Former Top Fuel racer Jim Bailey once asked if there would be life
after nitro racing. Eight years later he’s answering the question with
a resounding, “Yes!”
Bailey once drove a second dragster on Doug Herbert’s Snap-on Tools Top
Fuel team in the 1990s and today he spends most of his time assisting
Jim Head and in the little extra time he has, brings out his classic
Mopar to race IHRA Stock.
“I’ve got a 1963 Dodge Max Wedge, Stage 2 car,” Bailey said. “It’s not
an original car, it’s a clone that I started to build as a street rod
and it kind of evolved into a race car after my professional drag
racing career ended.”
Former Top Fuel racer Jim Bailey once asked if there would be life after nitro racing. Eight years later he’s answering the question with a resounding, “Yes!”
Bailey once drove a second dragster on Doug Herbert’s Snap-on Tools Top Fuel team in the 1990s and today he spends most of his time assisting Jim Head and in the little extra time he has, brings out his classic Mopar to race IHRA Stock.
“I’ve got a 1963 Dodge Max Wedge, Stage 2 car,” Bailey said. “It’s not an original car, it’s a clone that I started to build as a street rod and it kind of evolved into a race car after my professional drag racing career ended.”
Bailey was no fly-by-night driver in his time as a driver. He graduated to the fuel ranks from the IHRA’s Alcohol Funny Car program. The Mantua, Ohio-based driver won nine national events in Top Fuel and one time in the Funny Car division.
Bailey finished runner-up for the IHRA championship three times.
What replaces the nitro fix he once partook of?
“I stay pretty busy working with Jim,” Bailey explained. “I handle the main engine assembly and I do half the motor between rounds. I assist the supercharger guy and service the superchargers.
“I like to call myself the assistant driver. I do everything the driver is really supposed to do like pack the parachute and mix the nitro. Of course, Jim doesn’t do that.”
Bailey likes working with the nitro team as much as he enjoys driving the Stocker.
“I’ve always said that nitro’s a big needle, it’s an addiction that once it gets in your blood it’s hard to get out,” Bailey explained. “We’ve all had our day and I had my day as a nitro racer. I still enjoy the competition of this sportsman racing but I do get my fix so to speak from going nitro racing with Jim Head.”
