Story by Dale Wilson
Photos courtesy of Hughes Motorsports
12/8/04

Knowing Jim Hughes like I do, it wasn’t a surprise to hear him say that he had just gotten in from designing some new stators and converters for a new team race car when I called his Phoenix, Arizona home late one evening last week.

“I’ve been testing different stators and fin angles for more torque multiplication,” he told me. “I think there’s a deficit in the [trans and converter] industry for Stock and Super Stock technology, and that’s why I’m working so late.”

Late was 7 p.m. or so, after Hughes had spent most of his day doing everything from R&D work to marketing his latest products to talking to a drag racing reporter.

And that reason --- R&D --- is why Hughes, president of Hughes Performance of Phoenix, went out and bought a “new” NHRA Stocker recently, a car that now joins Super Gassers, Super Streeters and Super Compers on the Hughes racing team. This new ride is the one that Hughes Performance added to the fleet this year, a 1996 Pontiac Firebird convertible (!) that fits into the NHRA C/ and D/Fuel Injection Automatic classes.

Between 1977 and now, Hughes Performance has turned into a racing transmission and converter house with plenty of OEM jobs going out the same door as 8-inch converters.

“That’s a bunch of years we put in,” Hughes says, for the “Super” and bracket crowd, “and now it’s time to get these Stockers and Super Stockers caught up in new technology and up to speed.”

Hence the Stocker, a test bed for class racing products, especially converters. It now joins Team Hughes’ two dragsters, one a Ben Worthy four-link Super Comper and the other a Tom Yancer “Shockster” Super Comp/Top Comp/Top Dragster for NHRA Division 6 and IHRA national and divisional races. There is also a late-model 2003 Don Davis Corvette roadster that runs in both Super Gas and Super Comp, and a Don Davis swing-arm car is now being built.

The Stocker was built by Pat Giffrion around No Problem Raceway area in Louisiana. Between himself and Hughes employee Kevin Kleinwebber, the two have won the 2004 NHRA Division 7 Super Comp championship and finished No. 7 in the world (Kleinwebber), and finished No. 4 in the world in Super Gas (Hughes).

In 2002, Hughes won the NHRA Super Comp world title, and has also won Division 7 championships twice, plus seven national events and a “bunch” (his words) of Division 7 races.