Cary Goforth grew up watching his father Dean run up and down drag strips around the Midwest. His earliest recollection is in his toddler years and by the time he reached ten he was considered a seasoned aficionado of the sport.

Never did he envision in those days of assisting his dad with the family’s classic Road Runner and Camaro they would end up the only father and son tandem actively competing in IHRA Pro Stock.

“Everything he did was appealing to me,” Carey said. “He was my hero and I always loved watching him drive. Even though we race in the same class, I still find myself running up to the line to watch him run.”

Dean put in many years racing in the formative years of the Super Gas classes and won an ADRA [formerly AHRA] 9.90 title before stepping up to the IHRA Pro Stock division in 1986.

Cary Goforth grew up watching his father Dean run up and down drag strips around the Midwest. His earliest recollection is in his toddler years and by the time he reached ten he was considered a seasoned aficionado of the sport.

Never did he envision in those days of assisting his dad with the family’s classic Road Runner and Camaro they would end up the only father and son tandem actively competing in IHRA Pro Stock.

“Everything he did was appealing to me,” Carey said. “He was my hero and I always loved watching him drive. Even though we race in the same class, I still find myself running up to the line to watch him run.”

Dean put in many years racing in the formative years of the Super Gas classes and won an ADRA [formerly AHRA] 9.90 title before stepping up to the IHRA Pro Stock division in 1986.

“I got bored with the 9.90 racing and went Pro Stock, but I couldn’t afford to stay there once I got up there,” Dean admitted.

Dean took about twenty years off before returning last season as a driver.

“I came back in 2005 with Jerry Haas driving for me and then Carey started in 2006,” Dean explained. “I thought last year was the perfect time for me to start again.”

So how does Dean rate the experience of racing with Cary?

“This is a complete family experience for us and I absolutely love it,” Dean said. “I have grandkids at the race track. We get along real good. We just do the best we can.”

For the elder Goforth, the experience is not really about winning.

“Not really,” Dean said. “I’m just out here having fun.”

Cary spins a different yarn about dad.

“Don’t let him tell you that it’s not about winning and losing,” Cary added. “I think he’s lying a little bit. It may not be against other people, but when we race against one another there’s some competition going on. He’ll get me on the tree and it’ll rub me wrong and vice versa. We just goof with one another. He just wants to win as bad as I do. We want to win here, we really do. We try real hard and everybody around here works really, really hard and I am proud of everybody here.”

If you wonder what might happen in an all-Goforth final? Better look for a staging battle of epic proportions. 
 
“We’ll give everybody something to get all up in the air about,” Goforth admitted, smiling.

 CAN YOU IMAGINE? – Dean, age 63, and fellow Pro Stock racer Chuck Demory, age 66, might not be the youngest drivers in the IHRA’s Pro Stock division, but they sure didn’t act their ages in the first round of eliminations at the IHRA Texas Nationals in San Antonio.

Goforth was the quickest of the two with an incredible .001 reaction and won the race with a 4.169 elapsed time to beat Demory’s 4.252. Demory was only .001 later off the starting line.

Can you imagine recording a .002 reaction time in Pro Stock and leaving the starting line second?