Thu, 16 Jun 2011, 10:16 PM Streak Of Light

By Kelly Wade Photo copyright 2011 Auto Imagery, Inc.

Kaplan runs 5.97. Photo by Rich Carlson

When Jirka Kaplan recently made that historic 5.974-second pass in his Competition Eliminator AA/AM '27 Ford Altered at Mission Raceway during qualifying at the Division 6 Lucas Oil Series event, it was exactly what he had been aiming for, though it came at a time when he really didn't expected it.

"We were having troubles pretty much all weekend," explained the Calgary, Alb., driver. "One run, the blower belt fell off, the next run there was a mistake on my part. Then on the third run the car left, and I wasn't going to lift. We made it to the end, and some guy came over and shook my hand and told me I ran a 5.97. I just said, 'Wow.' That was a big deal, and it had been our fantasy going there because the weather at Mission is good, but I really didn't expect it to happen."

For the past four years, Kaplan had been chasing the number 5, and he wanted to be the first to eclipse the barrier. In 2007 he wanted it, but the car didn't want to cooperate and he just didn't have enough power, so he and his cohorts went back to the shop and got back to work on research and development. At the end of the following season, on November 8, 2008, their efforts were evident when Kaplan was a rocket ship at the Las Vegas Pacific Division event, clocking an exceptional 6.068 at 225.71 mph in the final qualifying session.

Kaplan at the Auto Club Finals at Pomona 2004.

They had something in their hands that was making big waves in the performance-based class, but a rule change that put their blower on the wrong side of legal also put a big kink in forward progress, and a regrouping was required.

"We lost power, but me and my friend Les Davenport were running an A/Fuel car [with Davenport as the builder/driver], and we were able to apply quite a bit of what we learned from that car to this one," said Kaplan. "I prepared it the way I thought it should be run, and we were lucky that it had enough sauce to make it."

The effective strategy included sinking what is a virtual twin of Kaplan's current Comp engine into the A/Fueler - in fact, it was the motor he ran in 2008, just complemented by a different supercharger - and gathering notes. They were having too much fun with the A/Fuel car to consider abandoning that project in favor of the Comp entry, so Kaplan saved his money and bought the pieces necessary to duplicate the powerplant.

The mean little car was another story. Kaplan bought the Ron Williams/Victory Racecars-built Competition Eliminator entry in 1991. It wasn't his first racecar; he initially tried out the drag strip in a High School Challenge competition driving a '66 El Camino that he still owns - the family calls the Chevy Sleeping Beauty in light of its restful, or non-operative, nature. Young Kaplan tried to rebuild the engine with big dreams in mind, but was unsuccessful and sought help from a friend that he went to school with - Ryan Davenport, whose father, Les, was a drag racer with plenty of engine knowledge. The connection would prove critical to his future success and hunger for speed.

In 2007 at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

"At the time, Les had been running alcohol Funny Car but decided he didn't want to do that anymore," said Kaplan. "He helped me put together a big block Chevy for my El Camino, and we dyno-tested it, and it made I think 800 horsepower without nitrous. But he had his Funny Car sitting there doing nothing, and he said I could borrow it. So we put this injected alcohol motor in it, and that was my first actual real racecar."

Kaplan raced the flopper for two years before shelving drag racing in favor of going to University to study Petroleum Engineering - "to try to make something out of myself," he said. He claims he wasn't any good at racing the Funny Car, but he acquired seat time and experience that would benefit his future goals.

"I'm too stupid to know when to quit," laughed Kaplan, who initially ran his altered as a bracket car for over a decade while his business was building. "When I had extra money that I could throw away on racecars, I stepped up and built a blown combination."

The AA/AM class was a welcome spot for Kaplan, who started with a small block Chevrolet and was able to run a very quick 6.48 at Mission early in his efforts. From there, they just kept fine tuning things until switching to a BB combination that enabled the car to dip farther below the index than even his current setup. Eventually, Kaplan tried out the AA/Gas supercharged scene. It was another fast combination, and he won races before rule changes brought about another re-thinking and a return to AA/AM.

Holding the Seattle trophy in 2006.

The altered is what Kaplan calls "an old-style alcohol Funny Car with a lot of modern day effort put into it." They run it like an alcohol Funny Car, which means that the car is hard on parts - especially if it's run fast and hard like they did at Mission. It's difficult to drive, it's expensive, and it takes a very capable crew. But they wanted to run that 5. And they did.

Kaplan mentioned a few key contributors to that magical moment in Mission: crew chief Davenport and Acceleration Enterprises, chassis builders Dennis Sarmento and Wade Ramsey of Sarmento Fabrication, and longtime Comp Eliminator racer Brian Hyerstay. He also thanked Bearspaw Petroleum, the company that allows him the time to get away and enjoy this little hobby of making history, as well as his gal, Pattie Omand.

"Pattie wasn't at the race," he said, "But she helps me a lot. Before I left to go to Mission, she worked for a full day helping me pack the trailer and getting the car ready to go. She would have loved to have been there, and I sometimes discourage her from going because it's kind of like a guy thing for us, but she is a pretty important part of this. I'd like to thank her."

For now, Kaplan says he really isn't sure what the next big goal will be, but he will be enjoying this moment for as long as he can.

At 2002 Las Vegas.

"We didn't do it for [publicity]," said Kaplan. "We did it because we wanted to go fast, and we thought that with 370 cubic inches and an old-roots type of supercharger, it would be a nice feather in our cap."

"We're just a bunch of Canadians who don't have anything to do in the wintertime because our cars are all in snow drifts out here, so we have to scheme on how to make them go fast in the summertime," he laughed. "But really, this is a neat car, and I'd like to run it some more. It's like a shooting star - it's gonna burn brightly for a while, and then it'll fizzle out. In the meantime, I'd like to have fun with it."

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