Accustomed to going it alone, Jim Yates and his family spun racing enterprise are ready to get back into championship contention with the help from another National Football League personality.

Yates won a pair of dominating NHRA Pro Stock crowns in 1996 and 1997, driving for the golden arches of McDonald’s and owner Joe Gibbs, the Pro Football Hall of Fame coach who temporarily left the sidelines to fund three drag racing teams. Ten years later, Yates was hooked up with Duce Staley, a running back for the champion Pittsburgh Steelers, to help launch next season’s two-Pontiac lineup that fields IHRA standout driver Billy Gibson.

Accustomed to going it alone, Jim Yates and his family spun racing enterprise are ready to get back into championship contention with the help from another National Football League personality.

Yates won a pair of dominating NHRA Pro Stock crowns in 1996 and 1997, driving for the golden arches of McDonald’s and owner Joe Gibbs, the Pro Football Hall of Fame coach who temporarily left the sidelines to fund three drag racing teams. Ten years later, Yates was hooked up with Duce Staley, a running back for the champion Pittsburgh Steelers, to help launch next season’s two-Pontiac lineup that fields IHRA standout driver Billy Gibson.

Competitive without a designated teammate in recent seasons, Yates wants to share more data, more technology and more ideas with a second car in an eventual push for another world title. Staley’s new Catch 22 Motorsports Team, which was launched this month, will give Yates that extra push.

“It’s a great opportunity,” said Yates, the 53-year-old native Virginian whose Pro Stock career spans 25 wins and 35 runner-ups in 353 races over 17 years. He also was a three-time series runner-up (1995, 2001, 2002). “You see the cars that are dominating, and it’s all about multiple cars and being able to gather that information and use it to be successful.”

Added Staley, in a prepared statement: “I am very excited to establish this competitive racing team and am looking forward to engaging in a new challenge The competition level in Pro Stock is so tight now; I believe that my experience with the elite competition in the NFL and the parity among NFL teams is transferable to the parity in NHRA Pro Stock.”

Staley comes at the right time. Yates and the rest of the factory field has had trouble keeping pace with the category’s well-funded two-headed giants, notably Greg Anderson and Jason Line (General Motors), Alan Johnson and Richie Stevens (Dodge Mopar) and Warren and Curt Johnson (GM).

Yates’ operation – under his son and crew chief Jamie and legendary engine tuner Bill “Grumpy” Jenkins – is admirably running in the top 10 this season.

 

 

Despite primarily footing his own bill, Yates has run well on wisdom and Grumpy horsepower. He won at Columbus, Ohio, in May, his first national-event victory in nearly 3½ years. He has run as high as third in the points standings, reaching one other final round and making four semifinals. Yates, driving the Wiley X Eyewear GTO, now sits seventh after a first-round loss to eventual finalist Mike Edwards in the O’Reilly Fall Nationals near Dallas on Sunday.

As the season heads for the stretch drive, Yates is scrambling to put the pieces together on Staley’s team while trying to finish strong and possibly salvage a top-five finish.

“We’re trying to win rounds,” Yates said simply. “And it doesn’t get any easier. You have to look at your own team. You can’t worry about the competition or else you will go slower. You know they’re going to get faster and better. You have focus on your own team and make it better.”

Staley, a longtime drag racing enthusiast, intends to do just that. Staley’s lineup will retain Jenkins as its power source. Jamie Yates will continue to work the chassis for this father. Doug Kline, with more than 20 years of racing experience, was named the team’s general manager.

The arrangement feels comfortable to Yates and co. The family has run a successful auto parts business in the Virginia area for 10 years, allowing Yates the freedom to race on the national stage.

Staley’s business venture, in many respects, shadows the Yates’ team concept.

“The NFL is very competitive and it’s very structured,” Yates said. “With Gibbs and Duce, it’s a matter of being part of a winning team. Not one man can win. It’s a team deal. They believe in the team principles and know what the team needs are in order to be successful.”

In Pro Stock, Yates knows his team can’t stand still. The division is always evolving with big money and technology changing hands in pursuit of better performance.

His three children now fully grown, Yates has been able to devote more time to racing. A good father, husband and businessman, Yates has become an even better driver.

 

“We’re thinking more about what we’re doing,” he said. “We were more reactive before when we didn’t have the experience. But as you mature, you have to look at opportunities.”

Yates admits he had grown complacent, but the arrival of a new team has brought back the fire.

“It’s good to have family around you to inspire you,” he said. “With the kids around, they want to go racing and win. And Billy and Duce want to go racing and win. They’ve never won a race before. It really fires you up. It’s just what you need.”

In Gibson, Yates will work with an experienced driver but one who is new to the NHRA Pro Stock ranks. Gibson, who has been racing since he was 7, has driven Go-Karts, street cars, eliminator classes, stock and alcohol sportsman entries.

Yates, himself, started young in the seat. He began to bracket race at age 16 and has raced ever since.

His decorated Pro Stock career began with a 1989 debut and soon followed with a series of milestones. He collected his first win 1994, his first world title in ’96 and a career-best nine events in ’97. He became the fifth member of the 200-mph Pro Stock Club with a 200.11 mph run at the Pennzoil Nationals in Dinwiddie, Va., in ’99.

In 2003, Yates finished in the top 10 for the 10th consecutive season and the 12th time overall while establishing career best for elapsed time and top speed. Just this spring, he bettered those numbers at 6.655 seconds and 208.17 mph at Englishtown, N.J.

 

Yates is considered a warrior and a survivor.

During his 2001 campaign, Yates overcame a scary episode. Following his No. 1 qualifying run at Memphis, Tenn., he experienced severe chest pains and was rushed immediately to a nearby hospital. Two days later, Yates underwent angioplasty surgery to clear a blocked artery.

“I just thank God I’m alive. It’s a real blessing,” Yates said at the time. “I was really fortunate.

“It was a complete surprise to me. It wasn’t like I had coronary artery disease or heart problems. All of the other arteries are fine,” he said. “It could be more of a physiological thing, just the way I was built.”

As Yates’ relieved wife Toni best put it: “We’re just thankful that his problem was diagnosed, so we can move ahead.”

Four days after surgery, Yates felt strong enough to compete in Chicago, where he qualified third and reached the quarterfinals. He went on to complete a solid season, winning a national event in five final-round appearances. He finished second to Warren Johnson by 79 points for the world title, his best finish in the NHRA points chase since winning back-to-back titles in 1996-97.

Today, Yates is minding his own personal numbers, reducing his cholesterol level, watching his blood pressure and following a healthy diet.

“I’m feeling real good,” he said. “I’m just glad to be through it, to tell you the truth.”