Crew Chief and Driver

Myself and John.

David in the seat, suited up, and discussing with John control locations.

David and John.

I have to take some time here and rave about two men who I owe more than I can ever repay. My Crew Chief John Dearmore and my Driver David Pace. I would never have had the courage to start this racing operation without the friendship, knowledge, experience and support of these two men.

John has been building and tuning blown nitro cars longer than I have been alive. I witnessed his expertise while on Al Schramm's crew and what I saw made me a believer in John. He can get a race car down the track in a hurry without using a bunch of spare parts to do it. He maximizes what is available and gets the most out of it. John also understands the seriousness of these cars and makes the safety of the car, driver and crew a priority. He also happens to own a machine shop (DRE- Dearmore Race Engineering) along with his son Allen where they custom build rocker arm systems and customs parts for just about anything you need. Naturally once I got my chassis from the previous owner I hauled it to John's shop in Alba Texas where it would begin its transformation into the "Speed Merchants" top fuel dragster. He had already begun putting our engine together by the time I got the chassis to him and I had been buying parts and sending them to him for quite a while. John and Allen have put hundreds of hours into the transformation of my car. It is a sight to behold and can not be recognized as its previous self. John and David taught me that not only is the race car a tool for a specific purpose but it is also a reflection of the owner and crew and attention to details are VERY important.

David Pace started driving dragsters at a very young age and soon progressed into an expert driver. He drove professionally for the Carrol Brothers from 1979-1981. In '81 he was runner up at Indy and Denver, joined the NHRA 250 mph club and finished in the Winston top 10. He is a good friend and a great driver. I would not put just anyone behind the wheel of something as dangerous and valuable as this dragster without having full confidence in their abilities. I'd like to interject a quote here from long time funny car racer Frank Oglesby "You are very lucky to have David Pace on your team. David IS everything Richard Tharp THOUGHT he was."