Cliff Neff and his crew grimaced when they were told July 22 that Neff wouldn't run time trials until late in the evening because of rain delays and a shift in scheduling.
Neff, owner of I-70 and Harlan Towing Co. in Arvada, said the car was tuned, ready to go at the scheduled time early in the afternoon and so was he., said the car was tuned and ready to go at the scheduled time early in the afternoon --; and so was he.
"We want to get out there on the track to see how the car is running in these weather conditions and see if we need to make adjustments so we will run faster," said Neff, who would finish runner-up in the Sportsman Competition Eliminator Class. "We feel the car should run well and I am eager to get the chance to drive her down the strip."
While Neff was able to get past time trials, qualifying eighth, he couldn't best Lou Ficco of Wheat Ridge in the finals, losing by nearly a full second at the Mopar Mile High Nationals July 24 at Bandimere Speedway.
But before that, waiting for the call to the starting line July 22, he took time to talk about his drag racing career and how he got into the sport.
"My father started drag racing in the 1960s and I guess I picked up the bug," he said with a smile. "It has become even more of a family affair now that my 12-year-old daughter is competing in junior dragsters."
Neff races in the National Hot Rod Association's competition eliminator class just as his dad did years ago.
"The competition eliminator class is huge and included a wide variety of vehicles," Neff said. "NHRA has what is called an indexing system to make competition as fair as possible, as our class included 96 divisions for entries for vehicles, ranging from dragsters to motorcycles."
Examples of some of the competition eliminator class divisions include the 13 divisions alone for gas dragsters, the several divisions for street roadsters and two divisions for pro-modified entries.
Neff said NHRA developed its index system so different vehicles can compete against each other.
The index comes into play when the cars pull up and prepare to launch off the starting line. Based on the difference in index, the slower car gets to go first and the faster car leaves later.
For example, if the faster car index is 7.5 seconds and the slower car index is 7 seconds, the slower car leaves a half-second ahead of the faster car. Once both cars are moving, it is a head-to-head race with the win going to the first car across the finish line.
Neff's current car is a '32 Bantam built in Kansas. His car is powered by a four-cylinder, 250-cubic-inch engine that has been modified to produce about 650 horsepower.
"The car is pretty quick," Neff said. "Here on the mountain at Bandimere, I have run the quarter mile in 8.08 seconds at a speed of 165 miles an hour. At sea level, we run about 7.5 seconds at about 175 or 180 miles an hour."
Neff said he loves the sport and travels to as many races around the country as possible. However, the Mile High Nationals marks only the third race this year for the Westminster resident.
"I have cut back on my travel so I can be with my daughter at every one of her junior dragster events, because I wouldn't miss being at one of her events for the world," Neff said. "But the junior dragster season ends soon, so I plan to do more traveling to races out of state later this summer."
Neff is an independent racer, which means he has no major sponsors.
"Some super comp teams get help from sponsors to cover the cost of travel and racing," he said. "I love drag racing but I'll tell you it is an expensive hobby. While I do get a little help with costs from some of the parts suppliers, basically I cover all the costs with my own dime.
"As I said, I love the sport and I will continue to race and compete as long as I am able to get behind the wheel."
from Lakewood Sentinel - Latest Stories http://lakewoodsentinel.com/stories/A-few-seconds-of-speed,231973
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