DRO's Man of the Year:
Evan Knoll

Words by Jeff Burk
Photo by Ian Tocher
11/01/05

here was a time when drag racing handed out a bipartisan "Man of the Year" award at the long-gone Car Craft Magazine All Star banquet. At that yearly gala, usually attended by drag racing’s best and brightest, there was an award given to the one person who had contributed significantly to the sport. The award was based upon selfless contributions over a career.

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With the death of the Car Craft Magazine affair, a non-partisan "Man of the Year” award hasn’t happened. The various sanctioning bodies generally give a recognition award to someone who supports their sanctioning body or niche of racing, but to be honest those awards are somewhat biased in nature.

So, the editorial staff here at DRO decided that starting with this year we would name one person in the sport of drag racing who has had the most impact on the sport. It won’t necessarily have to be the person who has done the most to improve the sport or the person we feel has harmed it the most, just the person who has had the most impact on the sport of drag racing.

Knoll received his DRO Man of the Year award at the final IHRA race of the season at Rockingham.

When we started looking at the candidates for the inaugural Drag Racing Online Magazine’s Man of Year award we came up with a lot of prominent names. Don Schumacher, Bruton Smith, Tom Compton, Dave Wood, Charlie Mancuso (Clear Channel), Alan Johnson, Ray Alley and George Howard were among the people who made our list, but after a lot of debate we all kept coming back to just one person: Evan Knoll, the owner and CEO of Torco Racing Fuels. If you just look at the effect this man has had on the sport of drag racing in both major sanctioning bodies in just the last 12 months it boggles the mind.

Let’s review what this unassuming drag racer from Michigan has done. In the last year he has become a huge force in both the International Hot Rod Association and the National Hot Rod Association, especially for the professional racers. He either owns outright or is a major sponsor of the Melanie Troxel Top Fuel team, the Dave Connolly Pro Stock team, and the Mike Ashley Fuel Coupe team. He owns a T/AD team that Dave Hedges drives for. He is also a major associate on all of Don Schumacher’s racing teams. He puts cash money in the following Top Fuel racers pockets: Cory McClenathan, John “Bodie” Smith, Terry McMillen, Tony Zizzo, Bruce Litton, Doug Foley, and Bobby Lagana.

He supports the following Fuel Coupe teams with cash: Dale Creasy, Gary Densham, and Del Worsham. Pro Modified racers Mike Ashley, Scott Cannon Jr and Steve Vick get cash support from him. Pro Stock racer Rickie Smith is backed by his company. Knoll’s companies fund the following Alcohol racers: Jeff Wilson, Marty Thacker, Tim Stevens, Mick Snyder, the Minor Bros., and Terry McMillen. His company Torco backs the Pro Stock Bike program of Matt Smith. His company sponsors the year-end shootouts for both the IHRA Pro Stock and Pro Modified classes.