ALAN PITTMAN'S NEW WEAPON
Sun, 2007-03-11 12:45
Out·law (out lô ) - A person who refuses to be governed by the established rules or practices of any group.
Jesse James was one. Willie Nelson still is. And Alan Pittman will soon be joining this infamous fraternity of nonconformists known collectively as outlaws. The racer and chassis builder from South Carolina won’t be robbing banks or belting out country songs, but he will be flaunting the established rules of Pro Modified competition when he joins the battle for Pro Extreme supremacy in American Drag Racing League (ADRL) action.
Out·law (out lô ) - A person who refuses to be governed by the established rules or practices of any group.
Jesse James was one. Willie Nelson still is. And Alan Pittman will soon be joining this infamous fraternity of nonconformists known collectively as outlaws. The racer and chassis builder from South Carolina won’t be robbing banks or belting out country songs, but he will be flaunting the established rules of Pro Modified competition when he joins the battle for Pro Extreme supremacy in American Drag Racing League (ADRL) action.
Pittman, who has raced only in legal IHRA and NHRA trim during his Pro Mod career, is returning to his Southern roots, rejoining the ranks of the familiar eighth-mile doorslammer competition that served as his training ground. This time around, Pittman, who drove a legal 1962 Chevrolet for team owner Mel Bush in 2006, will be fielding a state-of-the-art supercharged 1963 Corvette.
“Mel gave me an opportunity to run last year, and I want to thank him for that,” Pittman said. “We built a good car, and we did well on the IHRA tour considering that we’d been away from the track for a couple of years. It was a good experience, but I have to say that I really feel like I’m stepping up to another level by bringing a new purpose-built car and a polished, professional team to the ADRL this season.
“I have always wanted to go fast in the eighth-mile, and Greg Gore, the owner of our new team, and his associate Gary Wingate, are going to allow me to do that,” Pittman said. “I’ve run legal Pro Mod my entire career, but looking back I just don’t think that was ever our cup of tea. With the rulebook out of the picture, we can express ourselves a little more; we can build the kind of car I have always wanted to build.”
That car is the high-tech Corvette that Pittman and his team at AP Race Cars in Greenville, South Carolina, started welding together just five weeks ago. “We’re going to miss one or two more ADRL races, but we’ll get it all done and run as many races as we can this year,” Pittman said. “We’re also going to test the car as much as we can. That’s something I was never able to do in the past; I never had the funding to go and test as much as we needed to, and now we can do that.
“I feel like the cars we had in the past were tools, but I believe this car is a weapon.”
Pittman has hired blower specialist Darren Mayer to serve as a consultant, and he will be working with Wingate to make the tuning calls on the team’s Alan Johnson wedge-head engines. Pittman and crew are hedging their bets, however, as they know they have to do in the high-stakes world of ADRL competition. “We have a screw blower on the shelf already, and there are a couple of other things in the background that we could go to, including a Hemi combination, but I think the wedge motors will do the job,” Pittman said. “I’m real excited about getting that rulebook off my desk, because the restrictions that held the wedge combination back are not a factor now.”
Rules and budgets have always prevented chassis builders from building no-holds-barred race cars, but Pittman is finally free of those boundaries. “This is the first time I’ve been turned loose and allowed to build exactly what I need to build,” he said. “This time there are no exceptions. Greg and Gary tell me over and over that if it needs to be done, do it. It’s a new way of doing things for me, but it’s the way it has to be done to build a competitive car and put a professional team together.
“The guys in my shop, Chris Smith, Jimmy Brashier, and Matt Roach, have given me a little backbone on this deal. They have had lots of input on the new car, and it’s really working out. In the past, when we went to a race we were just happy to be a part of the deal; our goal was just to qualify. I have a lot of respect for the Outlaw guys out there, and I’m not going to brag, because I’m not a bragging man, but between what I know, what the guys in my shop know, what Darren knows, and what Greg and Gary know, I really feel that we’re going to be a thorn in a side of a lot of the big guys in ADRL.
”Look out – we’re coming!”
About The New Team:
The crew members are: Danny Blankenship, Phil Osterloh, Layne Leoffler, and Jimmy Brashier.
Team Owner Greg Gore is a third-generation real estate executive from Sunset Beach, North Carolina. He owns and operates, with the help of other professionals, Century 21 Sunset Reality as well as Sunset Vacations, a property management company managing many of the vacation rental homes on the island.
His right-hand man is Gary Wingate, who has owned Quality Machine in Little River, South Carolina, for the last 14 years.
“Gary and I met through a mutual friend a few years ago, and discovered that we both loved drag racing,” Gore said. “Subsequently, I met Alan through Gary, and now we’re all working together to put a professional Outlaw Pro Mod team out on the track. I’m humbled and thrilled to have him on board.
“In the past I have enjoyed watching Pro Mods at IHRA events, and I understand that the sanctioning body has to impose restrictions and rules at their level of competition,” Gore said. “Gary and I are kind of from a different background, though. We asked each other why we couldn’t build a car, with safety as priority number one, and see just how fast and just how quick it could go. That’s when he started educating me about outlaw racing, and specifically about Kenny Nowling’s ADRL organization. It really sounded like something that would be a lot of fun to be involved with. One thing led to another, and now we’re moving ahead as quickly as possible to meet that objective.
