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Mod, and sportsman categories, with Haas and DeFlorian often personally testing finished cars before delivery.
DeFlorian joined the shop in the late 1980s and eventually became foreman, overseeing customer car construction and helping drive the continual evolution of Haas-built Pro Stock cars. His own driving résumé adds another dimension: Mountain Motor Pro Stock wins across multiple organizations, record-setting performances, and the 2025 NHRA Mountain Motor Pro Stock world championship.
The clearest measure of the shop’ s modern influence came at the 2026 NHRA Brainerd Nationals. All 16 cars that qualified for the Pro Stock field were Haas-built machines – the first time in NHRA history that every qualifier in a 16- car professional field came from the same chassis builder.
For Haas and DeFlorian, it was an extraordinary milestone in a relationship that has spent nearly four decades quietly building the foundation beneath Pro Stock racing. – NATE VAN WAGNEN
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Fulton
Hall
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Gene Fulton and Stacy Hall
Gene Fulton and Stacy Hall represent two generations of experience behind one of nitrous racing’ s most respected power houses.
Fulton Competition Engines has powered winners
since the formative years of Pro Modified, with Gene Fulton building a reputation not only as an engine builder but as an accomplished racer himself. Decades later, the Spartanburg, South Carolina-based shop remains relevant at the highest levels of naturally aspirated and nitrous-assisted doorslammer racing.
Hall grew up around Fulton’ s shop, first sweeping floors as a teenager before developing into one of its lead engine builders. He has also built an impressive résumé behind the wheel, winning the 2020 PDRA Top Sportsman world
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championship title while also competing successfully in Top Dragster.
Their work is perhaps best illustrated by longtime customer Jim Halsey. Fulton’ s 959-cubic-inch engines powered Halsey to four consecutive PDRA Pro Nitrous world championships from 2019- 2022, along with multiple PDRA Nitrous Wars engine builder titles and some of the quickest performances in nitrous Pro Mod history. Halsey has relied on Fulton Competition Engines since 2000.
The shop’ s reach extends well beyond one program, including successful sportsman racers and drag radial standout Mo Hall.
What keeps Fulton Competition Engines relevant after decades in the business is the combination of Gene Fulton’ s accumulated knowledge and Stacy Hall’ s ability to carry that experience forward – both from the engine room and the driver’ s seat. – NATE VAN WAGNEN
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Travis Colangelo
Travis Colangelo has spent over two decades proving that some of the biggest contributions to sportsman drag racing are made long before a car ever reaches the starting line.
Colangelo is a successful racer himself, having collected divisional, national, and big-money bracket race wins, including the 2015 IHRA Division 3 championships in both Quick Rod and Top Dragster. But his greatest impact has come through American Race Cars, the company he co-founded with Mark Horton in 2004. It has evolved from a small Ohio chassis operation in to one of the premier chassis builders in sportsman drag racing, building dragsters for competitors across all forms of bracket racing, Super Comp, and Top Dragster.
When Horton stepped away from the company’ s day-to-day operations in 2018, Colangelo took the reins and continued pushing forward. His firsthand experience and racer mentality remains central to the business. As Sportsman cars have become dramatically quicker,
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Colangelo and his team have developed new suspension, steering, and chassis solutions aimed at improving performance, consistency, and most importantly, safety.
More than 20 years after launching American Race Cars, he remains focused on the same community that built his career. Colangelo works every day to create better race cars, promote great events, and provide more opportunities for sportsman racers across multiple drag racing series.
– MADELYN ZARON
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Jamie and Renee Noonan
Jamie and Renee Noonan built Noonan Race Engineering into an international performance brand by taking a significant risk: leaving an established operation in Australia and moving their family and business to the United States.
Founded by Jamie in 2006, Noonan established its reputation in Australia through billet cylinder heads and engine components before the couple expanded into the U. S. market. In 2017, they relocated the company to a 22,000-squarefoot facility in Spartanburg, South Carolina, eventually moving all manufacturing there.
The move accelerated Noonan’ s influence. Its billet blocks, heads, manifolds, and complete engine platforms have become common across Top Alcohol, Pro Mod, radial racing, and other high-horsepower categories. The company’ s 4.8- and 4.9-inch Hemi programs in particular have pushed beyond traditional architecture in the pursuit of greater performance and reliability, with Noonan-powered combinations winning races and setting records around the world.
Renee has played a central role in that growth, overseeing business operations through the company’ s transition from Australia, while Jamie focused heavily on engineering and product development.
They remain racers, too. Jamie
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won Australia’ s Winternationals in Top Alcohol Dragster before returning to competition after the move, and his Noonan-powered A / Fuel program with the Samsel family has since become an NHRA national-event winner. In 2026, he won the Gatornationals and the Route 66 Nationals, the latter marking his third career NHRA national-event victory.
For the Noonans, racing remains both the proving ground and the purpose behind the business.
– NATE VAN WAGNEN
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Larry Jeffers
Larry Jeffers spent his career building race cars, but his impact on drag racing has become a vital part of the sport’ s history. Through Larry Jeffers Race Cars( LJRC), he established himself as a leading builder in doorslammer racing. His chassis have carried some of the sport’ s biggest names, including Frankie“ Mad Man” Taylor, Kye Kelley, and Todd“ King Tut” Tutterow, while LJRC-built cars continue competing nationwide across NHRA, PDRA, and other outlaw racing events.
Jeffers took a big leap in 2022 when he purchased the International Hot Rod Association, becoming its owner, president, and CEO. During his tenure, he emphasized grassroots and sportsman racing before eventually selling the organization and returning his focus to the manufacturing side of the sport.
Back at LJRC, the innovation continues and, year after year, only gets better. Jeffers is still developing Pro Mod chassis, but has expanded operations to include Bullet Racing Engines, which is the engine-building branch of the company. Nowadays, Jeffers remains deeply invested in the growth of Pro Modified racing, supporting various events and series.
Whether he’ s building race cars, supporting racers, or investing in the series where they compete, Jeffers continues putting his skills and resources towards the future of drag racing. – MADELYN ZARON
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PHOTOGRAPHS BY ROGER RICHARDS, RICK BELDEN |