• • • JIM HALSEY • • • BRANDON SWITZER • • •

the first nitrous Pro Mod driver to run a 5-second quarter-mile pass during the 2008 Shakedown at E-Town at the now-defunct Old Bridge Township Raceway Park in Englishtown , New Jersey . He was also the first nitrous Pro Modified driver to go 240 mph in the quarter mile .

“ It ’ s cool . Numbers are numbers ,” Halsey says of his most recent barrier-breaking performance . “ I ’ m sure that sometime in the next year it ’ s going to get quicker and faster . But to be able to be the first to do it is pretty cool , especially after being the first to the 5s and now the first to the 3.50s .”

Halsey is right . Numbers are numbers , but there ’ s a story behind those numbers . For Halsey , it ’ s a story of redemption , of persistence , and of surrounding oneself with the best people to achieve a common goal .

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

after making nitrous racing history , Halsey lost nearly all of his racing equipment in a shop fire caused by a motorhome . The casualties included his truck , trailer and motorhome . His fire engine red , Gene Fulton-powered ’ 68 Camaro was burned up pretty badly in the blaze , but it wasn ’ t a complete loss .

“ We took a little bit of time to regroup ,” Halsey says . “ Probably by design , I can ’ t remember the date of the fire , but I think the rest of the 2012 season , we pretty much sat out to get things back together . The Coleman ’ s Purnell Body Shop , they ’ re the ones that mounted the new body on the old car and painted it for us and got it back in tip-top shape . That was the last red car we had . I think we started back doing some testing and maybe some local races in 2013 , but we really didn ’ t do anything for quite a while .”

Halsey continued staying close to home , going to races that weren ’ t much more than a few hours away from his shop in Havre de Grace , Maryland . He ’ d race at events at Cecil County Dragway , the facility he owns and operates with his girlfriend of over 30 years , Cathy Crouse . He ’ d hit up an ADRL race or two when the series came to the Northeast , then dabbled in PDRA events when the series was launched in 2014 .

In 2016 , Halsey decided it was time to step it up again . The Pro Nitrous class was rapidly progressing in a way that Halsey ’ s car couldn ’ t keep up with . It was at the top of the world in the late 2000s , but technology advancements over the past 10 years started to rule it out as a serious contender .

Halsey called on Brandon Switzer , who he knew as a standout young tuner when Halsey was racing IHRA Pro Modified and the early days of ADRL Pro Nitrous .

“ We were at a point where we were kind of stuck where we were at and it was hard to make progression ,” Halsey says . “ These guys were starting to run faster than we could . And we were still

A STRONG WORK ETHIC IS JUST ONE OF THE TRAITS THAT CONTRIBUTE TO HALSEY ’ S SUCCESS ON THE RACETRACK AND SWITZER ’ S SUCCESS IN BUSINESS .

running the clutch , not a torque converter . We were running carburetors and not fuel injection . I knew Brandon for a long time , and I knew he was sharp with fuel injection and stuff . It only made sense for me to call him up and get him involved .”

As Halsey remembers , Switzer started working on Halsey ’ s car at the 2016 PDRA Bradenton race . The race was plagued by weather issues and ended up getting rained out , but it still gave Halsey a

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