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and components. Hodgins and his team have pushed body development through advanced composites, vacuum infusion, CAD modeling, CNC-machined patterns, and aerodynamic analysis, all with the goal of reducing weight while improving stiffness, fit, and efficiency.
One of Hodgins’ most significant projects was the C7 Corvette Pro Mod body, developed using 3D CAD and CNC technology at a level that was groundbreaking for the category. The design went on to become one of the most recognizable and widely used bodies of the modern Pro Mod era.
Cynergy’ s work also extends well outside drag racing. The company has produced prototype and low-volume composite components for major automotive manufacturers and suppliers, with reported work involving GM, Stellantis, Shelby, and Tesla, along with marine, defense, and specialty projects.
Hodgins’ roots remain firmly in racing, though. A former member of Al Billes’ Pro Mod team and a racer himself, he has spent his career applying that firsthand understanding to parts that have become integral to some of the quickest doorslammers in the world.
– NATE VAN WAGNEN
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Andy Robinson
Andy Robinson has been one of the defining figures in British Pro Mod racing for nearly four decades, but his impact reaches well beyond what he has accomplished behind the wheel.
Robinson began racing in the late 1970s and moved into Pro Mod as the category was emerging in Britain in the late 1980s. He has since won nine Motorsport UK British Drag Racing championships and remains one of the country’ s quickest Pro Mod drivers, with a career-best 5.82-second pass. He was inducted into the British Drag Racing Hall of Fame in 2018, recognition not only of his success as a racer but his larger contribution to the sport.
That contribution is closely tied to Robinson Race Cars. Built from the ground up, the family business
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has become one of the leading drag racing chassis and fabrication operations in the UK and Europe, supplying everything from components to complete race cars while also providing hands-on tuning and technical support at the track.
Andy’ s son, Luke, has become a major part of that operation. He joined the company as a teenager, later earning an honors degree in Mechanical Design and Engineering, and now works alongside Andy in fabrication, design, and tuning. Andy and Luke are both authorized SFI inspectors and members of the UK Drag Racing Technical Committee, helping racers keep critical components certified and legal while contributing their experience to the broader technical direction of the sport.
Just as important is their reputation for helping racers whether they are customers or competitors. That combination of performance, safety, craftsmanship and sportsmanship has made the Robinson family an essential part of European drag racing. – NATE VAN WAGNEN
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THE VISIONARIES
Connie Kalitta
Long before Connie Kalitta became one of drag racing’ s most enduring team owners,“ The Bounty Hunter” built his reputation from the cockpit. A pioneer of the sport’ s formative nitro era, Kalitta won 10 NHRA national events across Top Fuel and Funny Car, including a long-awaited U. S. Nationals victory in 1994. NHRA later named him one of its 50 greatest drivers and presented him with its inaugural Lifetime Achievement Award in 2016.
Yet Kalitta’ s greatest legacy may be what he built beyond his own driving career. Kalitta Motorsports became a multicar powerhouse capable of sustaining championship-caliber performance across generations. His son, Scott Kalitta, delivered the organization back-to-back Top Fuel world championships in 1994 and 1995. His nephew, Doug Kalitta, finally
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broke through for his first Top Fuel championship in 2023 and added a second in 2025, while Del Worsham and J. R. Todd have also won Funny Car championships under the Kalitta banner.
Underlying that racing operation is an equally remarkable aviation empire. Kalitta used money earned through racing to purchase the twin-engine Cessna 310 that launched his air-freight career in 1967. He eventually built American International Airways into a major worldwide cargo and charter operation before launching Kalitta Air in 2000 with three Boeing 747s. Today, the company is wholly owned by Kalitta and operates a fleet of more than 25 Boeing 747 and 777 freighters serving customers around the world.
Kalitta Air also provides the financial foundation that allows Kalitta Motorsports to operate at the level it does, while the two companies regularly cross-promote through sponsorships, recruiting initiatives, and employee events.
Few figures in drag racing have built a legacy so substantial on both sides of the guardrail. – NATE VAN WAGNEN
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Richard Freeman
Richard Freeman has built Elite Motorsports into the largest professional race team in NHRA drag racing, and in 2026, he pushed the organization into an entirely new category.
Elite’ s foundation remains in Pro Stock, where Freeman assembled a powerhouse around six-time world champion Erica Enders and a stacked roster that includes Aaron Stanfield, Jeg Coughlin Jr., and others. But Freeman has never been particularly interested in standing still. His operation has expanded into Mountain Motor Pro Stock, Pro Mod, and now Top Fuel, where motorsports icon Tony Stewart drives the R + L Carriers dragster. Elite’ s new nitro program needed just three races to score its first victory, with Stewart winning the 2026 NHRA Winternationals at Pomona.
Freeman is already looking beyond a single Top Fuel entry. Enders
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and Stanfield began the licensing process in an Elite dragster in August, part of his longer-term vision for building additional nitro opportunities within the organization.
His willingness to invest in drag racing extends outside his own pit area. Freeman put Elite Motorsports behind the Elite Motorsports Million, which offered the unprecedented $ 1 million bonus to any Pro Mod driver capable of sweeping all three races of the 2025-26 Drag Illustrated Winter Series.
Whether assembling championship-caliber teams, recruiting sponsors, expanding into new classes, or putting major money on the line, Freeman continues to operate with an ambitious vision for what professional drag racing can become. – NATE VAN WAGNEN
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Jim and Annie Whiteley
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Jim and Annie Whiteley have accumulated the kind of driving résumés that would secure their place in drag racing history on their own. Their larger legacy, though, can be found throughout the pits, on race cars they don’ t drive and in series they’ ve helped keep healthy through the backing of J & A Service.
Jim established himself as one of the premier Top Alcohol Dragster drivers of his era, winning 23 NHRA national events between 2007 and 2016 and back-to-back world championships in 2012 and 2013. His résumé includes the 2013 U. S. Nationals, five victories apiece at Las Vegas and Pomona, and 26 regional and divisional wins. He later added two NHRA Pro Mod victories and, in 2025, won in Top Alcohol Funny Car to become one of just 10 drivers to earn national-event victories in both Top Alcohol categories. In 2026, NHRA included Whiteley among its Top 25 Alcohol Drivers of all time.
Annie has built an accomplished career of her own in Top Alcohol Funny Car. She is a six-time NHRA national-event winner, including a standout 2018. At the 2017
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PHOTOGRAPHS BY CALLUM PUDGE, DYAN LOVER, DAVID BEITLER, JOE MCHUGH, RICK BELDEN, AUTO IMAGERY, TARA BOWKER, NHRA |