Len Cottrell, who took his first trip down the quarter-mile in March 1960, two months after he got his driver’s license, enters his 53rd year in the sport as enthusiastic about it as he ever was.

What keeps him out here after literally a half-century of drag racing? “The people, of course,” says Cottrell, whose “Chicken Chokers” entry is one of 21 Top Alcohol Dragsters entered for this weekend’s Lucas Oil Series regional event at Virginia Motorsports Park. “It’s that simple. I can remember every detail and every race, and it just makes it that much more satisfying to still be out here. The first track I ever raced at, 75-80 in Monrovia, Md., is still in existence today – just like me.”

With Cottrell, now 68, there’s never been any shortage of fun – or drivers. “I think I’m up to 18 now,” says Cottrell, who has Mike Burns, a 30-year commercial pilot, in the seat this year. “I’d never know how drivers I’ve had, but Bob Frey keeps track, and he tells me.”

Len Cottrell, who took his first trip down the quarter-mile in March 1960, two months after he got his driver’s license, enters his 53rd year in the sport as enthusiastic about it as he ever was.

What keeps him out here after literally a half-century of drag racing? “The people, of course,” says Cottrell, whose “Chicken Chokers” entry is one of 21 Top Alcohol Dragsters entered for this weekend’s Lucas Oil Series regional event at Virginia Motorsports Park. “It’s that simple. I can remember every detail and every race, and it just makes it that much more satisfying to still be out here. The first track I ever raced at, 75-80 in Monrovia, Md., is still in existence today – just like me.”

With Cottrell, now 68, there’s never been any shortage of fun – or drivers. “I think I’m up to 18 now,” says Cottrell, who has Mike Burns, a 30-year commercial pilot, in the seat this year. “I’d never know how drivers I’ve had, but Bob Frey keeps track, and he tells me.”

Cottrell drove all his cars himself until one day in 1968, when he went end-over-end five times in his A/Gas Super, totally destroying the car. “I was working at IBM at the time and had a couple of young kids, and I thought, ‘Maybe I’d better rethink this driving thing,’ “ Cottrell says. “I wondered if I’d still like racing if I wasn’t the one driving, but I’m as much a part of the car as the guy in the seat. With us, it’s still an ‘Animal House’ road trip every time. We all pile in that rig, leave all the wives and girlfriends behind, and we’re off. Something’s seriously wrong with me, obviously, but I’m still as excited about racing as I was when I was 18 or 28 or 38. Every time we get close to the track and I get that first glimpse of the tower, I just can’t wait.”

Ever wonder how Cottrell came to name his cars “Chicken Chokers?” “I have a clear, vivid memory of where it all started,” he recalls. “It was at Bristol in 1976. The crew guys were getting on each other’s nerves, so I bought a rubber chicken at Spencer’s Gifts and duct-taped it to the wing. Bob Doerrer was the track announcer, and he happened to walk by the trailer and notice it, and he suckered me. He said, ‘Why don’t you just leave it on there for the next run?’ I did, and it’s never come off. It’s there to remind everyone that what we’re doing is serious, but it’s still got to be fun.”

Cottrell is a national event champion, but that victory is not what he considers the highlight of his drag racing career. To him, it came about a year later, at the 1988 U.S. Nationals, where driver John Speelman was runner-up to Gary Southern, who needed the greatest run in Top Alcohol Dragster history, an unbelievable 6.12 in Dale Smart’s PSI-equipped Arias dragster, to drive around Speelman’s 6.21 in the final. No other run in Top Alcohol Dragster history would have been enough.

“People wonder how a runner-up could ever be better than a win, but Indy’s Indy,” Cottrell says. “John was like a car and half ahead of him at half-track, but Southern started motoring with that PSI, which was brand new at the time. They were dead even at the finish line, and I’ve never gotten over that loss. We came so close.”

Fourteen years and who knows how many drivers later, Cottrell just missed another shot at an Indy title. In the semifinals, rookie John Haley smoked the tires, stayed on the gas anyway, and drove around Cottrell’s driver, Franny Monaghan, who had opened a five-car-length lead before an ignition problem silenced the engine.

A decade later, Burns drives the car, replacing two-time divisional event champion Dave DeAngelis, who left the Chicken Chokers team in the off-season to field his own AA/FC. “It’s never been hard to find somebody,” says Cottrell, whose all-time hero is the “Golden Greek” himself, Chris Karamesines. “I put an ad in National Dragster a few years ago and got 48 calls looking for a driver job. When Dave decided to run his own nostalgia car, he gave me plenty of notice, and the first driver I called was Mike. He’s an excellent driver, and I’ve had a lot of them.”

Speelman drove Cottrell’s cars the longest, beginning with a front-engined dragster in 1974 and culminating in multiple national event finals and victory at the 1987 Keystone Nationals at Cottrell’s all-time favorite track, Maple Grove Raceway. “The mid-‘70s and mid- to late-‘80s were probably my favorite eras in racing, but I’ve loved it all,” Cottrell says. “We’re going back to Indy this year to try again, and I’ll keep racing as long as my health holds out and I’m financially able to do it. There was never anything I enjoyed doing more that drag racing, and there still isn’t.”