Thu, 16 Apr 2009, 06:36 PM Win One, Make that Two for Mom

By Bob Frey Photo copyright 2009 Auto Imagery, Inc.

Janet Lang

Over the years there are certain things that we have come to expect when a particular driver comes to the starting line. Going back to the early days of the Funny Car class, we always waited to see "Jungle" Pam out in front of "Jungle" Jim's wild Chevrolet Funny Car. You didn't see one without the other, and as a young man I was very happy about that for a couple of obvious reasons. More recently, or since the mid 1980's, you always knew that when John Force was coming to the line that you're also going to see Austin Coil, and you knew that he would make that familiar gesture to John just before he walks away from the car. And this year, when the hottest guy in the Funny Car class, Ron Capps is about to run, you know that Ed "The Ace" McCulloch is going to be right there with him. Of course the professional teams, with their high profile, get a lot of the coverage and exposure, but those of us who follow the sportsman classes know that the same situation is true with those racers, too. Frank Manzo never, and I mean never comes to the line without John Glade in front of his car and it's been years since Jay Payne ever made a run without Shelly right there with him. The Lang brothers, Toby and Jody, also had a ritual that they practiced for the better part of the last twenty years, and that is that whenever the boys came to the starting line their mom, Janet would be right there, too. Well, Janet passed away earlier this year and for Toby, Jody and a lot of us it just hasn't been the same since.

Jody Lang

I caught up with Jody after his historic double-up win at Las Vegas two weeks ago and asked him how tough it is racing without his mom at the track. "Oh she was here today," he said. "I know she was." Besides the stickers on the boy's cars that are in memory of her, Toby and Jody say that Janet will always be part of their racing operation, in fact on their tech cards where it asks about the crew chief, the boys write, "It will always be mom." Jody talked about how emotional the final rounds were in Las Vegas. "Going into the finals I just thought about what she always told us," he said. "She would tell us to just focus and not think about anything else but the task at hand and that's exactly what I did today." It paid off with a pair of wins, one over Jimmy DeFrank in the Stock Eliminator class and the other over Dan Mason in Super Stock. Jody becomes just the tenth different racer to win two classes at the same event and the second this year. "I did it at a divisional race the first year I had my Super Stock car in '04," he said. "But I never really put myself into a position to do it at a national event until today." According to Jody, the closest he ever came at the big show was when, as he put it, "I was like quarterish (his word, not mine) once or twice, and that's not really close." It's amazing that he didn't get a chance to run for two titles before this since he has had a very good record over the past few years. Jody's two latest wins give him sixteen on the national event level to go along with seven runner-up spots. He also has thirty-three divisional final rounds with twenty-six of them ending up in the winner's circle. He has been a Division 6 champion six times with the first one coming back in 1995 and he has made three trips to the Jeg's All Star show where he made it to the final round in 1994. Plus, he has had success on the Summit Racing E/T Series trail, but that probably won't happen again. "Yeah, they put this rule in that you have to be at fifty percent of the races at your home track, and with all the travelling I do I just can't make it to that many local races." That's bad news for Jody but good news for the rest of the D-6 drivers who are looking for a trip to Pomona at the end of the year.

Even though it has happened twice already this year, winning two classes at the same national event isn't easy. "Let me tell you," Jody said. "Winning one class isn't easy but to win two of them takes a lot of luck." He admitted that he had a few lucky rounds when he had some singles along the way on Sunday in Las Vegas. "I had some good lights on the single runs (.002 in round 6 in Super Stock and .004 in round 5 in Stock) but that's completely different from having to race somebody." His reaction times in his races were pretty good, with his Super Stock lights ranging from .005 to a .029. "You really need some luck, maybe more than one lucky round, if you want to win one of these things," he said. Then he admitted that the double-break out with Adam Emmer in round five of Super Stock may have been his luckiest of the weekend. "We were under by the exact same amount and I got the win. Now that's lucky because it could have gone either way." His first final round win came over one of the toughest racers in the sport, Jimmy DeFrank. "Just to beat Jimmy was great," he said. "But I tried not to get too excited or over emotional and I certainly tried not to think about mom because I knew if I did that I would lose it." And, he added, "that's exactly what happened after the second final round. To think that this is the first time ever that mom won't be in the winner's circle with me was really emotional." Even though his mom wasn't there, Jody said that he still smiled when he saw pictures of his bother, Toby, jumping up and down on the starting line. "Hey, he'll never be called 'Air Toby,' but he jumped a lot higher than I thought he could. He travelled a lot with mom and she would have been really proud of him for that display of athletic ability." You know what, I think he was serious when he said that!!

Toby Lang

Jody began his racing career back in 1985 with a car that he raced in the bracket classes in and around the Division 6 area. In 1987 he started to get a little more serious about racing and in 1991 he got his first stock car. 1993 saw him begin to run more class races and fewer bracket races and that really changed his mind set. "I was tired of losing," he said. "And I decided that if I wanted to do this I had to get more focused, just like mom told me." The pep talk from mom must have worked because he went to his first final round at a divisional race in 1993 and his first national event final round in Phoenix in 1995. Since then he and his trusty wagon have been familiar figures at the track and in the winner's circle. It was at Phoenix this year where he first realized how much he missed seeing his mom at the track. "I really wasn't thinking about it until I made the turn from the staging lanes and then I realized that she wouldn't be there with me, next to me, helping me. It hit me pretty hard right then." Since then he has done very well with both of his cars and the wins in Las Vegas were the highlight of his career. He took his '81, M/SA Malibu wagon to the win in one class and followed that with a win in his other '81 Chevy Malibu. "That car runs in GT/I, J or K Stock," he said. "It's a 327 with 250 horsepower and it gets the job done." Both of his cars leave the line first on the handicap basis and Jody admits to wanting to go faster in the future. "Going faster is a function of money and right now I can't afford to step up, but I'd like to someday." He'd also like to dedicate the wins to his mom. "Yeah, I thought it would be nice to win one for mom, and then I thought it would be even nicer to win two for her." And that's just what he did and we know that Janet would be proud of him.