Lance Knigge takes off It ’ s not often that a driver doesn ’ t qualify for an event , yet is still the star of the show . But that ’ s exactly what happened to Pro 10.5 Challenge invitee Lance Knigge .
Piloting his gorgeous ‘ 67 Nova , Knigge attempted to take flight during qualifying , with all four tires off the ground as he passed the eighth-mile stripe . Thankfully he managed to quickly deploy the parachutes and bring the car safely down .
“ I made it a little spicy going out the back because I was Band-Aiding the chassis not being happy down low ,” said Knigge . “ It was crazy – I do a lot of wheelies , but that one was a little different . I got pretty lucky .”
The run quickly went viral all across social media , with some dubbing it one of the coolest passes in drag racing history . Knigge
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admitted he ’ s not used to racing in front of so many media outlets , and was surprised by the immediate attention .
“ I honestly didn ’ t expect it to be that big ,” Knigge said . “ I was honestly just hoping someone got it on film . It ’ s gotten over 5.7 million views on just the one post , and there ’ s a few others with close to a million . That ’ s awesome .”
Despite not qualifying , the weekend was still a success for Knigge . After seeing the attention
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he ’ d garnered , multiple companies reached out to him during the event about sponsorship deals .
“ White Safety reached out because they saw my parachutes not functioning properly , and they set me up with a brand-new set of parachutes ,” said Knigge . “ And then Strange Engineering came over and talked to me , and they ’ re wanting us to work together as well .”
After a whirlwind weekend that quickly made him a household name , Knigge said he ’ s already excited for the possibility of returning to next year ’ s WSOPM .
“ It was awesome to get invited and be one of the only guys from the western part of the United States in the class ,” Knigge said . “ While my results didn ’ t go the way I wanted them to go , it didn ’ t take away from the race for me . I learned a lot and had a blast . The format was awesome , and I think it was one of the best races I ’ ve ever been to . I wish we ’ d had better results , but I still left there feeling like I won the race .” — CRAIG COOK DI
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PHOTOGRAPHS BY ROBERT RICHARD |