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STRAIGHT OUT OF HIGH SCHOOL AND INTO TOP FUEL |
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On first meeting, he looks like a junior-sized Tiger Woods. Polo shirt, black slacks and clean cut, one could easily pass him by in Top Fuel racer Bruce Litton's two-car pit compound. Any chance of him being confused with a Top Fuel driver would seem slim, yet that's what he proved to be at the IHRA Amalie Summer Nationals at Cordova Raceway Park. |
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He took the Alcohol Dragster course, but never got down the track. The car shook on the runs he made, but worse yet, he'd heard that graduating from the school didn't mean getting a license. So he got out. "Ever since I was in Jr. Dragster I dreamed about driving a Top Fuel car," he said. "I had driven Super Comp for about a year and I got to know Gary Agan, who built the chassis which I'm running now in Top Fuel. He knew Bruce Litton and he got us together and it turned out Bruce had room for a second car on his team. I jumped at it, but I gotta say I never thought I'd be driving a Top Fueler this quickly." Despite never having driven anything over 200-mph, young Todd buckled into the United Expressline Race Trailers/Bruce Litton Trailer Sales dragster and caught the attention of veteran race observers. Litton took him out to Norwalk Raceway Park a few weeks before the Cordova race where Todd immediately impressed the crew. Nicky Boninfante Jr., who works in tandem with Richard Hartman and Litton on tuning both Bruce Litton's WIX Filters dragster and Todd's, was one of those who raised an eyebrow. "You could see that he could do it just off his first few runs," said Boninfante. "We had him run to the 30-foot mark, to the 100-foot mark, 300 feet and so on and he did it perfectly, launching and stopping the car, the whole deal. What really impressed the guys were his reaction times. How about a .488, a .520, and a .485 for his first launches?" Todd got his IHRA Top Fuel license and then headed for the Cordova race. In his first ever qualifying attempt on Friday afternoon of the race, he was positioned alongside Shirley Muldowney, one of the two or three greatest Top Fuel drivers ever. It would have been understandable had he a few butterflies, and he did. "Yeah, a little bit," Todd remarked. "I knew who she was, but I just tried to block it all out of my mind. I really just focused on the car. I knew I was going to go very fast in a few moments and I didn't want to goof it up." While qualifying side-by-sides are not races, young Todd launched ahead of Muldowney's GoRacing.com dragster, .544 to .613, but was rather soundly trounced when Muldowney shot by to a 4.74/319.22, the best speed in IHRA history. Todd's effort, though, was still something to yell about. On the board was a 4.95/277.43, which gave him a somewhat significant distinction. In just his first full pass, Todd became the quickest ever black driver, the first in the fours. However, that fact didn't seem to impress him all that much. "Well, I guess that's all good, but I can say that I never even thought about it," he said. "I just wanted to block everything out and get down the track quickly. If that run was a record, well…let it come as it happens." It happened that Todd drew former IHRA Top Fuel world champ Paul Romine's CarQuest dragster in round one. By sight, he appeared to leave even with Romine, but the veteran's mount was too much and took him out, 4.77/308.43 to 4.93/293.09. All in all, the parties concerned thought it was a pretty good start. So where do we go from here? "We will likely run the next five IHRA races and hopefully we can pick up a few sponsors along the way," he said. "I also have to get an NHRA fuel license, and when I do, I would like to run Indy (NHRA U.S. Nationals). You know, it's a hometown kind of deal; I only live about 30 miles from there." |
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Copyright 1999-2001, Drag Racing Online and Racing Net Source |
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Every
veteran spectator should celebrate mightily when new blood rises in
drag racing's fuel classes. If we're going to have a future, we're gonna
need the youth and the latest kid to try his hand is an 18-year-old
Lawrenceburg, Indiana native and two-week old high school graduate (dating
before the Cordova race) named J.R. Todd.
Todd
is no newcomer to the dragstrip. At age 10, he got involved with Jr.
Dragster racing at Indianapolis Raceway Park, and by age 16 moved into
the NHRA Super Comp category. During that time, Todd also made a trip
to Frank Hawley's Drag Racing School and into what at first glance would
appear as a setback.