Special Section
“IT WAS SUPER
VALIDATING TO FINISH
IN THE TOP 3,” HARRIS
SAYS, “BUT WE WERE
JUST HAPPY TO BE A
PART OF THE SERIES.
WE DIDN’T EXPECT THE
FRIENDSHIPS WE
MADE WITH A LOT OF
THE RACERS IN TOP
DRAGSTER.”
Harris says, “but we were just happy
to come down and be a part of the
series. What we didn’t expect was
the friendships we made with a lot
of the racers in Top Dragster, Top
Sportsman, even in Pro Boost. Ev-
erybody was so welcoming to us.
We just felt like part of the group.” ally one of our sponsors. He owns
Mountain Tire and races with us on
the team. He’s super-pumped to go
to the PDRA races. The people who
race with us have been racing with
us a long time, they’re dedicated,
and I think it’s important for me to
acknowledge what they do for us.” him with the mechanical part of the
car, but he has to do the rest of the
work. He keeps it clean, he’s gotta
service the car after every run, he
helps me download all the informa-
tion and read the weather and set
up the whole program, and he loves
every part of it.”
Harris was attracted to the PDRA
series for several reasons. For one,
the fast bracket racing in Elite Top
Dragster was a perfect fit for his car.
But perhaps more importantly, the
all-eighth-mile series is known as a
family-oriented organization, which
really appealed to Harris and his wife,
Jennie. Harris’ team is a family opera-
tion, as his daughter, Cristina, gradu-
ated from Jr. Dragsters to the family’s
Top Alcohol Dragster a couple years
ago, and his son, Ryan, currently
competes in Gilbert Motorsports Top
Jr. Dragster. Kyle’s brother, Cody, goes
to the races as well, joining crew
members Mike Azzopardi, Jordan
Hardie and Jeff Lilley. Ryan is becoming a consistent racer
just like his father too, as he earned
a semifinal finish at the Fall Nationals
in Darlington, South Carolina, last
October. He raced his way into the
final round at the Mid-Atlantic
Showdown presented by Modern
Racing at Virginia in May this season.
Ryan will square off with Nathan
Tanner for the win at the North-
South Shootout presented by Line
X, May 30-June 1. Despite the 12-17-hour trips between
the PDRA races and Harris’ home in
Burford, Ontario, Canada, the heavy
equipment transportation project
manager intends on running nearly
the entire eight-race 2019 PDRA
schedule. Prior commitments, includ-
ing a 4,000-mile roundtrip trek to
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, for a
display and race for sponsor Charles
Jones Industrial Limited, caused
Harris to miss two races last season.
“My son, Ryan, he’s just having a
blast,” Harris says. “He’s very sociable
and he loves to meet new people. It
seems like all the kids and parents
know him. Just the social aspect of
it for him has been excellent. He,
too, has been trying to sharpen up
his lights and his driving abilities –
and he’s 11 years old. I’m tremen-
dously proud of him for what he
does. He’s his own crew chief. I help “I feel like if we would’ve hit them
all, things might’ve been different
at the end of the year and we
would’ve been that much closer to
winning the championship,” Harris
believes. “This year we’re trying to
hit them all. Valdosta (for the
Summer Nationals presented by
Lithium Pros, June 27-29) will be
tough for us, but we’re doing what
we can to make it there.”
“My wife doesn’t like to travel, but
when she gets to the racetrack she
loves meeting all the people and
she’s made a lot of friends there too,”
Harris says. “Mike Azzopardi is actu-
In addition to Charles Jones Industrial
Limited and Mountain Tire, the Kyle
Harris Racing team races with support
from Iron Bridge Fabrication, Atchi-
son Machine Service, AllSteel Fabrica-
tion and Fast Eddie Racewear.
Harris and his family could easily
stay north of the border and race at
their local tracks – and they do on
occasion – but the challenge of
racing fast, consistent dragsters and
competing for a world championship
is just too attractive of an opportu-
nity to turn down.
“The logistics are a little bit tough
for us and it definitely adds to the
cost of racing for us,” Harris admits.
“We just really liked how the PDRA
was promoting this super-fast ‘elite’
bracket racing that we just felt
wasn’t available to us up here in
Canada. We have a good contingent
of race cars up here and it’s very
competitive – Canadians are just as
competitive as our American coun-
terparts – but the car counts are
definitely higher in the U.S., so the
competition is a little bit broader.
We were looking for some fast
bracket cars that we could run with
and we found it with the PDRA.”
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