Brandon Greco reflects on first career NHRA Top Alcohol Dragster victory By Nate Van Wagnen

Greco admits he struggled in qualifying and ended up No. 8 out of the 14 Top Alcohol Dragsters on the grounds. Things turned around in eliminations, though. In the opening round, he used a 5.326-second pass to finish ahead of No. 9 qualifier Dan Dietrich and No. 1 qualifier Matt Cummings. Offseason upgrades showed up in a big way in the semifinals when Greco threw down a career-best 5.243 at 273.94 mph to win a quad that included rookie McKenna Bold, Dietrich, and John Ausherman. In the final round, he cut a. 014 reaction time and recorded another career-best, 5.241, to defeat Kelly Kundratic, James Stevens, and Bold.

“ Everything just clicked,” says Greco.“ I did my job and the crew did theirs servicing the car in between rounds. We had a bunch of thrashing to do. We picked up a new sponsor for that race and he was actually there, so that was cool for them to actually see us win.”

The victory was rewarding in more ways than one for Greco, who works at the family auto repair shop during the week.

“ It was definitely worth the wait,” Greco says.“ You miss a lot of family functions, friends’ functions like weddings and birthdays, just to go racing. Between all the hours at your regular job and all the hours away racing, it adds up. After all those years, it was very rewarding.”

It’ s not just the competition that makes it hard to succeed at this level. There are also supply chain and economic forces at work.

“ Getting parts is a very hard thing,” Greco says.“ Crankshafts are a year-and-a-half out. If you’ re not buying stuff for next year, you’ re kind of just screwing yourself. It’ s very hard even to get clutch discs. We’ re just always playing catchup compared to the bigger teams. It’ s hard as an underfunded team.”

Greco drives one of the few remaining clutchequipped, supercharged, methanol-burning dragsters left in the class. The nitro-injected A / Fuel combination has become dominant, and torque converters have replaced clutches in a lot of the blown dragsters. Greco sees those trends continuing, but he’ s sticking with his chosen combination for as long as it makes sense.

“ It’ s very challenging as a driver and maintenance-wise,” Greco says of the blown / clutch combo.“ I do like to swap feet still. In the next five to 10 years, I don’ t think there will be more than three or four blown dragsters. I think a lot of people will just quit or maybe switch over to A / Fuel. But I’ m trying to keep it together. I’ m willing to help anybody that needs some help. I raced with [ Mike ] Kosky for many years and he taught me all the ins and outs, and now I work with Maddern Racing, so I’ m always learning over there too.”

Greco admits he has an interest in getting into something with doors, like a Pro Mod or Pro 275 car, but with his first NHRA national event win out of the way, he’ s determined to keep turning on win lights in Top Alcohol Dragster.

“ As people tell me, you get your first national event win, now it’ s all eyes on you and you’ ve got to keep up with those expectations,” says Greco, who thanked his crew and supporters like SPEVCO and Lesleh Precision Machine.“ That’ s very hard, but we’ re going to just keep chipping away at it.” DI

PHOTOGRAPHS BY ALEX OWENS, AUTO IMAGERY

36 | Drag Illustrated | DragIllustrated. com Issue 196