My love affair with drag racing reaches back in time to my sixteen year old self. A visit to Great Lakes Drag-a-way in Union Grove Wisconsin comes with sensation of connection. Just inside the gate in the distance is the shutdown area for the quarter mile race track. Before my vehicle is parked I hear the distinct baritone of a racing engine winding down as a car decelerates. At times I catch sight of a deflated parachute. No question, my heart rate elevates, just like so long ago (sixty years) upon my very first visit to the Person County Drag strip in North Carolina. I remember.

Today July 5th is a blazing hot summer day. I walked around the pit area, noted the Chicago Wise Guys club was present with their Pro-Modified race cars. The Pro-Mod class of car is custom engineered “ground up”. Engines are purchased from a specialty engine builder, those engineering-artist-wizards having the “how to” of making power, lots of power from methanol ignited with copious amounts of air. Engine design plus a supercharger, or Pro-charger, or turbo, or oxygen bearing nitrous oxide, makes that sound of “magic” when a tuned Pro-Mod motor is making power. Mate the engine and transmission to a chassis crafted to absorb the shock of launch from a stand still, resisting the torque twist, to allow the driver to pilot the accelerating car safely, – well then, you have a beast that really runs! I’ve never found the right words-of-description to convey the excellence, intuitive and primal entailed in a race car which from a standing start will accelerate a quarter mile in about six and a half seconds. Personally to be at the track, is as if, to be in the presence of “the holy,” an esoteric excellence, of purity of intention, of the beauty of form and function.

I looked for acquaintances, Jeff and Dave Lumbert who live in Oswego, co-owners of the River Rat 57 Chevy. In a bit of conversation, I learned the transmission and motor were badly hurt at their last outing in 2024. Disassembly, waiting for parts, repair of damaged head, re-seating of values, painstaking reassembly etc., etc.,- the upshot, today was their first time out 2025. With the “new” motor Jeff managed the usual half track long smoky burnout. Then came a clean pass that seemed not to hurt anything, as the car looked and sounded good to me.

A short while later I stopped by their pit and commented to Dave that the first pass appeared successful to me. Dave smiled and crossed himself. Indeed! Given the dedication required to rebuild a motor, to launch that torrent of horsepower wrapped in metal toward the finish line – solicits nothing less than the favor of the gods! The stakes? More, much more than anyone but Jeff and Dave can know!

Saturday July 5th was hot, as was the track surface rumored to measure 140 degrees F. All of it, every single element was as it had to be, and should have been.

Poetry, closer to perfection!