Marvin Bridge came to the States nearly two decades ago and has found a niche in racing Modular Mustangs on radial tires on the NMRA series. This is considerably different than the combination he ran in Super Stock halfway around the world.

Then again, Bridge is used to change having migrated from Australia to Southaven, Miss.

“It's very, very different, said Bridge, his Australian accent still very much intact, when asked about the cultural differences between Australia and Mississippi. “Where do you start? There are just too many differences. One thing with drag racing, it’s pretty well the same all over. As long as you knock around some drag racing you don't know where you are anyway. It's pretty good.”

Getting in good with the fast Mustang racers was a good start.

Marvin Bridge came to the States nearly two decades ago and has found a niche in racing Modular Mustangs on radial tires on the NMRA series. This is considerably different than the combination he ran in Super Stock halfway around the world.

Then again, Bridge is used to change having migrated from Australia to Southaven, Miss.

“It's very, very different, said Bridge, his Australian accent still very much intact, when asked about the cultural differences between Australia and Mississippi. “Where do you start? There are just too many differences. One thing with drag racing, it’s pretty well the same all over. As long as you knock around some drag racing you don't know where you are anyway. It's pretty good.”

Getting in good with the fast Mustang racers was a good start.

“We build race cars and that type thing,” Bridge said. “We have a little niche going with the modular stuff.”

It didn’t take Bridge long before he implemented his years of Super Stock racing into Mustang Drag Radial racing and it worked into his favor as he became the first racer to take a Mustang on radial tires into the seven second zone.

“That sorta put us on the map and we've been doing good things since then,” Bridge said, quickly adding, “Hopefully good things,”

Bridge credits his son, Joey, with pushing him into this style of racing. Whereas dad is responsible for tuning and son driving, the patriarch is now challenged with the dual role while his son is in Australia getting the paperwork straight so that he can live permanently in the United States.
 
“I haven't driven in twenty years, so I thought I would get a hold of my license and see if I can still drive,” Bridge explained. “It's been very interesting.”

When the second-generation Bridge returns, he won’t have a hard time getting his seat back. In fact, Bridge is counting the days until his return.

“Twenty-two years ago I drove a ten-second car and that scared me,” Bridge said as he looked over his engine during the NMRA NMCA All-Star Nationals at zMax Dragway in Concord, N.C. “To jump in these things and feel the acceleration at the finish line that this thing has; it had more acceleration than at the start.

“I don't think there is anything wrong with being old and doing that but I don't think you think the same way. I probably think too much and stress over (stuff) too much. I'd rather him be back here and I could just be behind the scenes.”

Bridge has a way of getting pushed into different things like driving and when he first arrived in this country, building race cars.

“We're more known for the engine side [in Australia],” Bridge said. “I got pushed into the car building side and we've done good there too. If I was going to do one thing, it would be just engines. I just have a real love for the engine side of it. We had to put it into something though, so that's how we ended up doing cars and the whole bit.”

Last season the Bridges held the NMRA’s Drag Radial record.

The competitive portion of Bridge’s involvement can be directly traced to his innovative nature. Innovation is the mother of necessity in Australian drag racing.

“It's nice because there is more at hand over here in the States because you can just ran down to the store and get what you want,” Bridge explained. “Over there you've basically got to come up with a way of making the stuff and doing it yourself. Which is sort of good thing, because where I come from, when I first brought this [modular] motor out no one was really running it.

“I developed a distributor drive for it because they don't usually have distributors on these engines,” Bridge added. “I ended up making all sort of weird and wonderful things for it just to make it live. We've got one back at the shop that we're coming out with that is going to be an external belt drive – four pulleys on it, all adjustable. We're going to try to turn that one about 12 – 12 ½ thousand revs. This one has only gone to eight. It's not really designed for much more than that.

“The chain system was the rule – they're a good engine, basically good, but once you start turning them really hard it they start showing the weaknesses. I am going to put a belt drive kind of deal on there and that will cure (some problems). That is probably the part that everyone runs the other way from – those chains. They're all scared of the old bicycle chains coming off. What we do with the chains in there, there are actually four chains slapping around in there and every time you break one or break something that guides it you go in and make it stronger.”

Consider it putting Bridge’s stamp on it.

“The best way I like to describe it, they're actually a Ford motor, race motor; they detuned it basically,” he explained. “It's amazing what you can get out of them. When were first brought the car out it had stock cam shafts in it and we were making over fourteen hundred horsepower with soft cam shafts and a hydraulic valve train. It's just amazing.”

Right now, he’s even begun tinkering with a unique electronic fuel injection system.

“We also run an electronic fuel injection that no one else really runs, and it’s not very user friendly,” Bridge said. “When something doesn't go right, like my son not being here, I am scratching with both hands this weekend. I just can't get a handle on what I've done wrong.”

And, just like with the other solutions that has brought Bridge to this point, he’ll been forced into finding a solution for this problem. That’s something he’s become accustomed to in drag racing.”

 

Advertisement