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Q: Do you race any big bucks bracket races?

JH: Unfortunately, it hasn't taken off on the west coast, and that's unfortunate because I think that's one of the best programs going. That is the grass roots and the backbone of all drag racing. And if you look at any good bracket racer, you'll have an excellent heads-up category racer. I'd like to go to the Million Dollar race, but coming at the end of the year, it conflicts with either the Dallas national race or Las Vegas, which is an important points race for us. It would be nice if we could split up our rigs and have half our team on the east coast and half on the west coast, but we can't. We usually have very good representation at the big money bracket races, though.

Q: What would it cost a person to race on your level?

JH: To run a basic Super Gas car, you can have cars out there from $5,000 to a car like Donny Peaden's 2003 Rick Jones Cavalier that can cost $90,000 and goes 180 mph at 7.20s with a Reher-Morrison engine. But we have sponsors who help us out.

Q: Will you move into another category?

JH: A lot of people have asked me if I would move up to an alcohol car or possibly Pro Stock. But I really enjoy the camaraderie that I have with our customers, and I race this category because that's our customer base, and that's primarily what my focus is--not that I wouldn't look at an opportunity down the road to race on a professional level. But right now my focus is on our business and the product and my job is to go out and promote the company and continue to come up with the newest technology available.

Q: Is your race program two-fold--to win races and to reach customers?

JH: Actually, it would be No. 1, to reach our customer and promote our product, and No. 2, to win races. Any time we can go rounds or win a race, that's a bonus to our program.

Q: Cheating in the 90 classes--is there any, and would you be opposed to making traction control devices legal in bracket classes?

JH: Unfortunately, with the technology that's out there, I'm sure there is a lot of cheating going on. It's unfortunate, because you're going to find that in any type of motorsports. The only way to get around that is to have equally prepared vehicles that you can get into, and I don't forsee that happening. I think if a guy goes out and wins a race and has a device on his car, he has to live with that. In brackets, they have an electronics and non-electronics category. They almost need one for cheaters and non-cheaters (laughs).

Q: Something unique happened to you and Todd Stephens at the 2002 NHRA World finals. What was it?

JH: Because of the rainout on Sunday, the sportsman classes didn't get to finish their race until Monday, which is when the awards banquet was started, and the banquet for the sportsman categories started at 3 p.m. At 3:15, we were still in in eliminations, back at Pomona. At that time, we had both won the world championship, Todd Stewart in Super Gas and me in Super Comp. How do you walk away from still being in at the world finals? It's hard to put the car in the trailer and say, 'We have to get to the banquet now.' I got down to three cars and Todd got runner-up. NHRA was very graceful, and it was like being on the Jerry Springer show. We changed clothes, jumped in the motorhome and headed to the Kodak Center, still hot from racing. They met us at the front door, they took us down the back hallway, we got into the waiting area where the rest of the sportsman champions were waiting, they handed us checks and trophies and said, 'Okay, you guys are up next.' Here we were, one minute in our race suits, the next in tuxedos. It was great.

Q: Your plans for 2003?

JH: I don't think we're going to change very much. We'll go out and use the same plan of attack that we had in 2002. It seemed to work. I'll have the same two cars from last year, the 2002 Vette and the Yancer Super Comper. Kevin Kleinweber will drive one of the other Super Comp cars, and in six months, my daughter will drive it, it's one of Sheldon Gecker's old cars. Todd Stewart will race my silver Corvette in Super Gas; then we have a new four-link dragster coming from Worthy. That will be our four-link car.

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