Rarely in racing do things go exactly according to plan.

Spiro Pappas knows that first hand.

At the beginning of last season, Pappas couldn’t do much of anything right while competing in the ADRL Flowmaster Extreme 10.5 class. He had a couple of runs end with his car in flames and he had no consistency in his performance.

In August, Pappas’ car caught fire during a testing run at Route 66 Raceway in Joilet, Ill. A seal failure caused a fire at the 1/8 mile mark, burning the entire front end, destroying the passenger side door, all the wiring forward of the firewall, and the fuel lines.

Rarely in racing do things go exactly according to plan.

Spiro Pappas knows that first hand.

At the beginning of last season, Pappas couldn’t do much of anything right while competing in the ADRL Flowmaster Extreme 10.5 class. He had a couple of runs end with his car in flames and he had no consistency in his performance.

In August, Pappas’ car caught fire during a testing run at Route 66 Raceway in Joilet, Ill. A seal failure caused a fire at the 1/8 mile mark, burning the entire front end, destroying the passenger side door, all the wiring forward of the firewall, and the fuel lines.

In early October, Pappas was racing at Bradenton (Fla.) Motorsports Park when his Pontiac, which was in the right lane, shot toward the right wall. The car became tipsy and veered into the left lane, hit the wall and went up in flames.

“Those (fires) kind of set you back because of more potential problems that can occur at the same time,” the 46-year-old Pappas said. “Putting all the worries aside, we stepped up to the plate and kicked some ass.”

Pappas is right.

The driver and his Chicago-based team regrouped and won the Speedtech Battle for the Belts final against Chuck Ulsch at the Texas Motorplex in Ennis, Texas in late October.

More importantly, Pappas took home the coveted Flowmaster Extreme 10.5 world championship in his Jerry Bickel-built 2009 Pontiac GXP. Pappas also set the 10.5 world elapsed time record with a 3.92-second pass during a runner-up finish to Ulsch at the World Finals V in Ennis.

“The ADRL is a good place to compete as far as competitors,” Pappas said. “The competitors are very intense and tough. Although we had our own challenges early on with a few problems as far as the fires go and with the car, I never gave up. I knew I had one of the fastest cars at any given time we were at the ADRL races. It was basically a matter of getting things figured out to allow us to run the best we could.”

Pappas says diagnosing what was causing his car to go up in flames wasn’t easy.

“After the second fire, we went to the next ADRL event and we took one ET (qualifying) pass to make sure there were no fires,” Pappas said. “We drove the car down the track very easy. We came around and put the car on the stand in our pit area. We had various cameras on the car to make sure no leaks were going to happen and nothing crazy or exotic was going to take place. We shortly figured out it was not the crank case system that was the problem. The problem was the fuel rail was arching once the fuel pressure went up in excess of 100 pounds. The fuel rail would arch in the center and I guess the bracing we had done for the fuel rail was not adequate and I couldn’t believe my eyes - a piece of aluminum two foot long could arch a half of an inch in the center. We identified that problem and didn’t take the next two qualifying runs. We stayed back and repaired that problem and after that the problems were all solved.”

After hours of work to get the team on the right path, Pappas and his crew went back to the track with a new outlook and mission.

“We said in our mind, we’re better than what we offered throughout the year,” Pappas said. “Knowing what I knew from racing in the past, and knowing what I know from my own business, in order to be successful, you have to close the deal. It’s not up to me, it’s up to the entire team. If we want to make it happen, we have to earn it. In order to earn it, we have to work for it. It’s there. The car is there. The potential is there. We’re in the game, we’re No. 8 in points, we can make this happen. It was in my heart and in my gut that I wanted it bad enough, and the guys on my team also wanted it bad enough. We put everything together, along with all of our hearts and souls and our dedication and we came out with a big success. What a way to the end the year.”

Although Pappas did reach the 10.5 summit and unseated 2008 world champ Billy Glidden, it took awhile for him to realize what had transpired.

“This was believable in our minds that we could do it and it was unbelievable when we did it,” Pappas said. “It took awhile to sink in, especially after all of those problems we had. Plus, every round was a fight to the end.”

Pappas’ rise to stardom is somewhat surprising because he didn’t even start competing in the ADRL ranks until last season. Pappas was out of racing the nine previous years to take care of family and business matters.

“Honestly, I began racing in the (ADRL) 10.5 class because I had some unfinished business to take care of with Billy Glidden,” Pappas said. “Back in 1997, he came to the Super Street 10.5 class where I was running and he did pretty well and won the championship there, and I thought I owed him one here.”

Presently, Pappas is working on getting his 2009 Pontiac GXP machine ready for the 2010 campaign. Pappas says he will be back to defend his Flowmaster Extreme 10.5 world title. The ADRL season starts March 19-20 at the Dragpalooza VI in Houston Raceway Park in Baytown, Texas.

“We are reducing the weight in our car a little bit and we’re keeping everything else the same because we did not reach the full potential of the car last year, power-wise,” Pappas said. “I believe we’re taking another 120 pounds of legitimate weight out of the vehicle. We’re going to try some new turbos for added power, and we’re going to see how much we can push it. I definitely think we can run in the 3.80s. The potential is there with our team and our combination to do that. I do believe it (3.80s) is there for a few others as well. Although I took care of my unfinished business with (Billy) Glidden, I still have other unfinished business I have to take care of this coming year (2010).”