FIVE DECADES OF DRAG RACING EXCELLENCE
If you haven't arrived there yet, you probably have little idea of what
we're talking about. But if you have, if those years have slipped by,
then you probably have the same feelings as Roger Gustin.With the 26th Annual Super Chevy Show just completed in Gainesville, FL, Gustin, CEO of the series, is now on the eve of celebrating 50 years in drag racing.
While he may not be as visible to the fans as he was when campaigning on the track, all the way up to those jet-powered Lava Soap-backed cars, Gustin continues to guide the Bowtie series at drag racing stops throughout the country. It involves 18-hour days and constant travel. Roger Gustin's Hall of Fame Career Is The Stuff Of Legends
With the 26th Annual Super Chevy Show just completed in Gainesville, FL, Gustin, CEO of the series, is now on the eve of celebrating 50 years in drag racing.
While he may not be as visible to the fans as he was when campaigning on the track, all the way up to those jet-powered Lava Soap-backed cars, Gustin continues to guide the Bowtie series at drag racing stops throughout the country. It involves 18-hour days and constant travel.
Among the Super Chevy Show's drag racing attractions are the Nitro Coupes, Jet Cars, Wheel Stander exhibitions and bracket competition as well as a Bowtie car show and swap meet.
We sat down with Gustin, with his ever-present radio turned down, to get his thoughts on wide range of topics, from the greatest innovation, to the most influential person in the sport, to his greatest race weekend.
First, an overview with the 67-year old entrepreneur:
"On the upcoming 2007 Racing Season when I mark 50 years in drag racing I only have one question; how can 50 years pass so quickly?
"I have spent my entire adult life at drag strips, first as a sportsman racer, then a pro racer with the nitro Funny Cars and jet cars; also as a team owner and driver and as the owner of AutoStar Productions, the promoter of the Super Chevy Shows for the past twelve years.
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"I negotiated the end of the NHRA ban on jet cars and became the first driver ever licensed to race a jet dragster in 1974 and a Jet Funny Car in 1980. I also created the Nitro Coupe Class for the Super Chevy Shows.
"Being inducted into the NHRA Hall of Fame in 1980, the Projet Hall of Fame in 1993, and the International Drag Racing Hall of Fame in 2002 are some of my greatest accomplishments.
"I have three wonderful daughters; Lee, Pam, and Valerie, and two granddaughters, Abby and Rebekah. The older you get, the more that means to you.
"My wife, Susan, and my brother, Bill, and I manage and produce the Super Chevy Shows with an outstanding team of professionals of whom I am extremely proud.
Gustin says from the time he started, just out of high school in 1957, he never left drag racing for a day.
"I always felt that if I did get out of it, I would get behind on everything I was doing, and if I got behind, I'd never catch up, so I never left it. There have been times it would probably have been the smarter thing for me to do to get out of it, but I probably would have said I gotta get back. I think like everything else if you see things through to the end it usually works out for the best.
"The good Lord has looked after me real well and I've really caused Him a lot of grief.
"Over the past 49 years I have endured a lot of tough times in business, seven horrible high-speed crashes and near-fatal injuries. I have also enjoyed one of the most exciting and rewarding careers possible. I continue to look forward to each event, each challenge, with the same enthusiasm as I did 50 years ago."
Gustin says his wife sometimes says to him, “we know you're not going to retire, but are you going to slow down a little bit?”
’I tell her, ‘well, maybe next year.’ That gives me a whole year to come up with another story."
So, nearing 50, what is the greatest innovation you've seen in drag racing?
"Safety. And we owe that to NHRA and a lot of our manufacturers, like Strange Engineering, for example, development of the brakes, Bill Simpson and the people who made our parachutes and all of that.
"When I see cars today, going 330 and almost 340 miles an hour on tracks where it was really questionable if we could get stopped when we first started going 200 miles an hour, I have to say that safety is above everything else.
"Now, the use of all these high-tech materials has been a blessing, We've lost two drivers now in the last eight or ten years with Blaine (Johnson) and Darrell Russell, but you look at all the thousands and thousands of runs these cars make -- the fire systems they have on them and the fire suits and the new HANS device will save a lot of lives, and already have.
"Safety is the number-one issue, and NHRA deserves all the credit for that. When Wally (Parks) built NHRA safety was paramount."
Gustin says it amazes him more that the cars get stopped (in so short a time) than the speeds they run.
"So my answer is safety."
Who then, is the most memorable person with whom you've been associated with on the eve of this 50th Anniversary?
