DIALED IN
JOHN TAYLOR
Raceway is a race that Pollage himself has been promoting long before becoming track manager : The Southern Big Bucks Nationals , a once-yearly affair . Originally slated for February , this year ’ s gathering was shaping up to be a mega event , as the anticipated car count was approaching 350 before eventually being rained out . The reto work at his dad ’ s elevator company and my friend ended up leaving after a few months , but I stayed on and continued working there until I started my own elevator business nearly two decades later ,” explains Taylor .
All the while , the allure to go racing was strong , although Taylor fought the urge tooth and nail as he concentrated on building a successful enterprise . It sure didn ’ t help matters that Taylor ’ s business headquarters was located exactly one building down from Thompson ’ s engine shop , and for the first three years , John avoided his neighbors like the plague . “ They all thought I was mad at them ,” Taylor laughs , “ but I knew what would happen if I started hanging around there !”
To satisfy his cravings , however , Taylor would occasionally accompany his racing buddies to Bradenton just to help out and enjoy some exposure to the sport without having any vested involvement on his part . Right about then , Thompson laid a clever trap for Taylor when he encouraged John to make a pass in a dragster he had for sale . “ Mike set me up good on that one , and after one pass my hands were shaking !” As expected , Taylor bought the dragster the following
day , and he ’ s been in the thick of things ever since .
Although Taylor didn ’ t immediately set the world on fire in his return to drag racing with the dragster , he did win a bunch of rounds and had a whole lot of fun , even if a trip to the winner ’ s circle wasn ’ t in the cards . Then , sometime in the late 1990s he had the urge to buy a 1957 Corvette . The car was purpose-built for Super Gas , though Taylor found himself pushing the envelope as he experimented with index racing . While running the ‘ Vette wide open in the 5.50 category , he crashed the car at South Florida ’ s Immokalee Regional Raceway in 2005 . “ In the long run , that crash was actually the best thing that ever happened to me , because that ’ s when I found my first truck ,” he says .
Taylor has admittedly always been a pickup enthusiast , so it only made sense to drag race a truck as well . The piece he acquired first was the red Dodge Dakota , a Rick Jones-built vehicle that Todd Patterson formerly campaigned in Pro Stock Truck . Taylor immediately began racing it in NHRA ’ s Super Gas class , as well as IHRA ’ s Super Rod category . A few years later he acquired the second truck , a former David Nickens-owned Dodge Dakota built by Jerry Haas , which Taylor now competes in Top Sportsman . Both Dakotas
No Snow , No Problem : Louisiana ’ s No Problem Raceway keeps the tires turning year-round
Story & Photos By Van Abernethy
If there ’ s ever been a drag strip that ’ s perfectly positioned to take advantage of yearround racing , Belle Rose , Louisiana ’ s No Problem Raceway certainly falls into that category , with their Gulf Coast location situated just over an hour west of New Orleans . In a perfect world , this NHRA-sanctioned quarter-mile facility could operate 52 weeks per season , although they choose to implement a two-week offseason that begins the second week of December , with operations resuming the first week of January .
Amazingly , though , this customarily warm locale was hit with snow twice this past winter , which is certainly a rarity for Louisiana ’ s deep south region . “ It almost never snows here , so it came as quite a surprise !” says Cody Pollage , who took over as track manager in November 2017 . Pollage says the onset of 2018 has been touch and go as far as the weather is concerned , when it ’ s traditionally full speed ahead right out of the gate at this track .
The facility hosts many events throughout the year , including points bracket , test-and-tune , and big-money bracket events , as well as the NHRA Lucas Oil Divisional series . The up-and-coming 4.70 and 4.30 Southern Outlaws series also visits No Problem Raceway , with four race dates penciled in this year , which is part of a 16-race series for the relatively new club . All bracket races are contested on the eighth-mile at No Problem , although TNT and Midnight Madness events provide full quarter-mile time slips should a driver want to experience the thrill of full-throttle runs down the entire 1,320 feet .
Among the largest events hosted at No Problem
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