“My youngest daughter, the one that was born right after I got the car back, she loves it and she loves going for a ride with me, so sometimes I’ll just take her down to the post office. She gets a kick out of getting all strapped in and putting her little ear muffs on just to go for a ride.”
In addition to strapping a pair of DOT-legal tires on the rear, Bradford also swaps the fiberglass racing hood with its big Pro Stock-style scoop for a more traffic-friendly cowl-induction cover. He also has the ability to quickly switch the car’s fiberglass doors for its original metal-skinned versions. “That way all my windows work,” he points out. “It’s set up so it just takes a couple of minutes; pop a couple of pins on the hinges and it’s done.”
Although a winner again this season at Cecil County, 2007 has offered Bradford a steep learning curve, so Drummond sometimes steps in as driver since he has more than 20 years of on-track experience to complement his car-building expertise. Under Drummond’s guidance in October, the car clocked its best quarter-mile time ever with a 7.19-seconds pass at 194 mph in Outlaw 10.5 trim at Englishtown, NJ. Then earlier this month, Drummond went 7.55 at 185.36 at Orlando’s Real World Street Nationals, but missed qualifying for the 32-car Outlaw 10.5 field by just one thousandth of a second.
“My thought is that we’ll have a better chance with his experience behind the wheel, plus with the new motor this year we’re still getting all the bugs worked out and I can’t tell him enough information for him to actually tune it right. So, it just makes sense at the big events to let him drive and I’ll be the pit crew,” Bradford says. “I’ll drive it at local events. I want to keep it light; it has to stay a hobby for me. If I break or lose it doesn’t really matter. I mean, it’s nice to win, of course, but I’m there to have fun, talk to people and share time with my friends and family. It’s like a big stress relief for me.”
Though often offered significant money for his ride, Bradford says it’s not for sale—and never will be. “I grew up with this car, it’s a part of me and there’s sentimental value that just doesn’t carry a dollar amount,” he insists. “I love it, man, it’s like my baby.”
ADVERTISEMENT