"Wally Parks. If it hadn't been for Wally, don't we all have to wonder if this sport would have actually survived? In my 49 years and seeing what I did in that time period, would this sport have survived? He did one thing that has to be one of the most difficult jobs in the world -- he organized racers. That's a very difficult thing to do and try to keep together. It's like trying to herd cats.
"Wally has done more, and nobody can even compare."
Now, back to Gustin, the competitor. What was the greatest race weekend you recall?
"In 1986 I was with Proctor & Gamble and Lava Soap (with the jet cars) at Englishtown, and Vinnie Napp -- one of the greatest promoters there ever was in drag racing -- held the All-America Jet Car Nationals. I went into New York City and did ‘Good Morning America,’ ‘CBS Morning News,’ did all the promotions for the race. Then we go over there and Mike Evegens, in my other car, finished runner-up.
"That was one of the biggest crowds they had and that was one of my really special weekends."
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"I don't have to deal with it in any way, shape or form, but I do have an opinion. If this is what it takes to create new interest in drag racing, then I'm for it. It's really important to me that NHRA does real well. They set the pattern for whatever happens. If it creates new media attention, if it fills up the grandstands and creates more interest in drag racing, then I'm for it."
That takes care of NHRA, although your attraction virtually feeds off that venue, but what are your goals for the Super Chevy Show?
"I think we've reached the point that it's really important now, that we do a much better job in promoting our events. The bulk of our advertising is radio and TV. That job is becoming more difficult to do.
"We know from the number of people who come to our web site every year to see what's new. We're preparing now to completely redesign our website. We're looking at new avenues to promote our event. We've all had tough years here with weather, but we can't do anything about that. We have to work with tracks to make our events successful.
"What we've done -- like creating the Nitro Coupes -- is to polish the series and create things and add thing from time-to-time. Adjustments, no major changes."
Gustin says looking for a major change would be like looking for another half-second off a Top Fuel car's run. It's not coming.
Gustin credits brother Bill for doing the hard work and wife Susan for the bookkeeping for the Super Chevy Show.
"So I don't have a reason in the world to wanna quit."
Finally, if you had the power, what would you change in drag racing?
Gustin says they have young lions coming on, but so does drag racing in drivers such as J.R. Todd, Melanie Troxel, Erica Enders and Hillary Will.
"Melanie Troxel was just named Sportswoman of the Year. It's happening. We have a lot of tools to work with."
For instance, Gustin said, NASCAR's Brian France would love to have not only the diversity drag racing enjoys but also would love to have these young racers because they are articulate and well-mannered.
And they're winners.
"That kid has won, like three races this year," he said of Todd. Troxel has won twice, and she led the NHRA standings for the entire first half of the season. Will won IHRA's marquee event at Norwalk in August.
"That's what I would like to see more than anything I can think of, mainstream attention from the media," Gustin said. "That would do wonders for the sport. And I think things are helping (in that direction). "You don't get a nicer, more clean-cut person in the world than Tony Schumacher, Doug Kalitta and on and on. We don't read about bad guys in this sport like you do in the stick and ball sports."
Finally, if you had the power, what would you change in drag racing?
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Gustin says they have young lions coming on, but so does drag racing in drivers such as J.R. Todd, Melanie Troxel, Erica Enders and Hillary Will.
"Melanie Troxel was just named Sportswoman of the Year. It's happening. We have a lot of tools to work with. For instance, how would Brian France and NASCAR like to see some nice looking, well-mannered young black man (like Todd) come out and be a Nextel Cup competitor?
"That kid has won, like three races this year."
"That's what I would like to see more than anything I can think of, mainstream attention from the media. That would do wonders for the sport. And, I think things are helping (in that direction). "You don't get a nicer more clean-cut person in the world than Tony Schumacher, Doug Kalitta and on and on. We don't read about bad guys in this sport like you do in the stick and ball sports."
As to the technical side, Gustin says he would like to see some aircraft technology in the fuel cars.
"As far as bearings, lubricants and on and on. If we quit putting oil in 'em, it will quit coming out," he says. "If we were using some 25-year-old aircraft technology in our fuel engines, we wouldn't be putting oil in, we'd be putting lubricant in, but the lubricant would be dry when it came out.
"Tom Compton took a bold move a few years ago when he said if you oil this track you're going to pay a fine for it and if you oil it again, you're going to lose points and you're going to come back here and race in 75 minutes.
"So I would say aircraft technology. It would come at a high cost, but look at the high cost now."
About that time, the current two jet cars came to the staging line and started their fwap, fwap, fwap chirps to the lights.
Pushing his earmuffs aside for a second, Gustin went back about 30 years.
"You, know, sometimes I wish I was still doing that," he remarks with a smile.
Yeah, right. And Happy Anniversary now that 2006's Super Chevy Shows are history.
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