Drag racing brings Valley families to Alaska Raceway Park

June 14, 2005

DARRELL L. BREESE/Frontiersman reporter

PALMER - The internal-combustion engine works by harnessing miniature explosions. Gas, mixed with air, is ignited by a spark plug and blows up, providing energy that moves the wheels of a vehicle.

One isn't often reminded exactly how engines work, since the average commuter vehicle has been muffled and tamed to the point where it can barely be heard. But sit at the starting line at the Alaska Raceway Park drag strip and the engine's explosive nature becomes a reality.

Cars, trucks and motorcycles lining up to test their speed on the quarter-mile track are so loud you not only hear the noise, but you can feel it.

"It makes my insides swell up," A.J. Schwichtenberg of Palmer said of the roaring motors. "The adrenaline just boils up inside."

In the final second before the green light releases the racers, the deafening staccato reports of individual cylinders blur into a growl.

Then, with the change of a light, the cars launch from the start and are soon tiny specks in the distance. It is those few seconds between starting light and finish line that more than 100 drag racers from across Alaska gather every weekend.

"Your eyes get about that big when you're going down the track," said Schwichtenberg as he held his fingers an impressive three inches apart. "You can't think, it's such an adrenaline rush. It's like an amusement-park ride, only with automobiles. All you feel is the speed."

Schwichtenberg, who was driving his wife's car, a modified 2000 Chevy Camaro Top ET car, added that drag racing is a family-friendly sport.

"I've got a '63 split window that I hope to have ready soon," he said. "Then I will go racing with my wife, son and daughters."

Valley families were well represented throughout the pits.

Former junior dragster division champion Dustin Hattenburg, of Wasilla, served as crew chief for his sister, and defending division champion Shelby Hattenburg in the junior division. Mom and dad kept busy on race day operating the Nitro Grill at the track.

The father-and-son tandem of Greg and Nathan Thornsley, who live in the Butte, both drove a pair of 1970 Dodge Chargers to the line. Greg won the Top ET division points title two years ago driving the Mystic Motion car. Last season, following a break in the motor, Nathan drove it to the title in the Modified ET division.

"I won the title last year and got demoted," Nathan Thornsley said of having to drive the family's entry in the Super ET division. "But it is all good, I get to spend the day driving a fast car and with my dad."

Greg, who was bitten by the racing bug while working at the track in the early 1970s, said racing is more than just a thrill.

"Back when I started we would wrench on a car all week and come out on the weekend," Thornsley recalled. "Everyone was doing it, drag racing was really big then.

"I guess you could say I've been drag racing all my life," he continued. "It's become a big part of the family now. It's what we do on the weekends. Some people go fishing, we go racing."

Schwichtenberg also views racing as an escape from the pressures of daily life.

"You aren't thinking of any problems at the office, or the phones ringing or whatever other problems there may be when you pull up to the starting line," he explained. "And there are fewer mosquitoes than there are in the woods and they can't go 100-plus miles per hour."

According to Thornsley, the other thing that makes drag racing such a family-friendly activity at Alaska Raceway Park is that all the racing is done under International Hot Rod Association (IHRA) sportsman rules, keeping the cost down.

"Someone could throw all the money they want into a car and it would probably go fast," Thornsley said. "But in Sportsman racing, that doesn't mean you're going to win."

The type of drag racing done at Alaska Raceway levels the playing field through a handicap system, which has each driver estimate the amount of time required to run the quarter mile, a process called "dialing in" a time.

When two cars race, the slower car gets a head start equal to the difference between the faster and slower cars' estimated times. If a driver finishes faster than the estimated time, he or she loses. The driver closest to his or her estimated time is the winner.

The system rewards people who know how fast their cars are and then drive them consistently. It doesn't really matter how fast you are; as long as you finish in exactly the amount of time you said you would, you are almost invincible.

"ET bracket racing is the fairest way to get more people involved," Thornsley said. "It really makes it more about the driver than just pure speed. But speed is still a big part of it."

Darrell Breese may be reached at 352-2267 or darrell.breese

@frontiersman.com