Micky Hale takes a trip down memory every time he goes to the track and he wouldn’t have it any other way.

He pilots a 1948 Austin – dubbed the Warlock – which he started driving three years ago.

“It’s old school and kind of the roots of a lot of things,” Hale, 46, said. “Funny Cars started with the gassers. The roots of Pro Mod kind of started with gassers and the way we run them; they are really old school and it’s just exciting. I have run a few different types of cars and these things are just fun. We typically run eighth-mile everywhere just because of the safety factor.”

Hale primarily competes with the Ohio Outlaw AA/Gassers.

“The majority of us are in the Northeastern Ohio area,” said Hale, who helps organize things for the organization. “In total, we probably do 10 races throughout the summer. We probably started doing the gasser stuff five years ago and in the last two years is when our Ohio group got focused and started doing our own thing just because there was so much going on. Anyone who meets our criteria can come out and have fun; we just try and put on a show for everybody.”

When the Ohio Outlaw AA/Gassers compete in-state they compete under the Ohio Outlaw Gassers name. Whey they go to national events like Thompson (Ohio) Gasser Reunion, the Gasser Reunion at Beaver Springs (Pa.), and the last two years they have been an exhibition feature at the NHRA’s U.S. Nationals at Indianapolis they compete under the Classical AA/Gassers name.   

“It was the highlight for me to win the U.S. Nationals this year,” Hale said. “It was a totally neat deal going to Indy because Indy is Indy. Then this year a lot of the legends of the gasser wars were there. I think we had 12 total cars there and we qualified an eight-car field. I was the No. 1 qualifier and I got the win, so that was kind of cool.”

When Hale isn’t doing work for the Ohio Outlaw AA/Gassers, he works as a sales/tech rep at Cometic Gasket, based in Concord, Ohio.

“A lot of the NHRA Pro Stock teams run our head gaskets and they also run them in NASCAR,” Hale said. “We’re an upper-end gasket manufacturer.”

Hale also was quick to admit he believes the gassers have found a niche – for now.

“It’s like anything, probably over time it’s going to run its course and evolve into something else, but it’s exciting right now,” Hale said.

The act of cutting and pasting articles from this publication to a message board is a clear copyright violation as is pulling photos to post on social media sites. All articles and photography published in CompetitionPlus.com are protected by United States of America and International copyright laws unless mentioned otherwise. The content on this website is intended for the private use of the reader and may not be published or reposted in any form without the prior written consent of CompetitionPlus.com.