Fri, 27 Aug 2010, 09:02 AM Is That An Antelope Or Are You Just Happy To See Me?

By Bob Frey Photo copyright 2010 Auto Imagery, Inc.

Nate Cohen

In all my years of announcing one of the wackiest (and I mean that in a nice way) guys I ever knew was Nate Cohen. Nate, who was always a big Ford guy, ran a classic 427- cubic inch Ford Fairlane at tracks up and down the East Coast. Occasionally he would spread out and run in the Midwest or down South, but his home tracks were primarily Englishtown, Island Dragway, Vargo and, of course, my home track of Atco Dragway. It was at Atco that I first met Nate and my first indication that he was, well, a little different, was the name of his car."Nazy Crate." After the races we would sit around and talk about racing and nobody told a better story than Nate. One day he actually talked about how he was racing at Atco, and after finishing a 120 mile per hour run in his Ford he felt a shudder in the car and then a huge bang. "It felt like someone shot my car with a bazooka," he said. "And when I got out of the car the entire front end was gone and all I found on it was a little bit of fur." Sure, Nate. "No, really. You see Atco is in the Pine Barrens of New Jersey and at night the deer come out and roam around." Well, it seems that on this one night a deer did roam and it roamed right in front of Nate's car and I'm not sure who got the worst of the deal. Nate's car was trashed and the deer, well, they never did

Lance Trujillo

find the deer...at least not all of it. Now things like that might seem like old wive's tales, but don't tell that to Lance Trujillo because he can go one better. "I hit an antelope," he told me after winning Brainerd. "I really did." And you know what, as hard as it is to believe, that wasn't the worst thing that happened to Lance recently.

Lance Trujillo is a forty-four year old businessman from Gillette, Wyoming, who only recently decided to try his hand at drag racing. "Actually I've raced for a while but I only began running divisional races last year, and this year I decided to go on tour and see what I could do against some of the best racers in the country." Like many before him Lance was first exposed to drag racing at a young age. "My neighbor had a car and I used to go to the races with him," he said. "I learned a lot about the cars and I enjoyed the sport right away." After racing with a bracket car for a few years Lance decided to take a break and do what so many other people have done. "I decided to quit racing, make some money and retire by the time I reached forty." And you know what, he has basically reached those goals. "I have a couple of businesses and I employ a lot of people," he said. "But I have good folks running the businesses and that enables me to go racing." The businesses include a pipeline inspection company in Wyoming and a gun club, a shooting range and an RV park. "A friend of mine knew that the park was for sale and I asked him why he didn't buy it. He turned around and said why don't you buy it, so I did." The club is a business and a hobby for Lance who is an avid gun collector and hunter. The fact that he hunts and has antelope roaming on his own property makes the incident at Douglas Motorsports Park in Wyoming that much more ironic. "I was racing in the final round of the National Open at Douglas and I saw this antelope run out on the track. I couldn't avoid it because if I did I would have had to swerve into the other lane and I didn't want to hit the other driver." After

Damage from the antelope.

first seeing the critter Lance noticed that it ran off the track, but in an instant it was back. "It ran into the pits and got scared by a dog and ran right back onto the track and right towards my car." There was, literally, nothing he could do but brace for the impact. "I hit it pretty hard at over one hundred miles an hour and it destroyed the front end of my car." Needless to say it did not leave much of the antelope intact, either.

The car that Lance was running is a '62 Corvette that he had recently purchased from Bob Herr. "After running my '67 Camaro for a while I knew that I needed to get a new car and I knew that Bob's was available. We talked for a while and made a deal at the Denver points meet." The deal included Lance trading one of his prized possessions, a 1970 SS Chevrolet Nova. "I have several muscle cars and Bob loved the Nova so we made a deal and everyone is happy." Everyone, that is, except the antelope. After the accident Lance set out to get the car repaired because he knew that he was going to Brainerd for the national event. "It did a lot of damage, but fortunately most of it was cosmetic. The structural part of the car was ok." With a little help from his friends Lance got the car fixed and he was on the road again, and that's when the second

The tow rig on the hook.

incident took place. "I was towing my trailer on the way to the races in Cordova when it happened. I was between De Moines and Cordova and a truck in front of me dropped something. Well, I tried to miss it, but it's not easy steering one of these things, and I hit the object, what ever it was, and it flattened my tire. Then I tried to pull over and when I did I hit it again and blew out another tire. It was such a jolt that it threw my dog right off his seat. I knew something was wrong." After safely pulling off the main highway Lance was joined by the highway patrol who put up the familiar orange safety triangles and he got out to inspect the damage. "I knew the truck was damaged but I also thought something in the trailer had moved around." Once he got to a place where he could check it out he found out that his suspicions were right. "I had my Super Comp car upstairs in the trailer and it was jarred loose by the impact. When I took it out I found out that it had actually broken the chassis." It's probably better than hitting an antelope, but not much.

Trujillo's Super Comp

With a recently repaired Super Gas car, a damaged Super Comp car and reservations for the upcoming Lucas Oil Nationals in Brainerd, Lance knew he needed some help. "Someone told me that I should call Daren Erickson in Bagley (MN)," he said. "I had never met him but he came highly recommended so I gave him a call. I told him what my problem was and when I needed the car back and he said he would take care of it. I reinforced the fact that I need to have it back in time for Brainerd the next week and he said that he would have it fixed, and if he didn't, I could use his car. You can't ask for more than that." Daren worked on the car for a full day, and then, as promised, delivered it to Lance and he was on his way. "I can't say enough about the job he did, he was great."

Trujillo vs. Stan Moulzolf in the Brainerd final.

Back on the road again Lance made it to Brainerd and ran both of his cars in eliminations. "I lost in the first round with the dragster but I had a good day in the Corvette." I guess he did. And, as all racers will tell you, Lance did have that one "lucky" round on his way to the championship. "In round two I ran Dennis White and I knew I was running fast so I dumped him and let him take the stripe and it almost cost me. Lucky for me he ran out (9.899) and I won." From there it was smooth sailing for Lance. After beating Dwight Nuest, Casey Plaizier, Dan Smith and Mike McMasters, Lance and his refurbished Corvette were in the finals against Stan Moulzolf. "It was just great to get the win, especially after everything that had happened over the past few weeks. I feel wonderful."

Trujillo celebrates win.

Not one to sit around and rest on his laurels, Lance is in Topeka this week for the Division 5 race before heading to Indy next week. "I'm having a lot of fun and I enjoy the racing," he said. Now, if he can just avoid any falling or running objects the rest of the year things should go well for Lance. And somewhere "up there," Nate Cohen is looking down and saying, "That's a crazy story, Lance, but I know what you've been through. Now keep up the good work."

Finally, Lance wanted to say, "Thanks to my sponsor: Blackhawk Crane & Rigging Gillette, WY., and thanks to Walter Johnson who uses every vacation day he gets to help me out."

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