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daily nebraskan
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Bored?
Rules for the Pit Stop "Find Czechburg" contest: find Czechburg. It's about 25
miles north on 27th St. Copy the initials on the back of the town sign and send
them to me (Jim Williams) at Nebraska Union 34.
Winner gets a large Valentino's pizza and goes to Valhalla at death. (Hint: Don't
use the weak bridge.)
m Oiop
Dragst er trains student
Stop That Snickering. This column is
called "Pit Stop," the auto-racing term for
a short service break. But that s not all it
Several years ago race-car builder Carrol
Shelby (of Cobra and GT 350 fame) de
cided to branch out. One of his new
products was "a real man's deodorant
caUed...PS. , , .
So to all who've been making those
snide remarks: somebody thought of it
first.
A Man Possessed. When talking to Brian
Willey, you have to be careful not to get
the wrong idea.
Willey, 18, is from Sidney and a fresh
man advertising major at UNL. He also is
one of the five youngest professional drag
racers-driver, mechanic and partner-in
$50,000 "funny car," the only one of its
kind in Nebraska.
As a road-racing nut, I once viewed
draggers as brutal jerks, weeknight rubber
burners, automotive Neanderthals.
But Willey doesn't talk about the joys
of laying scratch and shutting 'em down.
He talks cost breakdowns, expenses and
sponsorships.
Put on good show
"A funny car is just a 200-mph bill
board," he said. "You don't have to win to
?;.Jce money as long as you put on a good
show."
The expenses are undeniable. Willey's
partner, Scott Norman of Sidney, bought
the Mustang II based dragster for $30,000.
Its 480 cubic-inch Chrysler engine cost
$8,000. Travel and repair expenses run
$80,000 a year. The highly-explosive
nitromethane fuel ruins 300 pistons a
season -at $60 a shot.
SPECIALISTS, inc.
Our business is the repair of WV vehicles and the selling of
parts and accessories for Volkswagon vehicles.
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An Independent
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1
Rut the mnricv ttr. it
. y j" vls, u you cajj
rt-and getting it is one of WSey' ct
cerns. Drag rasing is very salable now h
said. Cigarettes and beer dealers, even the
armed forces will part with cash to havs
their names associated with a popular
racer. Wonder Bread built two cars.
Seventy million people may see WjUey'i
car during its planned coast-to-coast tola
of races and auto shows. In return he
looking for $140,000 in sponsorships.
Professional operation
"I'm just trying to start a professional
operation, Willey said.
Maybe too professional, I thought. AS
the guy talks about is money. And as I wa
about to write off Willey as a mercenary,
he started telling me about what it's like
to live the way racers do.
He started in the sixth grade as j
mechanic working on drag cars. For seven '
years he towed racers from Denver to
Oklahoma to Minnesota, rebuilding can
and engines in motel parking lots and
alleys. As he worked, he learned to drive.
How to keep ths car straight at 230 tnph,
feel the clutch, fire the braking pars-chutes-all
in the six seconds it takes to
run the quarter-mile race.
Willey showed me the chassis of his car,
a simple steel-tube frame with no. front
brakes or rear springs. The only other parts
are the engine (in Denver for work) and the
body (in Sidney for paint.) There is no
mechanical resemblance to a production
Mustang.
"College comes first for me, Wiley
said. But to me, the purpose of his adver
tising training is clear-to help him get
what he needs so ha can keep doing what
he loves to do.
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