Fresh off his third PDRA Pro Nitrous win of the year, Jim Halsey now sits on the cusp of securing his first-ever national series championship. It's just the latest big step on the comeback trail after a devastating fire seven years ago at his Maryland-based race shop.

"Yeah, a motor home caught fire and we pretty much lost everything," Halsey recalled. "After the fire we actually repaired the car, which was my old red Camaro. We got lucky because it was inside the trailer, so it just needed a body and paint work and rewired and stuff like that. 

"We actually did a little bit of racing that year and for a couple of years locally after that, just not very successful. Then we sold the red car and got this '68 Camaro that we're running now. We bought it used from Jerry Bickel in 2017 and it really turned the corner for us."

A race-winning veteran of the IHRA and ADRL series, plus winner of the 50th annual NHRA U.S. Nationals in 2004, as well as other major independent events, Halsey joined the Professional Drag Racers Association last year.

As the owner of a grading, paving, and underground utilities construction firm and a concrete operation that pours residential and commercial foundations and slabs, as well as owner of Cecil County Dragway in Rising Sun, MD, he appreciates the PDRA's limited and relatively compact national-event schedule.

"The eight-race schedule is nice. We're not killing ourselves trying to race 20 times a year because most of us are all working guys and we can't afford to be off more than eight or 10 times a year," Halsey pointed out. "And it's nice to be able to drive to and from the track in just one day. I mean that San Antonio trip in the old IHRA days used to kill us. We'd leave on Monday and get there on Wednesday.

"And we're seeing full fields, which I think has a lot to do with the travel. At most races the car counts have been, I think, 18 plus pretty much every time."

After reaching two final rounds in his initial PDRA campaign, Halsey scored his first PDRA win this April in the 2019 season opener at GALOT Motorsports Park in North Carolina. A second race title came early in June at Budds Creek, MD, though representing the rain-delayed Pro Nitrous final from a few weeks earlier at Richmond, VA.

The latest victory came at South Carolina's historic Darlington Dragway, a track Halsey was well familiar with from his IHRA Pro Mod days throughout the 1990s.

"You know, I think determination more than anything was responsible (for the Darlington win). We prepared for the last month or so to hit this race hard and be fast and be consistent. And it paid off. To be honest we kind of strategically planned it that way.

"We were pretty fast in testing and then we were number-one qualifier. The biggest challenge was the change in the weather from Friday to Saturday. I mean, it was like a hundred degrees on Friday and I'm not sure it got over 70 on Saturday," Halsey said. 

"You know, the tune-up numbers, these guys, they have the numbers, they know what they need to do when the air gets good or when the air gets bad, but it's track conditions that's the bigger thing to battle."

Halsey praised his entire team, consisting of 32-year partner Cathy Crouse, longtime crew members Eric Davis and Michael McMillan, and nitrous tuning wizard Brandon Switzer, who has been onsite for each of Halsey's PDRA appearances this year.
"Oh my gosh, I got hooked up with Brandon and he's been a blessing. We've become really close friends and spent a lot of time together over the winter," Halsey said. "We even spent a week together on vacation."

Perhaps more than anyone, though, Halsey seems happiest about putting legendary engine builder Gene Fulton back in the PDRA-winning spotlight.

"I mean back in the day, Scott Shafiroff was the guy for a while in nitrous motors and then Gene kind of took over for probably 15 or so years," Halsey explained. "Then David Reher jumped into the deal, (Pat) Musi jumped into the deal, Sonny (Leonard) jumped into the deal, and then you've got Billy Albert and a couple others. But you know, I think a lot of people had written Gene off, especially when we had stopped operations for a few years. So it's nice to help get his name back out there."

While Halsey obviously hopes to attach the names of each of his closest supporters to this year's PDRA Pro Nitrous championship--including Dave and Erica Coleman of Purnell Body Shop, which painted his distinctive black-and-orange Camaro--he recognizes it remains far from a done deal, having lost the 2009 ADRL Pro Nitrous title at nearly the last moment.

"We were leading the points by a ton going into the last race, but that's  when they were doing the Battle for the Belts (between the top eight points earners) and I ended up losing in the semi-finals," he said. "If it would've been the conventional points system, then yeah, we would've won the championship."

To prevail this time around, Halsey will have to hold off two-time class champion Tommy Franklin, who not only owns the PDRA, but Virginia Motorsports Park as well, where next weekend (Oct. 17-20), the PDRA World Finals will be held. And with a maximum 541 points on the table--plus a 50-point bonus available for officially resetting the class elapsed time record (claimed by Lizzy Musi with a 3.615 at Darlington)--Halsey knows his current 297-point advantage is not nearly enough to feel comfortable.

“You know, I've won a lot of big races before, but never a season title, so for me to win the PDRA Pro Nitrous championship would be unbelievable. Seriously, it's more important to me than anything else right now," he admitted. "But Tommy's tough. It won't be easy, it never is, but I think we're ready. And no matter what, this year has already far exceeded what I thought it was going to be." 

Regardless, there's no denying a championship would make the comeback complete.