Keith Haney discusses impressive showing at PDRA East Coast Nationals By Craig Cook

Haney’ s own Mid-West Drag Racing Series was scheduled to have their season opener at Xtreme Raceway Park the same weekend, but inclement weather forced them to delay the event until Nov. 6-7. The rescheduled race will now be the Ronnie Hobbs World Finals. With his own racing plans taken away, Haney pivoted. After a quick call to his tuner, Brandon Switzer, Haney told his team they were headed to North Carolina to compete against the best nitrous cars PDRA has to offer.“ I don’ t like sitting still,” Haney says with a chuckle.“ I can’ t go that long without racing.”

In a battle between series owners, it initially appeared like Haney would come in and snatch the 660 Man. A huge starting line advantage gave Haney a car-length lead almost immediately, but around halfway down the track a huge burst of fire out of the hood slowed him down just enough for Franklin’ s“ Jungle Rat 3.0”’ 69 Camaro to drive past for the victory.

“ I had him beat on the tree,. 007 to his 089. He was nowhere to be found other than smelling the parachutes coming out the back of my car,” says Haney.“ But we had her spicy. We didn’ t come here to run a. 66 in the finals. We came here to run a low. 60. I come to win. I was ready. I did my job, he [ Switzer ] did his job – the motor just wasn’ t happy with what we gave it. Everything’ s still good. We got a hole in a piston, gotta replace a couple sleeves, but we gave it all we had.”

As a two-time MWDRS points champion, Haney is no stranger to final rounds. But this one felt a bit different. To understand how special it was, you have to go back to the Drag Illustrated

Winter Series. Haney debuted the“ Black Widow” in Bradenton at the U. S. Street Nationals with zero testing. He admits it wasn’ t the plan, but parts breakage on his“ Black Mamba” Camaro forced his hand.

“ We made the decision to go to U. S. Street with the new car because we didn’ t really have a choice,” Haney says.“ The Mamba was broken pretty good – the whole back end – forcing us to bring the new car out. We normally go test for a week or two before the race with nobody even seeing us, but we didn’ t have that opportunity for this one. The car didn’ t get finished until the week of the race, and it just takes time to learn.”

Still trying to figure everything out with the new car, Haney didn’ t perform as well at the Winter Series as he knows he’ s capable of. And with Switzer not available to attend the MWDRS season opener( nor the PDRA East Coast Nationals as it turned out), the duo knew they needed to test extensively. After a full day preparing the car, the team headed to Tulsa Raceway Park for three days of non-stop testing. For the first two days, the car still didn’ t want to act right. But on the third day, things changed.

“ A lot of people don’ t know this, but I’ ve owned Tulsa [ Raceway Park ] since 2011, and I have never tested a Pro Mod at that track,” Haney points out.“ Our last day, Brandon said,‘ We got to have everything right. I think I’ ve got everything where I know it needs to be.’ That last day, we go 3.62 at 207 mph, and Brandon says,‘ We got a race car.’”

Unfortunately, as the weather forecast contin-

PHOTOGRAPHS BY TARA BOWKER AND LUKE NIEUWHOF

46 | Drag Illustrated | DragIllustrated. com Issue 200