Walk A Mile In My Shoes...
"Aussie" Dave Grubnic is living the life he once dreamed of By Robert Bravender; Photos by Roger Richards, Brian Wood
How many of us would like to be in “Aussie Dave” Grubnic‘s shoes right now? Hired in early 2004 by the legendary Connie Kalitta to be a top fuel driver, he hit the ground running: winning the coveted Budweiser Shootout in Las Vegas that same year -- only the fourth driver in the special event’s 20-year history to win its $100,000 prize in his first attempt -- earning his first NHRA national event win by May 2005 at Topeka, KS, the first non-native North American to win a Top Fuel trophy. In the first third of the 2006 season he’s already won the ACDelco NHRA Gatornationals in Gainesville and runnered-up at the SummitRacing.com Nationals at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. For virtually all of us this would be a dream come true.
But while Grubnic’s official online profile delivers as many facts and facets that can be crammed into a few paragraphs, it doesn’t quite bridge the gap from unknown Aussie to dragster dream job. Like most so-called ‘overnight sensation’ stories, there’s usually a lot more hard work than luck involved, and Grubnic’s is no exception.
Born 1962 in Brisbane, a city about 500 miles north of Sydney on Australia’s East Coast, the lanky Australian entered the workforce like any true gearhead, starting off at a dealership. Working his way up through the ranks, this ‘wunderkid’ eventually wound up working for the Australian division of the Ford Motor Company; by 33 he was the regional manager for 14 area dealerships--but his life was still incomplete.
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“I did have a Ford Falcon GT, a street car that I raced when I was a teenager,” says Grubnic, fondly recalling one of Australia’s most famous muscle cars, sort of a cross between a Torino and a ‘73 Mustang -- remember Mel Gibson‘s interceptor from the movie “Road Warrior”? But even this sleek street racer seemed pallid after he had gotten a burning whiff of nitromethane. Ever since he was 16 and had crewed on a local top fuel car, Grubnic has had nitro in his veins, but with top fuel cars being scarce in Australia, he concluded he would have to go to the source to sate his desire: America.
“It is a very difficult transition to move halfway across the world to race,” Grubnic said of his decision, “but we’ve seen it with other Australians. We all strive to race here and as far as I’m concerned, we want to race the best in the world.”
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Then when Grubnic was 28, an opportunity arose to work with Bill and Chris McGee, owners of a top fuel team based out of Los Angeles, with interests in Sydney. So with no actual seat time in a top fuel car, but no immediate family to worry about, Grubnic quit his job with Ford and moved 15,000 miles to the other side of the globe to try and start his career as a top fuel driver.
“It was like taking a gamble on a business,” he says. “I came here with just a suitcase and a dream.” While not a racer right out of the gate, he was soon globe trotting back and forth between the U.S. and Australia as the McGee brothers toured Down Under. He finally obtained some precious top fuel seat time when the brothers began running a blown fuel lakester at El Mirage outside of Los Angeles. “It was like a land speed trial, about 1.3 miles on this dry lake bed,” Grubnic explains. “We were trying to run 300 mph in their lakester. I drove that up there for a season and half. From there they decided that when they wanted to start running their top fuel car again, they’d actually put me in the car.”
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With his dream nearly at hand, Grubnic got finally his license for the NHRA series and did some IHRA racing out East, however budget constraints kept him from being a serious contender. For awhile he piloted Bill Blumgren’s Geronimo Top Fueler with limited success, qualifying in about eight out of the ten events they ran that season. Then around 1998 Grubnic hooked up with John Mitchell, and he moved up to Montana to join his new mentor as the driver of the Montana Express.
“I drove for John for like four or five years, and we did the best we could,” reports Grubnic, making it to two NHRA finals in that time span, his career first in 1998 as runner-up to Cory McClenathan at Houston, his second at Sonoma as a runner-up to Kenny Bernstein.
“We were on a limited schedule,” he continues. “We did the full tour a couple of times; I think 2000 or 2001 we finished 9th in points one year and 10th the next. They were great years. I owe John a lot, and he definitely helped my career, and John did it all out of his own pocket.”
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Despite accomplishing so much with limited resources, Mitchell’s pockets weren’t deep enough to keep going, and the team owner dropped out of racing for the 2002 season. Grubnic continued to race, but only part-time with another self-financed race team, Bill Miller Engineering. “At one point there I was looking down the barrel of a driving career that was slowly going away,” he explains. “I was driving for Bill Miller, and we were doing a limited schedule, which I was very appreciative of because it kept me out here. But times were tough and I’d just clamped down on everything and tried to make ends meet. You never give up, you stick with it, and fortunately, I could survive well enough to get where I’m at now.”
For in a way Dave Grubnic did have ‘overnight success.’ Having gotten to know Connie Kalitta during the Mitchell days, he was being picked to be part of Kalitta’s team in 2004 -- and things began to happen. “I think we were #1 qualifier five times, we went to five consecutive final rounds, and we got a lot of publicity -- and we were an R&D car,“ laughs Grubnic. “We finished fifth in the points that year and we started to attract a lot of corporate interest. That year was pretty much a 180 degree turnaround for me. You hope for things like that, and even when you’ve known the people on Kalitta’s team for years, like Jon Oberhofer who’s my crew chief right now, you still have aspirations and dreams that you’d love to be associated with those guys. And when it actually happens, it’s like icing on the cake, you keep pinching yourself everyday you get up.”
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At this rate, he should be black and blue all over, for a little over a third of the way through the 2006 season, Grubnic is currently number 4 in the PowerADE Championship Points Standings, just two positions behind teammate Doug Kalitta. “Even though we’re a team with multiple cars, we go out there as individuals and race,” Grubnic explains. “We want the championship for my team and my sponsor, StriVectin-SD; we’re going to go out there and give it our best shot.” Spoken like a true overnight sensation -- who’s been at it for a very long time.
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“I did have a Ford Falcon GT, a street car that I raced when I was a teenager,” says Grubnic, fondly recalling one of Australia’s most famous muscle cars, sort of a cross between a Torino and a ‘73 Mustang -- remember Mel Gibson‘s interceptor from the movie “Road Warrior”? But even this sleek street racer seemed pallid after he had gotten a burning whiff of nitromethane. Ever since he was 16 and had crewed on a local top fuel car, Grubnic has had nitro in his veins, but with top fuel cars being scarce in Australia, he concluded he would have to go to the source to sate his desire: America. 
Then when Grubnic was 28, an opportunity arose to work with Bill and Chris McGee, owners of a top fuel team based out of Los Angeles, with interests in Sydney. So with no actual seat time in a top fuel car, but no immediate family to worry about, Grubnic quit his job with Ford and moved 15,000 miles to the other side of the globe to try and start his career as a top fuel driver.
Despite accomplishing so much with limited resources, Mitchell’s pockets weren’t deep enough to keep going, and the team owner dropped out of racing for the 2002 season. Grubnic continued to race, but only part-time with another self-financed race team, Bill Miller Engineering. “At one point there I was looking down the barrel of a driving career that was slowly going away,” he explains. “I was driving for Bill Miller, and we were doing a limited schedule, which I was very appreciative of because it kept me out here. But times were tough and I’d just clamped down on everything and tried to make ends meet. You never give up, you stick with it, and fortunately, I could survive well enough to get where I’m at now.” 
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