Drag Illustrated Issue 139, December 2018 | Page 96

30 UNDER 30 · 2018
KYLE
LANG
■ WHEN A DRIVER STRAPS in to fling themselves
down the dragstrip, they trust that the track
is prepped well and the starter has their safe-
ty in mind. Kyle Lang, 27, has built a strong
reputation on the fact that he is unfailingly fo-
cused on racer safety and never compromises
on conditions.
An electrician by trade, Lang started working
at Lucas Oil Raceway at Indianapolis in Indiana
when he was just 14 years old. He only parked
cars at first, but did such a good job he was asked
to move onto the drag strip when he was 16. His
father, Dwayne Lang, was also working the strip
at the time, and when LORI’s starter decided to
retire, the Lang men stepped up. At first, the
younger Lang was relegated to the water box but
he soon earned the right to handle starter duties.
Less than two years later, when he was 17, Lang
worked as the starter at the prestigious NHRA
U.S. Nationals.
With Indy being his hometown, Lang spent as
much time as he could at the track and worked
relentlessly to learn his trade. Shadowing track
prep pioneer Kurt Johnson, Lang excelled in his
education to master the tricks of the trade. Lang
took meticulous notes, and keeps a log of every-
thing to determine what works at what tempera-
tures and even experiments mixing his own glues
and traction compounds.
After establishing himself as a dependable,
reliable starter at LORI, Lang was hired on to
work with organizations like the NMRA, NMCA,
OSCR, LS Fest, and even NHDRO bike races.
Again, Lang took the opportunity to learn from
fellow starters like TJ Bailey and Jake Green.
Now, 10 years after transitioning from the parking
lot to the main spotlight, Lang is always the first
to arrive and the last to leave as he puts a strong
emphasis on maintaining a well-prepped track
and on race surface safety.
Racers know they can trust Lang to keep them
safe, and he prides himself in having his NHRA/
SFI Tech Inspector silver certification. He especial-
ly loves seeing drivers pull up and give him a smile,
and says that the starting line is his place of Zen.
Often putting in 12-15 hour days, he somehow al-
ways has a smile on his face, a positive attitude, and
a great pair of eye-catching socks so folks can easily
spot him when he’s on the starting line or down
track checking conditions. – A I N S L E Y JACO DI
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COLE ROKOSKY
■ DRAG RACERS YOUNG AND OLD dream of seeing
their name and photo on the pages of a drag rac-
ing magazine. Ever since Cole Rokosky picked
up his mother’s camera between rounds of a Jr.
Dragster race, he too dreamed of seeing his name
and photo in a drag mag. In his dream, though,
his name was listed on the photo credits and he
was behind the camera when the photo was taken.
“Even prior to taking an interest in photogra-
phy I’d look through the pages of Drag Illus-
trated and see these names like John Fore, Joe
McHugh and all these other photographers who
shot for DI,” Rokosky remembers. “I thought,
‘man, it would be awesome to see my name on
one of those pages one day.’”
Rokosky’s dream came true in October 2014
when his top-end celebration shot of Kevin Fiscus
at the Shakedown at the Summit appeared as a
two-page spread in Drag Illustrated. Then, this
year, the 23-year-old Ohioan became the youngest
photographer to shoot a DI cover when he shot
Pro Mod driver Melanie Salemi for the cover
of the Hottest Issue in February. A few months
later, he photographed verita-
ble doorslammer legend Pat
Musi for the cover of the Crew
Chief Issue.
“The fact that I had the op-
portunity to shoot two covers
in one year is just incredible to
me,” Rokosky says. “It made me
think, ‘hey, maybe I do know
what I’m doing and maybe
there is a future to this.’ It still
renders me speechless when I
think about it.”
Rokosky’s involvement in
the sport isn’t limited to pho-
tography – far from it. The ac-
complished Jr. Dragster grad-
uate gives back to his local Thompson Raceway
Park Jr. Dragster program by sponsoring the an-
nual Jr. Jam and the season championship points
fund. He expects to return to the driver’s seat in
2-3 years when he plans to debut a ProCharged,
Hemi-powered Top Dragster he purchased from
2017 30 Under 30 honoree An-
drew Johnson.
Most of Rokosky’s time is
taken up by his family’s ma-
chine shop, Cobb Industries,
Inc., which he took over after
his uncle’s untimely passing in
2017. It’s a stressful, time-con-
suming gig, but it’s also helped
him continue to forge relation-
ships within the sport, includ-
ing an upcoming partnership
with friend Jon Salemi’s Res-
olution Racing Services.
“I still sometimes wonder
how or why I do it,” Rokosky
says of his taxing work sched-
ule, “but I guess the thing that motivates me to
work so hard at the family business is knowing
if I work hard and get things done and make
deadlines, I get to play at the track and be around
these people and preserve these memories. It’s
a pretty special thing.” – N AT E VA N WAG N DI
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