NHRA Sports Compact Drag Racing: Managing an 1100hp Factory Subaru

My first foray into drag racing came in 2004—the childhood friend of a former mechanic that worked for me in Indycars called to see if I was available to turn a struggling racing team around. As that’s one of the things I’m best at doing, it sounded intriguing.

Enter Ali Afshar, owner of Easy Street motorsports (ESX), NHRA drag racer, actor, and guy in immediate need for someone to transform his flagging program into a collected, cohesive factory effort.

Drag Racing was the one big whole in my resume–I’d done most everything else but drag racing, so getting my hands around ESX’s Subaru of America/Subaru Performance Tuning Impreza WRX STI was a great learning experience.

I’d worked with plenty of other manufacturers in the past, and the level of performance and presentation expected by Subaru wasn’t intimidating. If anything, I found that Afshar and I had similar stratospheric expectations for the team to be immaculate in every area.

As is often the case in drag racing (as I’d soon learn) not all of the crew members consider timeliness, cleanliness, personal presentation, or a “work first, play second” part of their professional responsibility. This isn’t meant to be a cutting remark, but I will admit it took me a while to grasp the more relaxed drag racing crew mentality; all of my experience was based on quiet efficiency, not the sloth-like daze I saw under so many teams’ tents.

For once, I was officially an outsider at a race track.

It took some time for me to partly adapt to the different environment, just as it took ESX’s crew time to see that some of what “the new manager guy” was implementing would be beneficial to consider.

My managerial style has always been one of trying a soft approach first, seeing if people are willing to act and embrace what I’m putting into place, and if not, work to either inspire or push each individual towards the light. I’ve worked for many people that have the opposite policy: come in swinging a big axe, relax and be nice to those that fall in line, and chop down those that don’t.

That’s never worked on me, so I’ve never seen how it could work for me.

Still, a number of the ESX crew took A LOT of effort and coaxing to come around; I’m a big fan of getting up early, getting work done, finishing the day early, and having plenty of time left to rest or play away from the track—this wasn’t something people took to or grasped for the most part.

Instead, the convention of getting to the track a little late, working slow, and turning eight hours of work into twelve was an accepted practice that I’m still not sure got solved. I think I got the team down to ten hour work days, so some semblance of a compromised improvement was had.

Firing everybody, while tempting on numerous occasions, wasn’t a genuine option, so like my efforts to shorten our work day at the track, I had to pick and choose the battles that would first help the team improve, and then improve our overall practices. In 2004, ESX set records as the fastest and quickest Sport Compact RWD car in the world, winning a handful of NHRA “Wally’s” in doing so. Pretty neat stuff.

I can say my drag racing management experiences were memorable and taught this old dog some new tricks. The sights and sounds of the 1000+ horsepower sports compact drag cars spooling up their turbos on the startline, banging off the anti-lag electronic controls with 150 or more decibels of concussive exhaust pulses, spitting sparks and flames, and launching down the track in nine seconds is absolutely mind numbing. The anti-lag systems can only be compared to a turbocharged, motorized concerto of hundred-per-second tank and mortar explosions 10 feet from your head.

I’ve been inches from Indycars, Stock Cars, and Lord knows what else that can blow out ear drums and cause disorientation, and all combined, they’d be stomped by any NHRA Sports Compact car glued to the rev limit with the anti-lag system activated.

Overall, I’m glad I learned a new game–I’d gladly take on running another drag team. Working with the Subaru brass was the easiest and most familiar part for me—I guess my approach as a racing team manager has its roots in the boardroom just as much as it does leading the men in the trenches, so working both sides of the job is what keep things fresh for me.

The party atmosphere was different in this NHRA series, fun, but different than what I was accustomed to. Pulling the ESX team out of that party mentality was a chore, but not one I wasn’t prepared for. I still work with some of them today in a variety of ESX projects I’m involved with. I’d like to think those that are still there have grown and learned from me in the three years they’ve known me.

If so, my efforts dating back to ‘04 have been worthwhile.