How did you get started in Drag Racing?

[Doug Hoven]

I've had the car "bug" for most of my 20 year long life. My Father bracket raced on and off throughout my childhood, and my Uncle has been running Stock longer than I've been around. We never really had the extra resources available for me to run Junior Dragsters, so when I found out about the junior street program, I was more than intrigued. My first ever pass was with my dad's 2011 Crown Vic Police Interceptor, with him riding shotgun. 10.67 at just under 70mph in the 1/8 was pretty much all that thing would do. When I turned 17, I had my mind set that I was going racing that weekend, and towed my 83 Mustang 5.0 5spd to the track and ran sportsman with it. Growing up I took every opportunity to go to an NHRA race with my uncle, so the thought of running stock was always in my mind. Unfortunately I didn't think there was any real opportunity for me to run Stock within my budget, until I met Billy.... Throughout the process of helping out with the Cavalier, I really got hooked on class racing. Somehow I convinced him to let me "dig out" the blue nova from the archives. A little bit of work, and off I was running U-V/SA within my budget. I then got the bug to go fast, and ended up asking Billy to "cut up" his 28k mile nova, but that story is all in the "Builds" section.