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