“We’ll put the preacher in it.”
That’s what Luigi Novelli decided to do with his Top Fuel dragster, as he prepares to step into the public for the first time since his literal heart-stopping incident at last June’s Camping World Drag Racing Series event at Norwalk, Ohio.
Mike Bucher, senior pastor at Calvary Chapel of Cleveland at Brooklyn Heights, Ohio, is “the preacher” Novelli tapped for the honor when he realized the NHRA is not prepared yet to grant him medical clearance to compete again.
Bucher’s selection wasn’t random, beyond his Christian belief that God has a plan for him to use the drag-racing platform to share the gospel of Jesus. Novelli, 79, had raced alongside Bucher’s dad, the late Jim Bucher, and that has been their connection.