When Funny Car driver Paul Lee straps into the
CANIDAE Pet Foods/Lucas Oil/WileyX Chevy for the first time at this weekend's season-opening 50th annual Kragen O'Reilly NHRA Winternationals at Auto Club Raceway at Pomona, there will probably be the requisite butterfly or two that any NHRA rookie racer might feel. Except the 52-year-old Lee with a degree from Wharton Business School and two graduate degrees from Rutgers isn't exactly your typical rookie. Nerves or not, the New Jersey native will see the life-long pursuit of a dream realized when the CANIDAE car is rolled to the line for the first round of qualifying at Pomona.
"I've been working towards this my whole life," said Lee. "Ever since I was 13 years old I knew what I wanted to do, and I've been drag racing ever since I was able to drive a car. It's taken me a long time, but now I'm finally there."
Lee is a four-time national-event winner in the Funny Car category, winning once in 2008 in the IHRA Nitro Funny Car class and three times in 2004 in NHRA Top Alcohol Funny Car.
Lee finished a career-best fourth in points in IHRA Nitro Funny Car in 2008 with a win at the Motor City Nationals at Milan (Mich.) Dragway and runner-up finishes at Rockingham (also No. 1 qualifier) and Martin (Mich.). He finished ninth in the class in 2007 and sixth in the class in 2006. He also has three wins in NHRA's Top Alcohol Funny Car class, all coming in 2004 when he finished in the top 10 in the final points standings. Last year Lee ran a limited Top Fuel schedule in IHRA.
Currently a resident of Anaheim Hills, Calif., Lee sat down for a Q&A discussing his circuitous path to NHRA's premier series, how he got interested in drag racing and what his goals are for him and the Jim Dunn Racing team.
Your thoughts on entering your first full season of Funny Car competition in the NHRA Full Throttle Series? "I'm pretty excited. Basically it's something I've been working towards my whole life. Drag racing is my passion. Ever since I was 13 years old I knew what I wanted to do, and I've been drag racing ever since I was able to drive a car. I worked my way up from my mom's 15-second Duster to Fuel Funny Car and I've driven pretty much every class in between. Most of my time's been spent in Alcohol Funny Car but my dream's always been to race a full NHRA Funny Car schedule and compete with the top cars and the top drivers. That's always been my goal. It's taken me a long time but now I'm finally there."
Your perseverance has finally paid off in a full-time Funny Car ride. What kept you going? "It's been a real long journey. I drove Alcohol Funny Cars for 18 years. Of course, during that whole time I always wanted to move up but just never got the opportunity. In 2005 I finally got the opportunity to get licensed and run a few races in Fuel Funny Car, mostly in IHRA for the last five years. We did pretty good, I won a race and went to six final rounds. We set a track record at Rockingham on my fastest pass which was a 4.79. I got to drive some good cars but it's been a long road, and it's never over because the goal is to win races and hopefully some day, if it works out, to win a championship. It's always been the goal to actually win a championship. You can't ever give up on your goals no matter what they are. I've been working towards this my whole life. Since I was 13 years old this is all I ever wanted to do was drag race. My whole life has basically been centered around drag racing. I own McCleod Clutches which is a high-performance clutch shop. It's obviously automotive related and my passion is cars. My whole life has revolved around cars and racing. When you do that, it's really not like a job. I feel I've been pretty fortunate in that respect."
How did you and the Dunns get together? "I used to be the CFO of Boninfante Clutches which is the supplier of clutch discs to all of the Top Fuel and Funny Car teams, and most of the teams use the floaters as well. The Dunns have been a customer of Boninfante for a long time, so I've known Jon (Dunn) and Big Jim (team owner/crew chief Dunn) ever since they started with the company, and then Jon and I are a lot alike and hit it off pretty good as friends. Last year I was an associate sponsor with their team and got to hang around with them a little more, so when the opportunity came up it was kind of a natural fit for us. I know them, I like their family, and they have a great family team which I like so I fit right in."
How did you get interested in drag racing? "There were a couple of events in my life that really developed my dream of drag racing. The first one was when I saw "Jungle Jim" Liberman at my local track, Atco (N.J.) Raceway. When I saw "Jungle Jim" do a halftrack burnout, back up 50 miles per hour and then win the round, that's when I knew I wanted to drive a Funny Car. And then after that set my fascination to the sport, not even two weeks later the movie Funny Car Summer about Funny Car driver Big Jim Dunn came out. I remember going to the movies and seeing that movie. I made my mom take me back four different times to the movie theater to see it. Now, all these years later after seeing Funny Car Summer and having that be one of the things that actually got me into drag racing, who would have thought all these years later I'm actually driving his car. It's unbelievable."
