If you don’t think quitting nitro racing is like a junkie trying to kick a drug habit, just spend a few minutes with former Top Fuel racer Paul Romine. He’ll set you straight.

Sadly, he speaks from experience.

“I’ve tried building street rods,” Romine explained. “I’ve tried fishing. I’ve tried Harley-Davidsons. I’ve tried everything there is since I quit driving in 2003. It’s driving me crazy.”

Romine, who hails from Indianapolis, has reached a compromise with his addiction. He’s not planning on returning to the cockpit of a Top Fuel dragster, but a dose of nitro is certainly on his agenda.

Former Top Fuel Champion Writes His Next Chapter With Nostalgia Nitro Flop …

If you don’t think quitting nitro racing is like a junkie trying to kick a drug habit, just spend a few minutes with former Top Fuel racer Paul Romine. He’ll set you straight.

Sadly, he speaks from experience.

“I’ve tried building street rods,” Romine explained. “I’ve tried fishing. I’ve tried Harley-Davidsons. I’ve tried everything there is since I quit driving in 2003. It’s driving me crazy.”

Romine, who hails from Indianapolis, has reached a compromise with his addiction. He’s not planning on returning to the cockpit of a Top Fuel dragster, but a dose of nitro is certainly on his agenda.

A smaller dose of nitro, that is.

He’s using just enough nitromethane to put some cackle in the pipes of his nostalgia nitro Funny Car. Enough pop to provide a 6.4-second rush at almost 200 miles per hour.

“I’m starting to have more fun now that more opportunities are popping up in the Midwest,” Romine admitted. “Now I don’t have to go all the way to California to race against those guys. This is really affordable where a guy can get a partner and go race nitro with a supercharger.”

Romine raced a nitro flopper in the late 1970s, and the first-year Fox-bodied Mustang shell that cloaks his modern day, Mike Spitzer TAFC chassis was made from a mold of his former Funny Car.

“Found it in Louisville, Ky.,” Romine proudly proclaims. “We had to change a few things on the body to fit the new chassis.”

The move has made him the target of message board criticism from the purists, but he shrugs off the negative banter, opting instead to focus on having fun.

Those changes, Romine added, were made in the name of safety, too.

“Spitz is very focused on safety,” Romine said. “The chassis underneath is very similar to the car Mick Snyder drives.”

Going from the confines of a Top Fuel dragster to that of a Funny Car can prove claustrophobic for some. Romine said the first experience of lowering the Mustang body was very comfortable.

“It didn’t make a difference because it’s all a big rush,” Romine said. “I have to tell you that having a motor in the front is a hell of a lot of fun. I had almost forgotten what that experience was like.”

The last time Romine drove a front-engine car was not his previous Funny Car experience but rather in the 1990s when he piloted a nostalgia Top Fueler. He aced the challenge too, becoming one of the first modern day old school drivers to record a five second elapsed time.

He doesn’t worry about the dangers of the engine in the front.

“If you worry about that stuff, you probably should be fishing,” Romine added.”

Romine has been there and done that with the fishing.

He’s also over the demands of modern nitro racing, too.

“The last three years of racing Top Fuel, I spent most of my time either at malls or signing autographs,” Romine said. “I really didn’t even get to work on the car, probably spent only about ten percent of the time driving the race car and the other time appeasing a sponsor. But, that’s the job of a driver at the big show.”

For Romine, being at the smaller show suits him just fine.

“I get to do the clutch and help Bull [longtime crewman John Bullard] with the bottom end,” Romine says, smiling. “I get to drive and get to tune. I get to do it all, it’s a one-man band.

Romine has assembled a crew that also includes Mike Cavalieri and former Top Fuel racer Dale Funk, the team’s official truck driver.

“We’re looking for one more guy, and I’m really not sure who that will be,” Romine explained.

Aside from the personnel search, Romine’s still shaking down the new car and while a trip west to Bakersfield is not likely to happen in weeks to come, he’s not ruled out the possibility.

“We might make it out west a few times, but realistically we can stay busy close to home,” Romine said. “We can do some match races, even though I’m not much of a match racer.

“We could probably race as much as we want to.”

That’s important for Romine, racing on his terms.

Even more important, he’s racing nitro on his terms.

ROMINE, A REAL SHOE …