Drag Illustrated Issue 120, April 2017 | Page 74

STEVEN WHITELEY It might not quite be John Force Racing with Force and his two daughters or the Coughlin family’s JEGS conglomerate, but in many ways, it represents the epitome of racing as a family. All are successful, the variety of classes is impressive, and the family wholeheartedly works together to make it happen. But it all started with Dino and Peppy. That’s the name a young Steven Whiteley gave close to 20 years ago to his father’s truck, open- top trailer and car, a relatively plain-looking ‘69 Camaro that Jim raced on the local scene at Bandimere Speedway in Den- ver. Significantly, stacked in the bed of the 2002 GMC 3/4-ton Duramax, were as many Junior Dragsters as would fit, includ- ing rides for Steven and Reed that they raced extensively— and successfully—over a num- ber of years. It’s a stark comparison to the extravagant drag racing opera- tion the family has built these days, but very much represents the humble beginnings that started their foray of compet- ing together. Without Dino and Peppy, there wouldn’t be trail- er upon trailer, and truck upon truck, and it’s those early stages that Steven Whiteley has come to appreciate during his own journey in the Pro Mod ranks. “It’s pretty cool to see how we have the same passion,” White- ley says. “Not a lot of people have that luxury. You think of the Coughlins and the Force girls, and not many get to do this and race with their family at this level. I’m appreciative just to be there racing. We’re just happy to even have the abili- ty to do it. “It’s pretty cool Dad wants to run this car and hang out with his family, and it’s very cool to see where we are now from where we started, running that ’69 Camaro in that open-top trailer with the Juniors hanging out of the back. They’ve allowed us to chase our dreams.” Steven’s racing dreams came in all sorts of shapes and sizes over the years, but driving his Pro Mod is distinctly his passion these days. He was the first in the family to drive a door car at that level, quickly taking to the volatile power and spectacular rush. It’s a career that’s prospering, yet still growing—highlighted by that first career Pro Mod win in Gainesville—but it’s al ready a fascinating journey, perhaps most of all because of how closely racing has linked the family. For Steven, it started with Dino and Peppy, but has turned into so much more, with no limits as to what could still take place in his—and his fam- ily’s—future. Jim Whiteley’s own drag racing origins stretch back far earlier than Dino and Peppy. Growing up in Liberal, Kansas, a small western town near the Oklahoma border, his mother would often drop him off at a nearby dragstrip, where Jim was perfectly content watching local bracket racers for hours on end. “A dollar or two would put me in the bleach- ers and she would come back and pick me up in three or four hours,” Jim says. “I just loved to see the cars do the burnouts and pop the wheelies.” The highlights in those years would come from watching Top Alcohol shows that would occa- sionally come by, though Jim got his first glimpse of an even bigger show when his family moved to Oklahoma in the late 1970s. He began making an an- nual trek to the AHRA Spring Nationals at Tulsa Raceway Park, watching legendary driv- ers like Shirley Muldowney, Don Garlits and Tom McEwen, fur- thering his passion for the sport even more. “That was my once a year treat,” Jim recalls. It eventually materialized into Peppy, the 1969 Z28 Ca- maro that Jim admits was noth- ing special to look at when he made the purchase. “It was a pile when I got it!” Regardless, he worked on the car and built it into a pret- ty good hitter, running at his local track, which by then was Bandimere Speedway. Steven was born in 1992 and watching his father race that Camaro on the mountain are some of his first racing memories. For Ste- ven, he quickly became the cool dad who raced, but even Jim is surprised it reached this level for the family. “I never dreamed it would come to this,” he says. “I still look back and then see what we have now, and it’s overwhelming at times.” Watching his father race, it was only natural that Steven wanted drag racing featured heavily in his life. Racing became very much a part of his upbringing, competing in Junior Dragsters early and then jumping in bigger cars all through high school. To exemplify just how important it was to Steven, the first place he went when he turned 16 was not to the Colorado DMV, but rather a dragstrip: Famoso Raceway, just outside Bakersfield, California, to be exact. Getting licensed in Top Sportsman and Top Dragster held more prestige to Steven than get- “One thing I always cherished growing up is when both Mom and Dad would win at the same time. To do that with Mom was pretty special.” 74 | D r a g I l l u s t r a t e d | DragIllustrated.com ting his actual driver’s license and that didn’t change for a while. “There for a little while I was racing my Top Sportsman car before I had my driver’s license,” he says. But after high school, Steven went a different route, moving to North Dakota to work for his father’s now prospering business, J&A Service. He kept busy with that, learning the ins and outs of the oil and gas completion business, leaving little time to race. For almost two years, from the fall of 2011 to 2013, Steven remained hard at work in North Dakota, racing only a handful of times. Those performances were far from memorable, though, as Steven kept focused on building his career away from the track. He felt a return to racing more frequently was inevitable, but getting established in the business world was a priority. Watching his dad grow his business to help supplant growing racing budgets and goals was no doubt a motivation. “I would try to hit a race or two, but I just wasn’t on top of my game, so I would say, ‘Forget the rac- ing, I’m going back to work,’” Steven says. “There was nothing distasteful about drag racing at that time, but I was working on a career.” Racing, though, was too imperative to his life for it to fully escape Steven’s grasp. After return- ing in 2013, it was time for a new challenge and nothing seemed like a bigger one than tackling the Pro Mod world. Little did Steven know, how- ever, that the class was in the midst of a massive boom. Thirty-plus cars participating is the norm for the NHRA ranks now, with world champions at every turn, and Steven has jumped headfirst into the challenge, recognizing while it may be an uphill climb, he’s enjoying the hell out of ev- ery second. “It’s crazy to see. It’s like the class is turning into the new Pro Stock,” Steven says. “When we were testing in 2014 before the Gatornationals we ran like a 5.98 and we were doing back flips just getting into the 5s. Now you need to be running in the 5.70s. It’s just crazy. All of the interest in the class, it’s just out of control. You can’t quantify it. It’s just growing and growing, but it makes sense to me. The class and these cars are just so crazy and wild, and it’s just a new challenge.” As businessmen, each of the Whiteleys has done well for themselves away from the track, with Steven also owning a trucking company that hauls oil and gas components for J&A Service. Reed started his own team just a year after winning Rookie of the Year honors in the NHRA. Involving someone like Sampey was a no-brainer and an ideal move, with the primary sponsorship coming from Precision Service Equipment, a subsidiary of J&A Service. But both Steven and Cory are quick to credit Jim’s tremendous success in the business world as to why it has all worked out the way it has, es- pecially on the dragstrip. J&A Service has grown considerably and has thrived in the oil and gas industry for the past decade, and that success en- abled the racing operation to expand well beyond a truck and open trailer, also allowing the family to explore a multitude of different options when Issue 120