor-
tunity to write this column. The
transformation of DI from a start-
up a little over 10 years ago to the
premier publication in the sport of
drag racing has been nothing short
of phenomenal. While I have con-
tributed things here and there over
the years, I’m humbled they have
given me this platform.
With my monthly column here,
and our new “Tuneup Tuesday”
Facebook Live show, I hope to share
some insights into tuning and rac-
ing. I have been fortunate enough
to tune a variety of different types
of race cars. Right there with tun-
ing different types of cars is tuning
different cars in the same class.
Whether it’s “cross-discipline” or
‘intra-discipline’ experience, it has
helped me identify common themes
and specific themes.
DI didn’t ask me to write an auto-
biography, so I’ll try to give a short
background for those of you who
may not be familiar with my back-
ground. Well, it all started when I
was 3…OK, that will be too long
winded. I’m a second-generation
racer who grew up mainly on the
Texas Gulf Coast. My dad, Rick
Hanna, drove an A/Fuel Dragster
in Pro Comp in the late ‘70s, then
wrenched on Jay Meyer’s Top Alco-
hol Dragster in the 80s and 90s. I
grew up at tracks around Division
4 in the 80s, back when your Funny
Car had to have a cool name to have
some “street cred”, as they say now. I
raced Jr. Dragsters in the early 90s
at Houston Raceway Park when
Erica Enders was just getting “On
Track.” I bracket raced a ’68 Camaro
in High School at Lonestar Race-
way Park, then signed up for the US
Army as a tank driver, was stationed
at Ft. Hood, Texas, as part of the
1 st Cavalry Regiment (Go FIRST
Team!). I signed out of the Army
on May 28, 2000, and went to work
full-time drag racing later that day
in Ennis, Texas, back when there
were two national events there.
While attending Brazosport
College, I got aggravated at the
lack of coverage the Top Alcohol
classes were getting in the media
and started what was then called
InsideFMRacing.com – back when
the classes were called Federal Mo-
gul Dragster and Funny Car – on
June 26, 2001. When the name
changed back to Top Alcohol, we
changed to InsideTopAlcohol.com.
Not long after graduating from the
University of Houston-Clear Lake,
InsideTopAlcohol had enough traffic
that I was able to make a full-time
job out of running the website and
tuning race cars.
I have crewed, tuned, consulted
and even driven for a lot of people
over the years. I have tuned custom-
ers to three NHRA division cham-
pionships in the Top Alcohol ranks,
as well as a FIA European title. I’ve
also been second place more times
than I care to mention (four). I’ve
seen the highs and lows of winning
and losing championships on the
last day of the season.
That segues into what I would
like to cover in this first installment
– preparation and gearing up for a
points battle. Most of us racers are
still in the offseason, unless you live
somewhere in the Southern Hemi-
sphere like Australia or New Zea-
land, where they’re currently racing
in the middle of summer. First off,
for anyone trying to get ready for
race season, “offseason” is definitely
a misnomer. Second, everyone is
tied for first place right now.
I have learned from experience
over the years that many races are
won in the shop with preparation. I
think the first step in championship-
caliber preparation is eliminating
“good enough” from your program.
As my friend and engine builder
Marvin Shaw likes to say, “Perfect is
barely acceptable.” This is a univer-
sal concept that applies to really any
level of drag racing, but really comes
into play in the heads-up world.
I’m a maintenance nut. I like to
strip everything down bare over the
winter. This allows for a deep in-
spection and cleaning of the chassis.
Same with the engine, drive train
and other components. Depending
on how violent your car is and how
much vibration it may experience,
it probably needs to be rewired at a
minimum every two years. Cranks
need to be magnafluxed, blocks
honed and checked, heads serviced,
transmission checked, freshened,
etc. There’s a lot of work and a lot
of pain-in-the-ass jobs to do this
time of the year. As much as I love
working on cars, one of the things
I hate every year is when you look
at a bare car, parts everywhere, and
have that thought, “where the hell
do I start?”
The bigger your budget, the
more you are able to stock up on
parts, consumables, supplies, and
the like. It also allows you to spend
more money on new parts. When
you are on a budget and not able
to just feed a car motors and parts,
maintenance becomes that much
more important. I remember be-
ing a kid and watching Warren
Johnson – circa 1985 – talk about
having to “finesse” parts because he
didn’t have the budget to replace
them. I don’t want to be confused
as advocating running parts past
their known lifespan – that is almost
always a recipe to spend way more
than what the new replacement part
would have cost. My point is, often
times maintenance only cost s the
time it takes to get out in the shop.
There’s an old quote: “The more
you sweat in training, the less you
bleed in battle.” I would say the
more you sweat in the shop, but for
most of us, it’s cold as hell in the
shop right now. It’s nearly impos-
sible to be “over-prepared,” but it’s
a lofty goal. The guy or gal that has
been working on their car all winter
will probably beat the guy or gal who
has their car still strapped down in
the trailer from the last race, last
year.
DI DI DI
DI DI DI DI
DI DI DI
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Issue 129