Thu, 13 Jul 2006, 07:03 PM Class Will Resume After The Final Round

By Bob Frey Photo copyright 2006 Auto Imagery, Inc.

Joe Shalkowski

The first thing I had to do for this story was find out my subject's real first name. I've heard him referred to as Joe and Ed, so which is it? "Well, since I worked for the government for a long while and they're very formal I was known as 'Edward.' But everyone else calls me 'Joe.' So Joe it is." OK, so there we have it straight from Joe's mouth. Now...

Joe Shalkowski, his little dragsters, his wife Nancy, and their dogs have been familiar sights at the NHRA national and divisional events for over thirty years. "I actually began racing bracket cars in the early '70's and then I built a B/ED," Joe said. "In fact, a couple other guys and I actually ran B/ED at the old Pittsburgh International Dragway when the class was still an exhibition class." Joe did that with the famous Top Gas and Funny Car driver, the late D.A. Santucci as his engine builder and he did it with a small block, 347 cubic inch Chevrolet-powered car. That was way back in 1971 and Joe has been racing dragsters ever since. "After doing fairly well at my local tracks I decided to take the show on the road and I found out in a hurry how rugged it is when you mix it up with the big guys. I don't think I won a round for about two years." Today he is racing an F/ED, a car that he has campaigned for several years now. "The bigger cars were starting to get a little too expensive to run so I decided to switch over to the four-cylinder car in 1996." The car is equipped with a Pontiac-based four cylinder engine with four Weber carburetors and it's unique because a lot of the parts are one-of-a-kind and were built by Joe. "You can't call Summit Racing and order a lot of parts for these cars so you have to be kind of handy," he said. And handy he is, in fact, he's so handy that we may not be seeing as much of him on the track in the next year or so as we have in the past. "I took a job at WyoTech in Laramie, Wyoming and I love it. Unfortunately, since I'm the new guy at the school I haven't accumulated much vacation time so I'll have to cut back on my racing a bit this year. But it's only temporary and next year we have some really nice things planned."

At the age of sixty-three there aren't a lot of guys who are embarking on a new career path, but Joe is. "Like I said, I worked for the government for years and that included a lot of interesting jobs. I worked on the Saturn missile, helped build some nuclear weapons and even did some cancer research during my time at Los Alamos." That's a pretty impressive resume for a guy without a college degree. "It's all the real life experiences that count," he said. "You live a little, learn a little, get a little bit of training and do a little bit of pushing and you'll do OK for yourself." Joe did OK for himself for fifteen years while in Los Alamos and during that time he still managed to do OK on the drag strip, too. "I've raced for a long time and enjoyed all of it. Even if I didn't win a lot, just being at the track was like winning for me. Every day that I go to the races is like a new highlight in my career." Joe did take his little dragster to the final round at the national event in Arizona in 2001 and he has a handful of final rounds at the divisional level including races in the 1980's and the 1990's. But he says that just being in the arena and being able to compete is like wining for him. "I enjoy building something that's different from the norm. I like figuring it out and making it run. I just enjoy all the challenges that come with racing in Comp Eliminator." Joe says that in Comp, especially with a car that gets the head start from almost every other car in the eliminator bracket, preparation is the key. "You have to plan everything before you get to the starting line. Things like how far you want to run it and how much index do you want to give up in exchange for the win. A lot of the big budget guys don't mind hitting the index but when you've got a car that you're going to race for a few years you have to race smart."

After retiring from his government job and spending about eighty-five days on the road at the races in recent years, Joe decided to look for some work to occupy his time. "I wanted to get into something automotive and I actually went on-line and found out about WyoTech," he said. "It's a great school and they were advertising for someone with chassis fabrication and high-performance experience. I told Nancy that this had my name written all over it." Joe responded by sending in some information about himself on a Friday and he got a call from the school the next Monday. "They called and asked me if I would like to talk about the position and we set up an appointment." Joe went up to the Laramie campus a few days later and he took some pictures with him of cars that he had built over the years. "I guess you could say that they offered me the job on the spot," he said. Today, Joe and Nancy live in Laramie and he teaches a class that includes a wide variety of students. "They have folks here from all walks of life," he said. "I work with three instructors and we have about forty-five students and they range from a man who just finished thirty years in the Coast Guard to a seventy year old guy who wants to learn about chassis fabrication and our instructors include a man who worked in a car dealership and a mechanic. At the school they teach everything from automotive trouble shooting to upholstery and chassis fabrication. You can also learn to build a street rod. It's a really nice program." Now if only you could learn how to win a round of Comp without hitting your index.

Joe, Nancy and their two dogs.

Joe, Nancy and their two dogs, Torque and Dyna (a female version of Dyno), will be in Denver this weekend competing at the Mopar Mile High Nationals. After that they will settle into a routine at the school and at their new home. "We love the mountains, both for living and for racing. We left a lot of the 'flat-landers' behind when we moved to Wyoming but you have to re-invent yourself once in a while." About the only thing that hasn't changed about the couple is the fact that they still have their little dragster, a couple of dogs and they will still be racing. "We've had dogs with us for the last twenty years and we've been racing for our entire married life," Nancy said. "Now it's a new chapter that will include less racing, at least for now, and a new line of work for Joe, but we'll still be doing the things that we love to do." And that will include an increased racing schedule next year, once Joe has a little more vacation time saved up. "I'd like to make the racing a little reward for the students who do well in class," Joe said. "You know, get good grades and get to spend a weekend at the track with us." Now that sounds like a plan that can work for everyone, the students, the school, Joe and Nancy." Or maybe the students could get extra credit if they could explain, in fifty words or less, the Competition Index Control program. Wait, I think you might have a better chance of teaching Torque and Dyna how to tune the car.