Thu, 6 Aug 2009, 10:22 PM Man Bites Dog

By Bob Frey Photo copyright 2009 Bob Johnson Photography

Brian Fitzpatrick

Everyone knows, or at least everyone who reads this column on a semi-regular basis knows, that I love Competition Eliminator. From my early days at Atco Dragway back in the '60's watching Eddie Hildebrandt, Wilton Zaiser, Glenn Lazzar and more, to the current crop of Comp racers including Bruno Massel, Mike DePalma, Frank Aragona Jr. and all the others, dollar-for-dollar, pound-for-pound and cylinder-for-cylinder I have always thought that Comp was one of the real attractions at a drag race. Any drag race. I also know that any national event that I go to that doesn't have Comp just isn't the same for me. Don't get me wrong, I love all the classes, but there's something about Comp. Maybe it's the fact that you get those big, honkin' V-8's running against those little bitty, unsuspecting four-cylinder cars. Or maybe it's the fact that, every now and then, a new car and a new team shows up with a new combination, something you haven't seen before, something that really gets your attention. Something like the car that Brian Fitzpatrick is running now. Yeah, that's it.

Fitzpatrick in his sand drags car.

Stop me if you've heard this before, but Brian Fitzpatrick is a second-generation racer. "My dad used to race Top Fuel cars back in the '60's," he said. "He didn't drive them but he built and tuned them. For him, that was the real thrill." Well, Ray Fitzpatrick had a lot of thrills with his big V-8 dragsters, but more recently it's been small cubic inch, turbo-charged cars for him. "We ran a car in the sand drags for years," Brian said. "And we did very well with them." Now that's an understatement. The team, with Ray building and Brian driving, set the national sand drag record at 2.86 at over 109 miles per hour. For those of you who aren't familiar with sand drags that elapsed time was turned in a mere one hundred yards and Brian did it in the B/Pro Turbo class with a car that he still has. "Dad was co-founder of Autocraft Machine and he built a lot of those VW-type engines, including Cory Mac's VW and he learned a lot about turbochargers while he was doing that." That word "turbo" is one of the reasons that Brian has been so successful in his racing career. "Even though my dad raced and loved the classic drag racing engines, we've found that, today, you can be very competitive and get a lot of exposure with the turbo-charged engines." Brian runs a 193 cubic-inch, twin-turbocharged Toyota engine in his dragster and he is constantly surprised by how the people at the track relate to his car. "They'll come up to it, take a look at it and go, 'Dude, that's sick. That's the same engine I have in my Supra.' It's pretty neat." I guess that means that being "sick" is good. Kids!!

Fitzpatrickrunning Top Dragster.

Until recently Brian didn't have a class where he could race his car, at least not an NHRA class. "NHRA really didn't have a place for us, so we ran the car in Top Dragster." At the Sportsnationals in Fontana earlier this year Brian got a lot of attention when he qualified for the very fast field with a 7.16 - 202 mph run. "Lyle Burnham, who runs a big 700 cubic-inch car and who was the number one qualifier, came over later and looked at the car and he was really impressed. He couldn't believe what we did with just six-cylinders." I wonder if Lyle said, "Hey dude, that's sick?" Probably not. Anyway, while racing in the Top Dragster class Brian and his dad were petitioning NHRA to allow the car in the Competition Eliminator category. "We kept talking about the size of the turbos and how big they would allow. We went back and forth but I have to say that they were very accommodating and, in the end, we reached an agreement and we're very happy." With their new rules in hand, Brian and his dad have tried their hands at Comp racing, including this past weekend at the Division 7 race in Sonoma where they got everyone's attention with a run that netted them a 6.85 at 213 mph. And while that was only good enough for the twenty-first spot in the field, it was enough to raise a lot of eyebrows. "Even Alan, the announcer, said that it was pretty impressive for a six-cylinder, and that was cool," Brian said. I may be wrong but I don't think that's the last time we'll hear that from an announcer.

Fitzpatrick in Comp at Sonoma.

Brian's car, which he bought from former sport compact champ, Ara Arslanian, is a C&F built dragster that is sponsored by Lucas Oil. "We've been with Lucas Oil for a while," he said. "In fact, we're going to do some testing for them this week, and Forrest Lucas is very enthused about us racing this car in Competition Eliminator." Brian says that he loves the no-breakout style of racing and that's one of the things that he liked about the sport compact program. "We ran in the Pro Extreme class and we did a lot of head-to-head racing with 'Disco' Dean Karns and Don Naves. They had really neat cars, one has a blown V-8 and the other has a turbo-charged four cylinder, and the fans loved to see us together." Like every racer, Brian remembers the "one that got away." We raced Dean at Atco and he went 6.562 to my 6.561 and he got the win by three-thousands of a second. It was so close. We just like to race the best, the fastest guys out there regardless of what kind of setup they have. When we beat those big V-8's it's kind of like a 'Man bites dog' story if you know what I mean."

One of the things that Brian has discovered is that the people who race in Competition Eliminator are really good at what they do. "These guys are all good drivers and we are still learning how to race with them. The turbo is a tough car to drive, especially on the starting line, but we'll figure it out." With a track record like Brian and his dad have, nobody doubts that they will, indeed, figure it out. "We had some problems going into Sonoma that we didn't catch and that slowed us down. On one run the car went right from first to third gear, on another run we had nasty tire-shake. Plus we had the new Bullseye Power Turbos and JE high compression pistons in the car for the first time which was a learning curve. But we'll be all right." Brian said that his goal is to be the fastest import on the track. "I think the Titan folks have the record now with a 6.41, but we're gaining on them."

When he is not racing Brian runs his business, Able Environmental Services, a business that cleans underground storage tanks and transports hazardous waste. He also gets to spend time with his wife, Lisa, and their two children, Amanda and Evan. Evan, it appears, may be the future driver for the team since he is involved in the Jr. Dragster program. But for now, the majority of his time is spent, with his dad, working on their latest project. "Dad sold his company a few years ago and now all he wants to do is make this car the quickest and fastest it can be. It's a lot of fun and it is a challenge, but I think we're up to the task." And if they keep making progress like they have, the newspapers may be full of "Man bites dog" stories before too long. Fitzpatrick Racing would like to thank Lucas Oil, JE Pistons, Bullseye Power, Heads Up Performance, Bosch, Aeroquip, Ferrea, AEM, B&J Transmissions, & TRD for all of their continued support.