What was your first drag racer? "I borrowed my mom's '74 Plymouth Duster six-cylinder car as my first drag car. I took it to Atco Raceway on Friday nights. I even used to take my dates there. I would tell my mom I needed to borrow the car to go out on a date, and then I would take my date to Atco which was only about 15 minutes from my house. I would go race the car and she didn't know it. In fact, she didn't know it for two years. Today she loves telling that story about how I started racing by borrowing HER Plymouth Duster. After that I just worked my way up. I got my own car and started racing that, and then door cars that were faster and faster, and then worked my way up to race Super Pro, and then I had an eight-second car. After that I had my first Alcohol Funny Car in 1988 and really raced them until 2005. My best year was 2004 when I won three NHRA national events and finished in the top 10."
Your thoughts on this weekend's 50th anniversary of the NHRA Winternationals at Pomona. "This will be my first Winternationals. I've been to the track many years, but being from the East Coast I just never raced at any of these West Coast tracks. Now that I live out here, the 50th annual Winternationals is going to be the first time I race at Pomona. I have visited there many times as a spectator but I've never actually gotten to race there. This will be my first race there and I'm looking forward to it. It's going to be great."
Will you be at any disadvantage racing at tracks for the first time? "As far as the driving the car, no. You're only going on 1,000 feet of the track. In a Fuel car you're a high-speed jockey. You're only as good as your horse, and Big Jim provides the horse. The hard part of drag racing at this level is the tune-up. The tuner has the hardest job. Going from track to track is more the tuner's challenge than it is for the driver. But as far as driving the car, that's really not going to have any effect on me."
What are your goals for this season? "I want to win some races. Big Jim's always been able to win races, and I want to win some races, win some 'Wallys' for Big Jim, CANIDAE, Lucas Oil, WileyX and all of our great sponsors.
Will you have a learning curve driving the CANIDAE/Lucas Oil/WileyX Chevy? "I've driven Fuel Funny Cars since 2005, so I don't see any problems. It's a McKinney car so the fit is the same. Getting into a team's procedures or routine is always the hardest part. Every team has a different routine about what they do, so just getting used to Big Jim's routine will be the biggest part. I need to get use to what HE wants me to do, so he'll let me know."
Have you ever raced to 1,000 feet? Will that make a difference? "No, I've only raced at a quarter-mile. In IHRA the last five years it has been a quarter-mile. It's no big deal; the race will just be shorter. I understand why they do 1,000 feet, but that extra 300 feet sure is a lot of fun."
Tell us about your hobby of skydiving. "I haven't done that for a little while but I'm getting ready to start up again. I kind of stopped for about five years, but I'm thinking about starting up again now that I live in California. But I did it for more than 18 and I have over 1500 jumps, so I did it for a long time. It's an adrenaline rush, just like drag racing. Racing's always been my passion and then skydiving was something to do when I wasn't at a race to get that excitement. My uncle owned the second commercial skydiving center in the country back in New Jersey, so it's kind of been in the family."
You have a business degree from the Wharton Business School at the Univ. of Pennsylvania and an MBA and your law degree from Rutgers. Not exactly a racer's resume, is it? "No, but I look at that as a compliment. Everybody always asks me about that. Someone with that educational background is not the stereotypical racer, but to each his own. My passion has always been drag racing. But college and education have helped open doors because drag racing at this level costs money and the only way you can really do it is to be successful in business. My education has enabled me to do that, and it's all been towards the one goal of being able to race. My parents were big into education so I was influenced by them, and I'm happy for that. I went to college and graduated and I have two graduate degrees, and I don't regret one bit of that. It was the best thing I ever did. Everybody has a different path, but that's the path I chose."
A two-hour telecast of qualifying coverage for the NHRA Winternationals Finals can be seen on ESPN2 and ESPN2 HD on Saturday, Feb. 13, beginning at 11:00 p.m. (ET). Coverage on ESPN2 and ESPN2 HD continues on Sunday, Feb. 14, when NHRA Race Day kicks off eliminator coverage starting at 10:00 a.m. (ET), and concludes with three hours of final-eliminations coverage beginning at 8:00 p.m. (ET).
Kirk Weeks
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