MONOSTRUT IN THE MAKING

Words by Ian Tocher
Photos by Jeff Burk
7/14/05

hirteen years after Don Garlits debuted his monostrut rear wing in Top Fuel drag racing, Mike Kloeber hopes to return the revolutionary design to competition later this season. After researching the monostrut for more than two years, the four-time IHRA championship-winning crew chief recently revealed that Brad Hadman is constructing a monostrut chassis for him that should be ready for testing by the end of this summer.

“The chassis will be built and done in probably two or three weeks and we’re hoping that the chassis and the tail skins will all come together nicely, so we’re hoping that in five or six weeks we’ll have the car in our possession,” Kloeber said at Huntsville Dragway’s Rocket City Nationals, where his Werner Enterprises-backed team picked up the $106K Top Fuel win.

Still, he added a cautious disclaimer.

“We’re in the building phases right now and I learned a year ago not to make any promises about when it’s going to come out,” Kloeber said.

“We’re working really hard on getting it done as soon as possible and when we get it done we’re going to take it to the racetrack and test it by ourselves and see how it works.”

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Kloeber credited team sponsor Greg Werner for having the patience and faith to “put up a lot of money” for the extensive computational fluid dynamics (CFD) study required to secure Safety Foundation Institute (SFI) certification. It’s no secret that NHRA officials initially were unconvinced of the value of introducing a new chassis design to its quickest and fastest class, but Kloeber said their resistance didn’t factor in his plans.