Drag Illustrated Issue 148, September 2019 | Page 28

Dirt
Scratching the Itch
Longtime Pro Mod tuner Jimmy
Rector resurfaces with Rick Jackson’s
Top Alcohol Funny Car team
By Brad Littlefield
O
ne of the most familiar faces
in the Pro Mod pits has been making
an impact in Top Alcohol Funny Car
lately. Jimmy Rector, who had tuned
Danny Rowe from 2005 until the team ceased
operations at the end of last season, mulled retire-
ment before an opportunity came up to tune Rick
Jackson’s CP-Carrillo/Lucas Oil Top Alcohol Funny
Car driven by 2017 champion Shane Westerfield.
The Alabama native wasted no time getting ac-
climated to a category in which he won two IHRA
championships as a driver/tuner. He began at the
Chicago national event which the team won. After
two regional races plagued which inopportune
breakage, they found the winner’s circle again in
Tulsa, Oklahoma, making them a dark horse in
this year’s title picture with a full slate of national
events remaining on their schedule.
“It’s cool working with a tuner that has driven
before, because it’s easy to bounce things off of
him,” says Westerfield. “He definitely livens up the
mood. My favorite part is how amped up Jimmy
gets. He wants to rip their hearts out every time
we go up there.”
Rector recently told D rag I llustrated what
lured him back to drag racing.
So Jimmy, how did you end up with Rick
Jackson’s team?
To make a long story short, I was over there
about four years ago when [Tony] Bartone was
driving his car. Steve Boggs was over there, and
me and Boggs was always banking stuff off of
each other. Rick and I became friends, and after
they left I did some stuff for him with the fuel
system and he’d send me runs on the computer.
I helped him run 5.50s in Topeka over the phone
then. He tried to get me to go to a race or so, but
I was hooked up with Danny.
He had hired Les Davenport and they split, so
he was going to try to do it on his own. I’d been
with Danny forever and thought long and hard
about what I wanted to do. I’d been thinking about
retiring, to be honest with you. I bought a place
in Florida about six years ago and don’t get to see
it much. I’ve been out there since ’87 and didn’t
have nothing else to prove, but I thought I might
be interested. Rick texted me to say Chicago was
the next race and it was the JEGS Allstars race and
he sure wished I could make it. I can’t lie; I was
missing the smoke. I talked to my wife Karen and
told her I was missing it. I told Rick I’d do it, and
he told me there was no strings attached.
How did the first race go?
I looked at a lot of things and gave him my
opinion. I changed a whole bunch of stuff, and
we went out and ran 5.48, 269 which I guess was
low of the round. I proceeded to [mess] that up
a little bit and knocked the tire off. We ended
up winning the race and running real good. He
actually hired me on Saturday before we won the
race on Sunday.
I get to Denver, and the crew had me get Rick to
tell me what he said before Chicago, first lap. Rick
said, “I told them we ain’t got a snowball’s chance
of going down.” He has a really good crew. I’ve
known Mike Pavia and Chris [Perl] forever and
tried to hire them both a couple times and it never
worked out. I didn’t know Shane, but he is smooth
as glass. You know me — I’ve been around some
pretty decent drivers — and Shane is a great driver.
Are you signed up for the rest of the year?
I ain’t signing no contract, but I figure I can
be there as long as I want to be. I’m having fun,
real fun. I ain’t having to run against damn turbo
cars with traction control and all those electronics
and shit. I’m having a dream.
How does your experience in Pro Mod and
past Top Alcohol Funny Car career come
into play?
I heard on the loudspeaker that they didn’t
know I knew anything about the screw blower.
Well, I’ve had a lot of outlaw cars with screw blow-
ers, and I helped Rick over the computer four
years ago. Boost is boost. To be honest, the screw
has pretty close to the same boost that Danny had
on the Pro Mod car. It makes more power because
it doesn’t take as much to turn it and runs cooler
and all that. I have fooled with lots of them, so
it never crossed my mind whether I could work
with a screw car.
Did you consider other tuning
opportunities?
I had some chances to go back Pro Mod racing,
but I didn’t think they were situations where I
could go back to the front. I wasn’t real enthused
about going back with the way the rules are right
now. Me and Danny had a good run. I worked
with him from 2005 to 2019. Me and him won
a lot of races, and if he called me today I’d go see
him. I was extremely happy with Danny and Steve
[Matusek] and them, but I was unhappy with the
class and where it’s headed. I’ve probably won
close to 50 Wallys counting everyone I’ve tuned
and myself, and I’ve done them the right way. It’s
always been my goal to build the most power and
put the right transmission in it and gear in it and
put the clutch where it needed to be and outrun
somebody. When I can’t do that, I’ll stay home.
What is your outlook on the rest of
the season?
I think it’s one of the best cars out there. It
ain’t gonna be no cakewalk. There are some good
teams out there. We have a good crew. It don’t
matter what I do or what Rick or Mike or Chris
can do, if you don’t have a driver you aren’t going
to win. I’d seen Shane’s runs on the computer but
hadn’t seen him drive until I got there. He has full
control of the car, he’s a great leaver and he’s easy
on equipment. I’m real impressed with Shane. I
think we have something really good going.
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