PHOTO: RICK BELDEN
How impressed were you with the fan reception of the No-Time Shootout at Lights Out?
I knew the fans were going to be there. In the no-time deal, these fans travel everywhere to go see these cars. When I go to races wherever, I have a lot of people who come out just to watch me and other guys like Timmy Meissner. It don’ t matter if it’ s 500 miles away. They’ ll travel from state to state to watch us race. I knew the fans would be there. Donald already has a fan base, so his race is already the biggest race in the world. The no-time thing just put a little more icing up on top of the cake. Everything was good. It was nice and smooth, we were able to finish the race and everyone had a good time.
On top of the No-Time Shootout at Lights Out 9, you also took on a few highly-publicized grudge races. Your races with J. R. Gray were major highlights from the event. How did all of that come about?
Me and J. R. are actually good friends, but we still race each other. I’ d race my own grandma if she had her own car. I’ ll race anybody, it don’ t matter. I raced J. R. twice before that race there. I ran him in Michigan last year. I had a hiccup on the line, the car didn’ t leave. He won that race, took quite a bit of money from me – right around nine grand. That kind of stumbled me because I didn’ t get a chance to do anything. I ended up running him at Lights Out again. The track was kind of tricky. It had rained the day before, so the track wasn’ t too good. Me and Dad, we were sitting there trying to figure out what we were going to do to be able to go down the track. We put both our heads together and finally got it. I went out there and went. 001 red. I gave the race away – he kicked the tires.
The one that matters was the one to get the Drag Illustrated cover. Wes( Buck) came over and asked me if I’ d be cool with the winner getting the Drag Illustrated cover and I told him‘ Hell yeah!’ J. R. was cool with it, so that’ s what we did. We ran for that, plus the pot was up to $ 10,000. We ran the race and I won, so I got to take home the money and get the cover of Drag Illustrated.
This wasn’ t something that just came up out of nowhere, though, right?
All my races are locked in before I go to the
event, unless I’ m already at a locked-in event and I just happen to race someone else too. I always have a locked-in race because there’ s a lot of people who will talk and say they’ re going to run you, but at the end of the day, unless you’ ve got a locked-in deal, it’ s all just talk.
Swanstrom swaps out his tan Nike Huarache sneakers for a pair of Simpson fire shoes as he prepares for a shakedown run in“ Armageddon” before taking on J. R. Gray in a big-money, high-profile grudge race.
Like this race I’ m doing today was locked in two months ago. We set up a date and put a deposit up. We got Willie Dog, who is our DP man, so he holds the deposit. We sent two grand to Willie Dog and Boogie sent two grand to him also. Willie Dog holds the deposit money just in case someone doesn’ t show up. You’ re supposed to race at 2 o’ clock, so at 2:01, if the other dude’ s not there, there’ s no fighting or arguing; the DP man just hands the other guy his money.
Most people in drag racing don’ t necessarily understand how these big grudge races start. Who calls out who? How do you lock in the race and work out the details?
Willie is usually my DP man. There’ s only a few people out there you can trust – Willie, Mike Hill, Lance Stanford, Jake Harper. You have certain people you can trust to hold all the money. When it comes down to making the final decision if something happens on the track, you’ ve gotta have someone who both teams trust. I call Dog up or Pops will call Dog up and we’ ll get a three-way call with the other guy. Even if it’ s on( Willie Dog’ s) radio show or if it’ s in private or if we’ re talking at the track and we lock in a race a month down the road, it’ s always the three parties getting together to get the agreement down. The DP man writes it all down on paper so there’ s no confusion when the time comes.
You’ ve talked before about the economics of grudge racing, how it just makes more sense to race one guy for five or ten grand rather than sit at the track for two or three days, make a few qualifying runs and several rounds of eliminations for less money. Can you expand on that?
Well, I always tell people you can lose a lot of money in this game. Knock on wood, I haven’ t lost more than I’ ve won, but you can lose a lot of money.
You take the Radial vs. the World guys. That’ s the millionaire club. Those guys have endless pockets and they can do what they want, when they want. Me and Dad, we work hard, and a lot of the other guys in this grudge deal work hard to do what we do and there’ s a big gamble. But I don’ t like to go to the event, make three or four shakedowns, then you have to run four rounds of elimination to win, so now you’ re at eight runs. At the end of the day you’ re only making three or five grand. Yes, Radial vs. the World pays $ 50,000 or $ 100,000, but you’ re up against the millionaire club. They have an endless budget and three engines sitting in the trailer. It’ s just not worth it to us.
Yes, I did go run Donald’ s race, but I was doing that just to prove a point that we could compete
May 2018 DragIllustrated. com | Drag Illustrated | 79