Paul Lee has won some big drag races in his career, but on a Saturday evening outside Columbus, Ohio, the highly successful businessman who declares drag racing is his expensive hobby won the one that took the cake.
Lee has always managed to keep drag racing in perspective. After beating Del Worsham in the final round of the opening IHRA Triple Crown event at Darana Raceway, the perspective was clear. This one was different.
The Funny Car victory paid $150,000 and positioned Lee as one of only five drivers still eligible for the Triple Crown’s $1 million bonus while delivering what he considers the biggest victory of his driving career.
“Oh, it absolutely is the biggest win in my career,” Lee said. “And not only was it the biggest win, it was the smoothest weekend.”
The smooth part might have been what impressed him most because Funny Car racing has a way of turning simple weekends into complicated ones. A lot can go wrong during a weekend, but this time it didn’t.
By the time the weekend ended, they had made seven runs and six of them were full pulls. Every challenge that surfaced behind the scenes was handled without slowing the operation.
“I know everybody says that their crew is the best, whatever,” Lee said. “I’ll tell you what, we made seven runs down the track, six runs out of seven that went down the track smooth, flawless, no mistakes.”
“These guys changed an engine and quick warmups, quick return arounds and I just can’t say enough about having zero mistakes in seven runs. They did a great job.”
That kind of performance is what it took to beat a field loaded with blue collar hitters from the Funny Car talent pool. Lee opened eliminations by defeating Jon Capps in the quarterfinal round and followed it with a semifinal victory over Joe Haas to earn a final-round meeting with Worsham.
The final round was effectively decided at the starting line and finished at the stripe. Lee gained an advantage with a .042 reaction time compared to Worsham’s .068 and backed it up with the only three-second run of eliminations, a 3.937-second pass at 326.32 mph.
Worsham remained within striking distance all the way to the finish line, posting a 4.018-second run at 323.04 mph. It proved too much against a team that never gave away an inch all weekend.
“The team did an outstanding job all weekend, zero mistakes,” Lee said. “I give it to my guys, Jon Schaffer, Seth Randolph, John Medlen and the crew, excellent job and a flawless weekend.”
“It doesn’t get more flawless than this. Del has a killer car. He’s a longtime friend and we knew he was going to be right there.”
The irony is Lee almost wasn’t in Ohio at all. The original plan centered around Maple Grove Raceway, his home track, before weather changed the schedule and opened the door for a last-minute trip west.
The decision to make the trip wasn’t difficult for long.
“Well, this is a different kind of a race,” Lee said. “It’s a special race and it’s a special place, and the guys wanted to come.”
“We were going to go to Maple Grove. We still plan on going to Maple Grove, but it got rained out. So the guys said, ‘Hey man, let’s go to Columbus.’ And we decided like two weeks ago, okay, let’s go to Columbus and let’s go have some fun.”
What began as a spontaneous trip now carries significant implications.
Lee heads to Maple Grove carrying something few Funny Car racers have ever possessed — a realistic shot at a seven-figure payday in front of his hometown crowd.
“Oh, it is my home race and all my family and friends will all be out there at the race,” Lee said. “We’ll have a big hospitality set up, probably 100 plus people.”
The possibility doesn’t seem to occupy much space in his head.
“It’s no big deal. It’s a drag race, right?” Lee said. “There’s more important things in life that are going on in the world.”
“This is just a drag race. When the time comes, we’ll try to take advantage of the opportunity.”