“This is my first endeavor as the owner of a Pro Mod team, and I’m excited about learning the ins and outs of the race car,” Gore said. “I’m certainly not an expert, and I learn more every day. What I lack in expertise people like Gary and Alan make up for. When you surround yourself with people who are smarter than you are the organization just grows and moves in the right direction.”
Jesse James was one. Willie Nelson still is. And Alan Pittman will soon be joining this infamous fraternity of nonconformists known collectively as outlaws. The racer and chassis builder from South Carolina won’t be robbing banks or belting out country songs, but he will be flaunting the established rules of Pro Modified competition when he joins the battle for Pro Extreme supremacy in American Drag Racing League (ADRL) action.
Out·law (out lô ) - A person who refuses to be governed by the established rules or practices of any group.
Pittman, who has raced only in legal IHRA and NHRA trim during his Pro Mod career, is returning to his Southern roots, rejoining the ranks of the familiar eighth-mile doorslammer competition that served as his training ground. This time around, Pittman, who drove a legal 1962 Chevrolet for team owner Mel Bush in 2006, will be fielding a state-of-the-art supercharged 1963 Corvette. “Mel gave me an opportunity to run last year, and I want to thank him for that,” Pittman said. “We built a good car, and we did well on the IHRA tour considering that we’d been away from the track for a couple of years. It was a good experience, but I have to say that I really feel like I’m stepping up to another level by bringing a new purpose-built car and a polished, professional team to the ADRL this season.
“I have always wanted to go fast in the eighth-mile, and Greg Gore, the owner of our new team, and his associate Gary Wingate, are going to allow me to do that,” Pittman said. “I’ve run legal Pro Mod my entire career, but looking back I just don’t think that was ever our cup of tea. With the rulebook out of the picture, we can express ourselves a little more; we can build the kind of car I have always wanted to build.”
That car is the high-tech Corvette that Pittman and his team at AP Race Cars in Greenville, South Carolina, started welding together just five weeks ago. “We’re going to miss one or two more ADRL races, but we’ll get it all done and run as many races as we can this year,” Pittman said. “We’re also going to test the car as much as we can. That’s something I was never able to do in the past; I never had the funding to go and test as much as we needed to, and now we can do that.
“I feel like the cars we had in the past were tools, but I believe this car is a weapon.”
Pittman has hired blower specialist Darren Mayer to serve as a consultant, and he will be working with Wingate to make the tuning calls on the team’s Alan Johnson wedge-head engines. Pittman and crew are hedging their bets, however, as they know they have to do in the high-stakes world of ADRL competition. “We have a screw blower on the shelf already, and there are a couple of other things in the background that we could go to, including a Hemi combination, but I think the wedge motors will do the job,” Pittman said. “I’m real excited about getting that rulebook off my desk, because the restrictions that held the wedge combination back are not a factor now.”
Rules and budgets have always prevented chassis builders from building no-holds-barred race cars, but Pittman is finally free of those boundaries. “This is the first time I’ve been turned loose and allowed to build exactly what I need to build,” he said. “This time there are no exceptions. Greg and Gary tell me over and over that if it needs to be done, do it. It’s a new way of doing things for me, but it’s the way it has to be done to build a competitive car and put a professional team together.
“The guys in my shop, Chris Smith, Jimmy Brashier, and Matt Roach, have given me a little backbone on this deal. They have had lots of input on the new car, and it’s really working out. In the past, when we went to a race we were just happy to be a part of the deal; our goal was just to qualify. I have a lot of respect for the Outlaw guys out there, and I’m not going to brag, because I’m not a bragging man, but between what I know, what the guys in my shop know, what Darren knows, and what Greg and Gary know, I really feel that we’re going to be a thorn in a side of a lot of the big guys in ADRL.
”Look out – we’re coming!”
About The New Team:
The crew members are: Danny Blankenship, Phil Osterloh, Layne Leoffler, and Jimmy Brashier.
Team Owner Greg Gore is a third-generation real estate executive from Sunset Beach, North Carolina. He owns and operates, with the help of other professionals, Century 21 Sunset Reality as well as Sunset Vacations, a property management company managing many of the vacation rental homes on the island.
His right-hand man is Gary Wingate, who has owned Quality Machine in Little River, South Carolina, for the last 14 years.
“Gary and I met through a mutual friend a few years ago, and discovered that we both loved drag racing,” Gore said. “Subsequently, I met Alan through Gary, and now we’re all working together to put a professional Outlaw Pro Mod team out on the track. I’m humbled and thrilled to have him on board.
“In the past I have enjoyed watching Pro Mods at IHRA events, and I understand that the sanctioning body has to impose restrictions and rules at their level of competition,” Gore said. “Gary and I are kind of from a different background, though. We asked each other why we couldn’t build a car, with safety as priority number one, and see just how fast and just how quick it could go. That’s when he started educating me about outlaw racing, and specifically about Kenny Nowling’s ADRL organization. It really sounded like something that would be a lot of fun to be involved with. One thing led to another, and now we’re moving ahead as quickly as possible to meet that objective.
“This is my first endeavor as the owner of a Pro Mod team, and I’m excited about learning the ins and outs of the race car,” Gore said. “I’m certainly not an expert, and I learn more every day. What I lack in expertise people like Gary and Alan make up for. When you surround yourself with people who are smarter than you are the organization just grows and moves in the right direction.”
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