COREY MICHALEK
“...FROM MY
EXPERIENCE, IT IS
THE ULTIMATE TEST
IN CONCENTRATION
TO BE ABLE TO PILOT
ONE OF THESE THINGS
DOWN THE TRACK.”
the time you step on the gas until you let off and
pull the parachutes. That was just completely
mind-blowing and I have the ultimate respect
for the people who do this stuff for a living and
make run after run in these things.”
While Michalek insists he has no immediate
plans to go Top Fuel racing, it’s obvious this
licensing process wasn’t something done on
a whim on either end of the deal. In fact, it
had been in the works for around two years.
On Michalek’s end, a combination of factors
inspired him to do it: crossing off a bucket list
item, seeing if he had what it takes to finesse
a Top Fuel car down the track, and making a
major leap toward the next step in his drag
racing career. For Dakin, who’s been racing in
Top Fuel since the early 1970s and nearly won
the NHRA season championship in 1977, it
was an opportunity to help a deserving young
driver achieve a lofty goal.
“This was an opportunity, graciously provided
by Pat and his team, to get my license,” Michalek
realizes. “Do we have plans in the immediate
future to go Top Fuel racing? No. If somebody
knocked on the door and says, ‘Hey Corey, we
need a driver,’ I’m there at the drop of a hat. These
opportunities just don’t come around often, so if
it would present itself, we’re ready to go.”
Michalek’s biggest takeaway from the whole
experience, and something he wishes more people
could understand, is that driving a Top Fuel car is
no Sunday cruise. They might not move around
on the track like a Pro Mod or require shifting
like a Pro Stocker, but by no means does that
make them easy to drive, as some people have
claimed in recent years as a sizable group of A/
Fuel drivers have upgraded their licenses.
“There’s nothing easy about standing on the
gas and going to the finish line,” Michalek asserts.
“There may be drivers who make it look that way,
but from my experience, it is the ultimate test
in concentration to be able to pilot one of these
things down the track. I’m sure a Pro Mod, Pro
Stock car or alcohol Funny Car all have their
individual challenges. There’s nothing different
about a nitro dragster or Funny Car in that re-
spect. Handling the intensity was the ultimate
challenge and I feel validated for having been
able to do so.”
right or myself to basically say, ‘Hey, the first time
you step on the gas in this thing, you have to take
it down to the finish line.’ You don’t really know
what’s out there. It’s the fear of the unknown, not
knowing what it’s going to do.”
Sure enough, the first run challenged Mi-
chalek’s expectations. The first 300 feet were not
nearly as violent as he expected. “It left extremely
hard and it got my attention, but you can almost
get it through your mind that it isn’t uncontrol-
lable at that point,” he says. “Right when I was
starting to gain confidence, that’s when it really
decided to be like, ‘You have no idea what’s about
to happen.’ It just absolutely took off when the
clutch locked up.”
Armed with the experience from the first run,
which was aborted shortly after dropping a cyl-
inder around the half-track mark, Michalek and
the Dakin crew went back up to the starting line
for the second and final licensing pass. This time,
all eight cylinders stayed lit, allowing Michalek
to blitz the 1,000-foot course in 3.849 seconds
at 310.70 mph.
“When I took it all the way through the stripe,
it just did not let up,” Michalek says, going on to
explain how the run compared to a lap in his in-
jected nitro dragster. “The A/Fuel car is a monster,
don’t get me wrong. It goes out there and really
charges the first half of the run. I don’t want to
say it lays over, but it lets up a little bit in the back
half. With the Top Fuel car, it’s pulling hard from
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