Special Section
I keep an override where I can make
up ground and I got a brake pedal if
I need to take it away, but you first
have to realize where you’re at and
where you’re supposed to be at that
point in the race.”
Thrift is the first to admit his 2019
season isn’t going according to
plan, though he hasn’t had a first-
round loss all year. He believes he’s
driving as good as he ever has – his
reaction times varied by just two
thousandths at the Summer Nation-
als Ignited by Lithium Pros at South
Georgia – things just haven’t gone
his way. The absence of main crew-
member Mickey Miller coupled with
a mechanical gremlin have pre-
vented Thrift from running to his
full potential.
“We’re just struggling,” Thrift
admits. “I had a crank trigger wheel
go out, and I’ve never as long as
I’ve been racing even heard of
anybody have a crank trigger wheel
go out. That’s what it was the whole
time. [The engine] would pop and
bang and struggle.
“Plus, it’s been like trying to walk
one-legged without Mickey here,”
Thrift says. “It’s just been one of
those years, but I ain’t given up. I
still feel like I have a shot at the
championship. I’m seven rounds out
and there’s 16 rounds of racing left.”
While Thrift has been around the
PDRA long enough to experience the
generous and sportsmanlike conduct
of his fellow competitors on plenty
of occasions, his latest troubles and
the help he’s had to fix them reas-
sured him that he’s racing with the
right group of people.
“It don’t matter if you’re running
Pro Nitrous or Top Sportsman, ev-
erybody is treated the same,” Thrift
says. “You can be having problems
and the Pro Nitrous guy will step
up to help you just as quick as the
guy parked next to you. Anything
you need, there’s someone right
there to help. It’s just a big family-
oriented deal.”
Thrift also called upon the Top
Sportsman community when it
came time to make repairs to his RJ
Race Cars-built GTO after his crash
at Florida’s Gainesville Raceway in
early 2018. Before thanking Hoosier
Racing Tires and Buck Racing
Engines, Thrift offered up his grati-
tude to the people who helped him
get back on track with a car that
looks better than ever.
“I have a bunch of people that help
me,” Thrift says. “Clayton Murphy at
Chassis Engineering, he always hangs
out with us and we try stuff for him.
He redid the car and did a really, really
good job for me. FTI Converters,
that’s the backbone of going fast.
Aaron Glaser at Glaser Collision in
Kentucky did the paint job. It’s just
unreal, the art and craftsmanship that
went into it. When you see it, you
know it’s me. I’m from the hippy days
– I’ve gotta have every color in the
crayon box on it.”
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