Much has been spoken in recent months about Clint Neff, as very well should have been the case. Neff and fellow idea man Harry Clack debuted a one-of-a-kind A/ED in Comp Eliminator this year and displayed monumental performance utilizing the most unexpected combination. For Neff, though, remarkable has been the norm his entire life, and the personal side of his journey is worthy of note.
Neff’s father, Ron, ran Modified from the early 1960s to the mid-70s before shifting his focus to Comp Eliminator. According to NHRA statistician Bob Frey, Papa Neff was “one of the best drag racers to have never won a national event,” with five national event finals contested and thirteen finals reached at the divisional level. Ron drove a split bumper Camaro followed by a tidy assortment of Econo Dragsters, was the 1990 Division 5 champion in Comp, and finished in the top 10 in the national standings four times. It makes sense that his son would catch the bug.
“I was born in 1973, and my dad started running Comp in 1975, if I remember right,” recalled the younger Neff. “We’d get to the track and the dually wouldn’t even be stopped yet and I’d be out going to play with my buddies. I was always running around the pits with my own little group, but around the time I turned 14, my dad told me that if I wanted to start driving sometime, I’d better start learning how to work on this stuff. So, I started helping more and stopped disappearing.
“I got my license in his B/Econo Dragster I want to say around 1995, and that’s when I really got the taste. Then once you start winning some rounds, the proverbial needle is in your arm. You’re done.”
Truly, though, Neff was done-for before he ever stepped into a racecar. Well ahead of his 18th birthday – before he was old enough to stand next to his father’s car in the staging lanes at Englishtown – Neff would sit in the stands with the wives of Comp Eliminator drivers and impress them with his knowledge. Before indexes were shown on the scoreboard, young Neff knew them by heart and could quickly compute how far under the index each driver had gone.
“That spoke to the mathematician in me; Comp has just been a class I’ve always loved,” he said. “Especially going racing with my dad for so many years. Before my grandfather, Elmer, passed away, he used to go. It was the three amigos, and we made all the trips together in the 90s.”
To date, Neff has five Comp Eliminator national event wins to his credit, and all were achieved in a roadster equipped with a Ford powerplant. His most significant victory, and one that Neff views as a most meaningful achievement, came in 2011 at the Mile-High Nationals in Denver. There, Arvada, Colo., native Neff claimed an emotional first win with all of his family on the grounds to celebrate.
“That was the only national event that I’ve won where we were all there – my dad, mom Trudy, wife Jaime, and my kids, Brady and Cali,” shared Neff, whose victory was also the first for their family in (what was then) a collective seven final rounds. “I even got a couple of cards congratulating me on my first win – the Nickens clan sent one, so did Alan Ellis. That was on top of everything else. It was just really neat to have everybody there.”
Last year, Clack and Neff got to know each other at a race in Belle Rose, La., and they got to talking. Neff’s line was, “I have this motor I’m working on,” and Clack answered back with, “I’ve been building this car for quite a while,” and on they went. They debuted their collaboration at the U.S. Nationals in Indianapolis this fall before taking it to St. Louis for the NHRA Midwest Nationals and dropping a mind-bending 6.545-second pass at 215.34 mph. According to drag racing historian Bret Kepner, the incredible run was the quickest elapsed time in class history by a hundredth of a second and faster than any previous speed by over six miles per hour.
Neff shared that Clack will soon be even closer in proximity as he has sold his transmission shop in Louisiana and is moving house to Colo., where he owns a large marina.
“It’s going to be cool to have Harry and his wife here within a couple of hours,” said Neff. “It’s been a really good relationship; we get along good and have the same drive. I never quit working on stuff, and neither does he.”
Neff is also eager to expand on the potential still budding for his daughter, Cali, behind the wheel. After the passing of his best friend, Comp Eliminator veteran Kevin Self, Neff took over the inline six-cylinder engine program for Cali’s dragster.
“Not a day goes by that I don’t miss my best friend,” said Neff. “Not a lot of people know I’m doing this deal, but I became really close with his son, and we were able to put it together. [Kevin] and I were already planning on doing it, and it’s going to look pretty similar to his altered, but with an updated look.”
Cali’s first full season will be in 2023 after running the Denver points meet, Topeka national, and Las Vegas divisional race last year. The former Jr. dragster campaigner came to her dad last year and asked him to explain all of the intricacies of the class, and in Las Vegas, she gave championship contender Adam Hickey a good run with a near-perfect reaction time.
“She made him work for it, and I thought that was cool,” he said. “I think she really started to admire the class even more that day. On our way out of town, I stopped by his pit area and said, ‘Hey, good job today.’ I went over and was talking to Craig Bourgeois, and [Hickey] walked over to the truck, poked his head in and told Cali, ‘You did a really good job today. I look forward to racing with you some more.’ ”
In 2023, Neff plans to attend the Division 4 Comp races with his daughter driving, and he also has a plan for a second car – but he doesn’t intend to be the one driving it. The second driver has yet to be named.
“It’s just so hard for me,” he said. “I like to be up there on the starting line with her all the time, and I know she’s more comfortable that way, too. Cali wants me to race, though, and I’ll run whenever we have time. Harry is moving in February, and he’s the kind of guy that’s like, hey, you own half of this – just go race with it. But this is our deal together, and it’s been a pretty big deal for both of us. I don’t want to do it without him. The plan is to run the Winternationals with that car, then take it from there.”
Neff does plan to race Chicago to show appreciation for the newly reopened facility, and he’s also got the Brainerd national on his schedule as it’s his wife, Jaime’s home track, and one where he and his father have previously enjoyed success.
“If I get a little bit here and there, that’s fine,” said Neff. “Then next year, Harry will be all settled in at the marina, and we’ll have a spare motor for the car by that time. For right now, I’m just having so much fun with Cali driving and Brady as my pit man. I don’t know if they’ll carry this on, but I just tell them, ‘Hey, you have to do whatever your heart goes to.’ ”
