From time to time, the Napp Brothers Racing [NBR] logo will appear on a drag racing car. In the interest of fair reporting, the Napp Brothers Racing really aren’t the Napp Brothers. It’s David Napp, the second eldest of the five sons of the late Vinny Napp, still exerting his passion for drag racing by supporting those who have an unending love for the sport he believes has richly blessed him and his family.
The Napp Brothers Racing logo has been on the side of Junior Dragsters, a movement near and dear to his heart, as well as a couple of fuel cars and numerous sportsman racers.
“I put Napp Brothers on everything because I want the racers and [I] fans all to know that we never intended on hurting anyone by ending our facility after 53 years,” Napps said. “I think we did an honor to my father and my uncle by staying in business 18 and 17 years after their passing, but the Napp Brothers are indebted to racers, fans, and the NHRA. I personally will continue to sponsor categories, cars and outreach to the drag race community that is provided our family so much. My gratitude is expansive and I want to thank every single person that ever bought a ticket and came and shared with their families what my family created. You built the success us with us.”
The Napp Brothers Racing logo is on Travis Shumake’s dragster, the son of the late Tripp Shumake, who made many passes at the Napp’s Englishtown Raceway Park. Likewise, the NBR logo was on Gary Pritchett’s Top Fuel dragster, who was the God-son of the late Carol “Bunny” Burkett and a staple of Raceway Park’s entertainment lineup back in the day.
“She would not leave until every fan had an autograph, or she had spoken to them,” Napp recalled. “We would have to literally have security guards staying on three hours in because her lines were so long. And she took time with every race fan and really spoke to them. It wasn’t like, ‘Oh, here’s the signature. Bye.'”
“No, no, no, no, no. ‘Well, what’s your name and where are you from?” First of all, she was very kind to young women, and she was very inspirational to a lot of young women. And I have a dear friend whose name is Allison, and she was like, ‘Until I saw Bunny Burkett, I was like, Women can’t do this.'”
This hospitality from those like Burkett and others made it hard for Napp to say goodbye to the drag racing aspect of the facility that stole his heart as a kid.
Dating back to the late 1960s, Raceway Park was a staple in New Jersey’s motorsports landscape until it ceased drag racing operations in 2018. Unfortunately, as Napp admitted, the Napp Family was ahead of the curve in a trend.
Following Raceway Park’s departure came Atlanta Dragway (2021), Houston (2022), and Bandimere Speedway (2023).
Napp has always believed that for a decade after his father died in 2002, Raceway Park was living on borrowed time because, essentially, it had outgrown the neighborhood that sprouted up around it.
“The township really came down very, very hard on us with regard to having fire support during the race and having police patrol on our entryways,” Napp explained. “They really messed with us hard.
“Now, there are a lot of great people who worked for the township of Old Bridge, and we had supporters, but it just became very difficult. Then, of all the things working against us, the inroads really weren’t built for the kind of tractor-trailers that were coming in. The roads were very podunk. They were very not well asphalted.”
Napp even recalled the counsel from Top Fuel legend Joe Amato.
“He said to me, ‘You have to increase what you’re installing in front of the property,'” Napp recalled. “I’m like, ‘We can’t. It’s the town.'”
“And the town just, at some point, they just stopped liking us.”
CompetitionPlus.com explored ten races that were really great at one time, and some were famous, while others were obscure. The bottom line is they were fun and epitomized the spirit of drag racing.
We will undoubtedly miss a few. Special thanks to Bret Kepner, Dave Wallace, Steve Earwood, Mark Hendon and others who helped ensure this series came to fruition with their knowledge of the sport and willingness to contribute.
But before Vinny passed, Napp said his father was trying to increase the value of the track to the racing community by possibly bringing in NASCAR. After a decade of back-and-forth with NASCAR, starting in 1985, he gave up on the idea.
“My father had a white piece of cable wire on the doorknob of his office, and he would shape it all the time to build a NASCAR track on the other side of the racetrack,” Napp recalled. “He’d be like, ‘What do you think about this?”
More often than not, the cable wire would be shaped into a triangular race course, much like Pocono.
“We were going to shut down the road and move it to the other side of the facility,” Napp recalled. “He was going like 15 million in. And you know what NASCAR said? You build the track, and we’ll come take a look at it.”
Vinny Napp wisely passed on their consideration.
Less than a decade later, the elder Napp was gone, and a year later, his brother Richard.
Napp believes the family should be given credit for keeping the drag strip intact for as long as they did when the future was written on the proverbial wall of common sense.
Napp credits the late NHRA divisional director Lex Dudas for pointing out the obvious.
“Something’s coming, and we’re just turds in a bowl, spinning around,” Napp recalled what Dudas told him. “I didn’t get it at first. And then my brother and I started speaking, and I was like, ‘But we can’t lose the drag strip. I can’t deal with that.”
“He’s like, ‘It’s going to happen. The township doesn’t want us, and they want it to be a senior center.”
This weekend, Napp is headed to Firebird Raceway for the NHRA Arizona Nationals as a fan and spectator to support the cars his decal is on and to celebrate the facility where Shirley Muldowney won her final event and returned from a debilitating group of injuries sustained at the 1984 NHRA Grandnational event outside of Montreal.
Muldowney was another one of those iconic racers from Englishtown.
If Napp had his way, Muldowney and every drag racing legend would be in Englishtown this year.
“I am 100% for Raceway Park reopening, but I know that’s not going to happen,” Napp lamented.
A social media post on Thursday might have just exemplified his feelings the best.
“I just wish people understood more that our family has a love of the sport that we will always have and it’s kind of unfair that people think that we sold out or didn’t have respect for the racer because that’s all we ever had,” Napp wrote. “We as a family felt like the racers were our family. And when people turn their backs on us, I just got on a mission and I said to myself we’re not going away and when I have the time in the ability I am going to be so involved in NHRA and drag racing that it’s gonna make heads spin.”
